Edit: For the record.
In addition to the divorced and remarried, for Luther’s followers as well there are those who are giving the go-ahead for the Eucharist. Here is how “La Civiltà Cattolica” interprets the pope’s enigmatic words on intercommunion.
by Sandro Magister
ROME, July 1, 2016 – In his way, after encouraging communion for the divorced and remarried, in that it “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,” Pope Francis is now also encouraging Protestants and Catholics to receive communion together at their respective Masses.
He is doing so, as always, in a discursive, allusive way, not definitional, leaving the ultimate decision to the individual conscience.
Still emblematic is the answer he gave on November 15, 2015, on a visit to the Christuskirche, the church of the Lutherans in Rome (see photo), to a Protestant who asked him if she could receive communion together with her Catholic husband.
The answer from Francis was a stupefying pinwheel of yes, no, I don’t know, you figure it out. Which it is indispensable to reread in its entirety, in the official transcription:
“Thank you, Ma’am. Regarding the question on sharing the Lord’s Supper, it is not easy for me to answer you, especially in front of a theologian like Cardinal Kasper! I’m afraid! I think the Lord gave us [the answer] when he gave us this command: 'Do this in memory of me'. And when we share in, remember and emulate the Lord’s Supper, we do the same thing that the Lord Jesus did. And the Lord’s Supper will be, the final banquet will there be in the New Jerusalem, but this will be the last. Instead on the journey, I wonder – and I don’t know how to answer, but I am making your question my own – I ask myself: “Is sharing the Lord’s Supper the end of a journey or is it the viaticum for walking together? I leave the question to the theologians, to those who understand. It is true that in a certain sense sharing is saying that there are no differences between us, that we have the same doctrine – I underline the word, a difficult word to understand – but I ask myself: don’t we have the same Baptism? And if we have the same Baptism, we have to walk together. You are a witness to an even profound journey because it is a conjugal journey, truly a family journey, of human love and of shared faith. We have the same Baptism. When you feel you are a sinner – I too feel I am quite a sinner – when your husband feels he is a sinner, you go before the Lord and ask forgiveness; your husband does the same and goes to the priest and requests absolution. They are ways of keeping Baptism alive. When you pray together, that Baptism grows, it becomes strong; when you teach your children who Jesus is, why Jesus came, what Jesus did, you do the same, whether in Lutheran or Catholic terms, but it is the same. The question: and the Supper? There are questions to which only if one is honest with oneself and with the few theological lights that I have, one must respond the same, you see. 'This is my Body, this is my Blood', said the Lord, 'do this in memory of me', and this is a viaticum which helps us to journey. I had a great friendship with an Episcopalian bishop, 48 years old, married with two children, and he had this concern: a Catholic wife, Catholic children, and he a bishop. He accompanied his wife and children to Mass on Sundays and then went to worship with his community. It was a step of participating in the Lord’s Supper. Then he passed on, the Lord called him, a just man. I respond to your question only with a question: how can I participate with my husband, so that the Lord’s Supper may accompany me on my path? It is a problem to which each person must respond. A pastor friend of mine said to me: 'We believe that the Lord is present there. He is present. You believe that the Lord is present. So what is the difference?' – 'Well, there are explanations, interpretations…'. Life is greater than explanations and interpretations. Always refer to Baptism: “One faith, one baptism, one Lord”, as Paul tells us, and take the outcome from there. I would never dare give permission to do this because I do not have the authority. One Baptism, one Lord, one faith. Speak with the Lord and go forward. I do not dare say more.”
Link to Chiesa...
AMDG
Poor Francis, he needs a Team of Psychologists at the University Level. What does that say about the majority of "Catholics" who gush, fawn and hang on every word he speaks? To ask the question is to answer it.
ReplyDeleteCarl-
ReplyDeleteYou are quick to label this as a confected story, but Bergoglio has done enough in the past 3 years to give weight to Sandro's story.
I think that this Pope would be more than willing to cast aside centuries of Catholic discipline, teachings and traditions to welcome Protestants to take Catholic Holy Communion and vice versa.
Just as he made the rather ill-advised and disasterous comment last week that Catholics should apologize to gay people. What for?
But apparently now Bergoglio's comments are, in some circles being taken as a soft approach by the Church to gays, and that they are now welcome and accepted and approved of in their lifestyle, relationships, etc.
By word and deed, week after week since his election, Bergoglio and his rat pack of radicals are tearing down the Catholic Church...and supposed "good men" are letting him do it by their silence.
But Benedict XVI is apparently , and finally, exposing a lot of the garbage of the Vatican (the gays, etc), with his new book. "Final Conversations"
Read it. From the sidelines, Benedict XVI is trying to help.
Of course, if he had stayed in office, Bergoglio would be a non-entity, living in retirement in Argentina.
Too bad he's not.
Damian Malliapalli
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteWho is this character talking to?
DeleteYou know, I will, from now on read, on a daily basis, Maria Valtorta's End Times - we got there when Bergoglio was elected.
ReplyDeleteSunny
She wrote "Poem of the Man-God" which was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books (when it was in force). I read parts of it, not knowing it was on the index. It reeked of heresy and I threw it out.
DeleteS,
DeletePLEASE get rid of that heretical book. Amongst other things, it reeks of Nestorianism, which was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon.
M
So much for the doctrine of indefectability!
ReplyDeleteThe doctrine of indefectibility is still intact. The Church will NEVER have the gates of hell prevail against it. (Cf. Matt. 16:. 18-19)
DeleteYou might be confusing indefectibility (I.e. the inability of the Church to fail) with impeccability (the inability to sin) or Papal infallibility (which only comes into play if ALL the conditions laid down by Vatican I in Pastor Aeternus are met).
My goodness, I wonder what Cardinal Muller has to say to this.
ReplyDeleteThis j.o. Pope Francis will sack Muller,and will do away with the office entirely....because with him there is no doctrine, so it follows there is no need of an office for doctrine.
ReplyDeleteThe next Pope I hope is youngish, because he will have many years to restore, and re-establish the tradition and offices and discipline that Francis and his lunatics are destroying.
Damian Malliapalli
You're completely correct on the first part: Card Mueller will be relocated just as soon as Benedict has ceased residence in the Vatican retreat.
DeleteOn the second point, I think you are not correct: the office remains and the entire Church would probably be served best if a sound Catholic lay theologian such as Massimo Faggioli or Richard Gaillardetz was appointed Prefect of the CDF.
Did you ever notice that in the accounts of Eucharistic miracles where the person received Holy Communion unworthily, the person went insane and/or was diabolically possessed?
ReplyDeleteAlso, after an exorcism and/or a good General Confession, the person was not only spiritually but physically restored as well.
To encourage non-Catholics to receive Our Lord Jesus Christ - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity - unworthily in Holy Communion not only places their souls in danger of eternal damnation but to endanger their physical, mental and emotional state as well.
I'd bet my bottom dollar that out of 100 Catholics who see a psychiatrist or psychologist, 99 of them could be helped by a good General Confession and/or an exorcism. (Non-Catholics should make a good General Confession, and if necessary, receive Baptism either absolutely or conditionally.