Ban on Sharing Eucharist Fills me with Sadness
The Universe
(May 25, 2003)
THIS May 28
I will be in Berlin attending a very historical
church event – the first ever ecumenical Church Day or Oekumenischer
Kirchentag when Catholics and protestants will come together.
There has been nothing like it since the Reformation.
Hundreds of thousands of Christians from all over Germany and many other
countries will sing, pray and plan to work together and fulfill the prayer
and hope of Jesus that “they
will be one”.
But it seems that there will be no sharing of the Holy
Eucharist between Catholic and Protestant as the Pope banned it last Easter.
This will be a week-long celebration of all that is
common between Catholic and protestant and days of regret for what still
divides. Most theological differences have been largely reconciled and the
last steps towards full healing and coming together as one are now being
taken. It is truly a breathtaking and momentous event.
For years both the faiths have had their
own special “Church days”
these
great festivals of
Christian belief and worship filled fairgrounds and stadiums. Two years ago I
was invited as a participant in the protestant
Kirchentag at Frankfurt. It was a gigantic occasion and
I shared a podium with an famous woman bishop in a televised
discussion. The next day I was invited to give a special message to the
closing assembly of 70,000 gathered in the Frankfurt football stadium.
It was a
fantastic experience as the huge crowd rose to itıs
feet, row after row and waved their
white scarf's in
acknowledgement of the message
and the call I made that we
ought to strengthen our bonds in the same mission of Jesus to proclaim the
dignity of the human person and to reach out to the poorest and most
neglected. More than 100 church brass bands played and the huge stadium
filled with the strains of Amazing Grace.
I felt
privileged and blessed to be there. The sense of unity and common
bonding was immense and when it came to celebrating the Holy Eucharist the last great
barrier between the Catholics and Protestants
stood out. It was the saddest
moment because this we could
not
be truly brothers and
sisters in the Lord. I was unable to share in that concelebrated Holy
Eucharist as one despite Rome’s ban
This year there will be many as 150,000 Catholics and
protestants mingling together. In a encyclical issued last Easter Pope John
Paul said that Eucharistic Fellowship is not yet possible. This is indeed a
great disappointment.
The Archbishop of
Berlin says that priests will be censured if they permit protestants to
participate in Catholic
communion. The three German ecumenical schools of theology including the
famous Catholic Divinity University of
Tuebingen said there are actually no valid theological reasons why there
cannot be Eucharist oneness. The protestants see no barriers at all.
The Vatican
encyclical
Ecclesia de Eucharistia
made it clear that before we can
celebrate
the Eucharist together
there must first be full unity of the ecclesial
communities. The
encyclical also makes it clear celebration of the Eucharist must be by a
priest validly ordained through apostolic succession. Only the Catholic
and Eastern orthodox clergy that qualify, the Vatican says. So the divide
still remains.
So for me the Church Ecumenical Day will be a
disappointment. We all long for unity but we need to be patient and perhaps
in time our differences will be resolved and we will be one in faith and
practice.
