German bishop rules out general invitation to Communion at congress

Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, defended the plan for “ecumenically mindful” reception of Communion in Catholic and Protestant services during Germany’s ecumenical congress May 13-16.

The bishop told KNA, Germany’s Catholic news agency, May 11 that the services planned May 15 were not about “cross-denominational Communion in the sense of a general mutual invitation to participate in the Eucharist and the Lord’s Supper” and were not about shared Communion services by clerics of various denominations.

Rather, they were about how to deal with the personal decision of conscience of individual Catholic or Protestant Christians, the bishop said.

“I respect such a decision and administer Communion if someone joins who believes what we Catholics believe and wants to receive the body of the Lord in faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ,” he told KNA. Continue reading

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