Posts Tagged ‘Ecumenism’

Keeping a healthy distance

Monday, September 18th, 2023
Rome

Among the many popular and impious sayings about Rome, some dating back to early times, there is this little gem: Roma veduta, fede perduta. Basically, it means you risk losing your faith when you go to the Eternal City. It’s certainly a phrase that was bantered about during the 16th century when Martin Luther (an Read more

Brand Christianity called into question by search for Christian unity

Monday, May 30th, 2022
Brand Christianity

Christian Unity is more than a “nice to have” it is an essential element of those who confess their vocation to live like Christ. The scandal to the world is the disunification of the Christian churches. Ironically, in disunity, many find strength because they are “not like the others”. They enjoy the separation because it Read more

Geneva Cathedral – first Catholic Mass in 500 years

Monday, March 14th, 2022

A cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, has celebrated its first Catholic Mass in nearly 500 years. The vigil of the First Sunday of Lent was the day chosen to celebrate the historic Mass. The last Mass celebrated at St Pierre Cathedral took place in 1535. After the Reformation, the building was taken over by John Calvin’s Read more

Orthodox priest shouts “heretic” at Pope Francis

Monday, December 6th, 2021
heretic

An elderly Orthodox priest yelled “Pope you’re a heretic” several times as Pope Francis arrived for a meeting in Athens with the leader of Greece’s Orthodox Church on Saturday. “The pope is unacceptable in Greece! He should repent!” the priest told reporters after being removed from the scene. According to The Associated Press, Francis “appeared Read more

German bishop rules out general invitation to Communion at congress

Thursday, May 13th, 2021

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 Read more

Full communion possible for Catholics and Orthodox

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020

Pope Francis is confident Catholics and Orthodox Christians will attain full communion. In a message to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I on Monday, Francis praised Bartholomew’s efforts to promote Christian unity. “We can thank God that relations between the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate have grown much over the past century, even Read more

“No” to shared communion in German churches

Monday, October 12th, 2020
The Vatican objects to shared communion in German churches

The Vatican has come out strongly against shared communion between Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany. The issue of Catholics and Protestants being able to receive communion in each other’s churches has long been an issue in Germany and is particularly important for the many German couples who have a partner belonging to either church. Read more

Should a Protestant receive Communion at Mass?

Monday, July 27th, 2020
Protestant Holy Communion

Just to set the record straight, the simple truth is that it is not against Catholic doctrine for Protestants to receive Communion at Mass. 1. We believe that Baptism in the Protestant Churches gives exactly the same thing Baptism in the Catholic Church gives — the “state of grace”: divine life and the divine gifts Read more

How to pray, talk and act across faiths without betraying your own

Monday, July 13th, 2020
across faiths

I can’t pray in Jesus’ name, but I say “peace be upon him” when I hear it. For though he is one of Islam’s greatest prophets, referenced throughout the Quran and praised with lofty virtues, to pray in his name would be a violation to my faith’s tenets. In a recent conversation with two friends, Read more

Ecumenism 25 years on

Thursday, May 28th, 2020
Ecumenism

Twenty-five years ago, St. John Paul II’s encyclical on ecumenism, “Ut Unum Sint,” put the papal seal of approval on a shift in the Catholic Church’s approach to the search for Christian unity. For the 30 years from the Second Vatican Council to the publication of St. John Paul’s encyclical May 25, 1995, official ecumenical Read more