Bishop Bätzing Opens Path to Protestants Receiving Catholic Communion in Germany

The National Catholic Register ^ | 4/23/21 | Edward Pentin

[marshmallow]

In his latest challenge to Rome’s authority, the president of the German bishops conference is publicly rejecting recent Vatican instructions regarding this issue.

In his latest salvo to challenge Rome's authority, the president of Germany’s bishops’ conference has said that any German Protestant who wishes to receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Church on Ökumenischen Kirchentag — a day of Christian unity in May — may do so.

“Anyone who is Protestant and attends Communion can receive Communion,” Bishop Georg Bätzing told an online discussion in Frankfurt on Thursday about the May 15 event that usually brings thousands of Christians to the city for ecclesial events.

“We want to take steps towards unity,” he said, adding that “whoever believes in conscience what is celebrated in the other denomination will also be able to approach [the altar] and won’t be rejected.”

According to the German bishops’ news site Katholisch.de, the bishop of Limburg went on to say that the practice “has been maintained up and down the country" and is actually “nothing new.” Perhaps what is new is that it is being discussed, he continued, adding that he does not expect “an objection from Rome.”

He noted the existence of Vatican reservations about the Church in Germany, saying: “For many officials in Rome, the German Catholic Church has a Protestant smell.” He claimed this is “not the case at the highest level of prefects,” but with officials who have no experience with the Church in Germany.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Why?

[Ken522]

“Anyone who is Protestant and attends Communion can receive Communion,” Bishop Georg Bätzing

Isn't this blasphemy? Communion is the transubstantiated Body and Blood of Christ - Protestants don't believe that, that's why they're protestants ... if they believe in Communion they should become Catholics .... am I missing something here?

[knarf]

it only took 3 replies

[Wpin]

He needs to be removed...terrible heresy.

[AlaskaErik]

As a Protestant, I wouldn’t ever be caught inside a catholic church except for a wedding or funeral. And even then, I would never accept their communion. Those knuckleheads actually believe they are drinking the blood of Christ and eating his flesh. How utterly bizarre.

[Old Yeller]

Isn't this blasphemy? Communion is the transubstantiated Body and Blood of Christ - Protestants don't believe that, that's why they're protestants ... if they believe in Communion they should become Catholics .... am I missing something here?

Explain this one to us unedumacated, mouth breathing, snake handling Protestants: If God is omnipresent (which He is), then why do Catholics put him in a monstrance, then have a sign-up list for 24x7 adoration, so that He is never alone? Why do you put Him in that little container? And if you sign up for the 2:00 am to 3:00 am shift, do you acquire more heavenly points or get out of purgatory earlier points, than if you sign up for the 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm shift?

[maro]

Actually, I think there is not much difference between the Protestant understanding of communion and the Catholic understanding, other than different terminology. Catholics say “real presence,” but under interrogation, it’s obvious they mean metaphorical presence.

[PistolPaknMama]

if they believe in Communion they should become Catholics .... am I missing something here?

Definitely you are. I've received Communion in my Lutheran church my whole life.

[I-ambush]

If the Catholic had a real understanding of the Eucharist, he would tell you it is not the metaphorical presence, but the True Presence of Christ. God Incarnate. Too many Catholics have been poorly catechized, and so they don’t have a real understanding.

[Old Yeller]

If the Catholic had a real understanding of the Eucharist, he would tell you it is not the metaphorical presence, but the True Presence of Christ. God Incarnate. Too many Catholics have been poorly catechized, and so they don’t have a real understanding.

God Incarnate means God in human form (which Jesus was). God Incarnate doesn’t mean God in a wafer.

[maro]

I won’t interrogate you, but I have a hunch where we would end up.

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

Maybe St. Paul can explain:

1st Corinthians 11

27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.

[I-ambush]

No, it’s Protestants taking communion with other Protestants.

[dirtymac]

They must be running out of their own congregation’s children to enjoy as sex toys

[I-ambush]

I have a guess what your hunch is, and it would be wrong.

[ebb tide]

I've received Communion in my Lutheran church my whole life.

Too bad you've never received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

[blackpacific]

It’s His glorified body, which can walk through walls, ascend to heaven, etc. He said we should eat it, we are following His commands.

We are knuckleheads because we take Jesus’ Word at face value. When He says you must eat His flesh and drink His blood, he meant it.

John 6: 51-
[51] I am the living bread which came down from heaven. [52] If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. [53] The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? [54] Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. [55] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.
...
[67]After this many of his disciples went back; and walked no more with him.

Look at the words of the Pange Lingua Gloriosi of St. Thomas Aquinas written over 700 years ago.

Here they are:
************
Pange Lingua Gloriosi

Sing, my tongue, the Savior’s glory,
of His flesh the mystery sing;
of the Blood, all price exceeding,
shed by our immortal King,
destined, for the world’s redemption,
from a noble womb to spring.
Of a pure and spotless Virgin
born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing,
stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
then He closed in solemn order
wondrously His life of woe.
On the night of that Last Supper,
seated with His chosen band,
He the Pascal victim eating,
first fulfills the Law’s command;
then as Food to His Apostles
gives Himself with His own hand.
Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
by His word to Flesh He turns;
wine into His Blood He changes;
what though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest,
faith her lesson quickly learns.
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o’er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble senses fail.
To the everlasting Father,
and the Son who reigns on high,
with the Holy Ghost proceeding
forth from Each eternally,
be salvation, honor, blessing,
might and endless majesty. Amen.
*************
I could not put it better. Believe and be saved.

[100American]

Agree, and so did some of the Disciples right after the Passover Satyr which Christ hosted.

I was refused communion in a Catholic Church on Easter even though I was a regular attendee at my own non denominational one where we did communion on a regular basis. I was told I could no receive it there as I was not a “Member” Now I am glad as I do not want to do anything with that bunch as I know way too much about who they really are

[MurphsLaw]

St. IGNATIUS of Antioch

"I am God’s grain, and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts in order that I may be found [to be] pure bread for Christ. My love has been crucified, and there is in me no fire of material love, but rather a living water, speaking in me and saying within me, ‘Come to the Father.’ I take no pleasure in corruptible food or in the delights of this life. I want the bread of God,which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who is the seed of David; and for drink I want his Blood which is incorruptible love."
(Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D 110])

"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God…They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1 [A.D. 110]).

St. Justin Martyr

"We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).