Posts Tagged ‘Intercommunion’

Catholic and Protestant leaders in Germany share communion

Monday, May 24th, 2021
Catholic Protestant in Germany

Protestant and Catholic worshippers in Germany defied Church teaching on Sunday by participating in each other’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper at an Ecumenical Convention in Frankfurt. Bettina Limperg, the Lutheran co-president of the Ecumenical Church Congress, received Holy Communion in a Catholic church. Thomas Sternberg, fellow co-president and head of the influential lay Central 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

No threat of schism, says leading German bishop

Monday, May 10th, 2021
No German schism

German Catholics are not seeking to “detach ourselves as the German national Church from Rome,” and there is no risk of schism, according to the chairman of the German Catholic bishops’ conference. Even as Catholics in Germany plan a national protest against the Vatican’s ban on blessing on same-sex couples, Bishop Georg Bätzing has insisted Read more

German Catholics and Protestants Pursue Intercommunion Despite Vatican Objections

Monday, March 22nd, 2021

Catholics and Protestants in Germany announced on Tuesday that they would press ahead with intercommunion at an event in May despite Vatican objections. In a March 16 press release, organizers of the third Ecumenical Church Congress (ÖKT) in Frankfurt said that they planned to invite Christians to attend celebrations “in many churches” in the city Read more

Head of German Catholic bishops will not deny Protestants Communion

Monday, March 1st, 2021
protestant holy communion

The president of the German Catholic bishops’ conference said he will continue to give Holy Communion to Protestants who ask for it. Bishop Georg Bätzing said it was necessary to respect the “personal decision of conscience” of those seeking to receive Communion. CNA Deutsch reported that Bätzing responded to a question about a controversial proposal Read more

German archbishop OKs intercommunion in his diocese

Monday, July 2nd, 2018

German archbishop Hans-Josef Becker will let Protestant spouses of Catholics living in his diocese receive holy communion “in individual cases.” He presented his interpretation of the German bishops’ conference “pastoral guidance“at a meeting of the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Paderborn last week. He says he told his presbyteral council that the pastoral Read more

Pope’s in-flight news conference after WCCC’s Geneva meeting

Monday, June 25th, 2018

In an in-flight news conference following his one-day trip to the World Council of Christian Churches (WCCC) meeting last Thursday, Pope Francis touched on several world-headline issues of recent weeks. One of these concerns a proposal from some German bishops about communion for Protestants married to Catholics; the bishops want to know whether Protestants should Read more

Pope tells German bishops more time needed to consider inter-communion

Thursday, June 7th, 2018

A letter to the German bishops from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says Pope Francis has asked the German Catholic bishops’ conference not to publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Communion at Mass. The letter signed by Congregation’s prefect, Cardinal-designate Luis Ladaria, says Pope Francis has concluded Read more

German president, celebrities: churches should share communion

Thursday, May 17th, 2018

The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, says the Catholic Church should allow Protestants to receive Communion. He offered his opinion at Katholikentag, a Muenster-based conference drawing tens of thousands of Catholics from German-speaking Europe. “Let us seek ways of expressing the common Christian faith by sharing in the Last Supper and Communion. I am sure thousands Read more

Intercommunion – Cardinal Marx and Pope Francis

Monday, April 23rd, 2018

Intercommunion – enabling non-Catholics to receive the Eucharist – is to be discussed in Rome. Although several news sources say Francis has already rejected a draft plan to allow non-Catholics who are married to Catholics to receive Communion in certain circumstances, it seems this is not the case. German Bishops’ Conference president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Read more