✣ ✣ Vatican rejects German Communion plan
What happened? The Vatican rejected the German bishops’ proposal to allow Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Communion. The decision was announced in a letter, approved by the Pope, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Canon law, which has been criticised as too vague, allows Protestants to receive Communion in “grave circumstances”, if they hold Catholic beliefs on the Eucharist. The German bishops had hoped to apply this to those in “spiritual distress”. What German bishops Bishop Gerhard Feige, who leads the German bishops’ ecumenism commission, said that the Vatican’s “incomprehensible” decision had inflicted “wounds”. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a close adviser to Pope Francis, had been the most prominent figure pushing for change. He said he was “surprised” by the Vatican’s decision. Cardinal Walter Kasper said he was “angry” that the Vatican letter had been leaked, and that it was odd to find some German bishops disagreeing with the extension of Communion to Protestants: “There already is a widespread practice of non-Catholic spouses, who consider themselves serious Christians, stepping up to Communion, without any bishops, who after all know of this practice, thus far voicing concerns,” he said. What commentators said At the National Catholic Register, Fr Raymond de Souza wondered if Pope Francis’s mind had been changed – he originally seemed sympathetic to the German proposal – by the strong response from prominent churchmen. Cardinal Willem Eijk “said baldly that Pope Francis got it massively wrong and, for good measure, pointed out it was not the first time.” Francis recently told the Italian bishops that “It is not a sin to criticise the Pope here,” Fr de Souza noted, adding: “It may be the preferred way that the Holy Father likes to be served.” At Catholic Family News, Brian McCall said the letter did not go far enough: it merely said that the plan was “not ready”. But it “does not declare this attempt of the German bishops to be against the Faith and an attempt at legitimising sacrilege”.
