Posted on 03/15/2007 1:48:10 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed a strict ruling forbidding eucharistic concelebration with ministries of non-Roman Catholic churches, while at the same time giving priests the go-ahead to revive Latin as the main language used during the church service known as the Mass.
"The celebration and worship of the Eucharist enable us to draw near to God's love and to persevere in that love," Benedict said in an apostolic exhortation entitled "Sacramentum Caritatis" ("The Sacrament of Charity"). The 131-page document, released by the Vatican on 13 March, is a summary of papal reflections on discussions at the 2005 World Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.
In his summary, the Pope restates his strong opposition to Catholics remarrying, and also asks priests to refrain from celebrating the Mass during weddings or funerals attended by non-practising Catholics.
"The Eucharist," Pope Benedict wrote, "implies full communion with the Church. This is the reason why, sadly, albeit not without hope, we ask Christians who are not Catholic to understand and respect our conviction, which is grounded in the Bible and tradition. We hold that eucharistic communion and ecclesial communion are so linked as to make it generally impossible for non-Catholic Christians to receive the former without enjoying the latter.
"Only in exceptional situations, for the sake of their eternal salvation, can individual non-Catholic Christians be admitted to the Eucharist, the sacrament of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick," said the 79-year-old pontiff.
Quoting from "Sacramentum Caritatis", the Pope confirmed "the Church's practice, based on sacred scripture, of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments, since their state and their condition of life objectively contradict the loving union of Christ and the Church, signified and made present in the Eucharist."
The Pope also reaffirmed, "the beauty and the importance of a priestly life in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ and to the Church. Therefore I confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition." He added, "'I ask that future priests ... be trained to understand and celebrate Holy Mass in Latin, use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chants."
Church rules adopted after the Second Vatican Council of 1965 said that congregations wishing to celebrate Mass in Latin had to seek permission from Rome or their local bishops.
The Second Vatican Council and the abandonment of the traditional Latin rite led to a schism within the church led by Marcel Lefebvre, a French archbishop who was later excommunicated by the late Pope John Paul II for consecrating four bishops in violation of canon law.
You know I am wondering on this funeral component. Here's why and for example. I have a 94 year old aunt that is too feeble to go to mass. She went every day as long as she was able. She watches every day on the tv and when not watching ewtn is praying the rosary so are we saying that she cannot have a funeral mass. That hardly seems correct does it?
I think yours is definitely misleading reading of the statement.
Also, if you wish, check with your parish about how they minister to house bound folks and the Eucharist..
I think you are misreading it. The Catholics attending who are in a state of Grace may receive, and the non-Catholics may not. The same way it has always been, or supposed to have been.
Non-Catholic are invited to come forward for a blessing from the priest.
The elderly who are feeble are exempt from many obligations. Your aunt is probably more pleasing to God than the rest of us.
Does anyone fully understand the Eucharist? It's a mystery that can't be understood by us mere mortals.
The proper procedure (yes, the Pope is incorrect) is to allow the priests to exercise discretion in distributing Eucharistic elements to non-Catholic Christians.
NOBODY HAS A RIGHT TO RECEIVE COMMUNION- this applies to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Unfortunately, a blanket policy such as the one discussed in this article gives the impression that those persons who are officially Roman Catholic have the right receive regardless of what they do the rest of the week (ahem Ted Kennedy) whereas those who are good and faithful Christians have no business at the Table.
Does Billy Graham espouse the same Eucharistic theology as the Pope? Not likely. Should it matter? Why? The Holy Spirit makes bread and wine into what He makes it- regardless of what we mortals think. The world is round regardless of those who once thought it to be flat. The body and blood or Christ is nourishing to all people who know and love Him, and It is spiritual poison to those who despise Him.
The clergy should be permitted to exercise caution when distributing to Roman Catholics and extreme caution when distributing to other Christians (remember, Pope John Paul II personally served Communion to PM Tony Blair).
Of COURSE your aunt will have a funeral MASS!! Are you a Catholic? If so, you don't know too much about your religion.
That is absolutely true. We can describe the great mysteries of our Faith, such as the Trinity, using the words we've been taught, but fully understanding them is beyond our capacity at this stage of our lives.
"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then, face to face. Now I understand in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood."
Please note that nowhere in the scriptures does Jesus indicate that the salvation of souls and eternal life is reached by eating the bread and drinking the wine. He said to do it in remembrance of Him.
Someone who has not sworn fealty to the Catholic church can't take communion in remembrance of Jesus and be recognized as doing so by Christ?
If one acknowledges that the written testimonies are true and divinely inspired, then anything else inserted that was not written must conform to that which is written.
Attributing bad motives to others falsely is a sin.
But even though orthodox Lutherans believe Christ when he told us He would be truly present, we're clearly not in communion with the Catholic Church and it would be vainly disrespectful to expect to receive the body of Christ at Catholic Mass.
Attributing bad motives to others falsely is a sin. The Catholic church has eliminated the "falsely" quite thoroughly over the centuries.
What???
I agree - and the same for someone who was not a member of your LCMS church. My father had cousins who were LCMS, and when our family visited them, we went to church with them but did not receive communion. Their communion was for the members of their congregation, and none of us saw any problem with that.
Only in Luke.
Matthew 26:
26And while they were eating, Jesus having taken the bread, and having blessed, did brake, and was giving to the disciples, and said, `Take, eat, this is my body;'
27and having taken the cup, and having given thanks, he gave to them, saying, `Drink ye of it -- all;
28for this is my blood of the new covenant, that for many is being poured out -- to remission of sins;
29and I say to you, that I may not drink henceforth on this produce of the vine, till that day when I may drink it with you new in the reign of my Father.'
Mark 14:
22And as they are eating, Jesus having taken bread, having blessed, brake, and gave to them, and said, `Take, eat; this is my body.'
23And having taken the cup, having given thanks, he gave to them, and they drank of it -- all;
24and he said to them, `This is my blood of the new covenant, which for many is being poured out;
25verily I say to you, that no more may I drink of the produce of the vine till that day when I may drink it new in the reign of God.'
Moreover, in John 6, Christ is very explicit that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, or there is no life in us. His listeners challenge Him repeatedly - He never says, "this is a parable" as He did in so many other places. And many were so revulsed - "this word is hard - who is able to hear it?" - that they turned away and walked with him no more.
As for your other question, to paraphrase C.S.Lewis, it's not that the Catholic church is right and everybody else is all wrong. The Catholic Church contains the fullness of faith as established by Christ (that's why it's called the universal church). But if one doesn't believe in the Catholic church, he shouldn't take communion there, because he would be eating and drinking his own damnation.
Similarly, there are other churches with closed communions, either because it's restricted to members in good standing (some Baptist, Mennonites, LDS, and JWs) or because of the theology of the Eucharist (conservative Lutheran and Greek or Russian Orthodox). I would never violate their church order were I to visit with them.
As I asked another poster. Jesus was right there. Why did He not carve off a pieces of His flesh and drain some of His blood and give that to them if He meant it to be literal?
Why were many of the Jews scandalized by His words? As the old saying goes, "in God's own time." He decided to give them His Flesh and His Blood to consume at the Last Supper.
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