[FatherofFive]

Cardinal Marx said that, in the end, it would be up to each diocesan bishop to decide whether or not to allow Eucharist hospitality in his diocese.

No. As Paul said in First Corinthians, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

The Church is ONE.

[ADSUM]

So should everyone be able to receive Holy Communion?

My understanding that Catholic Church teaching on the Eucharist was that one was a baptized Catholic in good standing without mortal sin to receive Holy Communion worthily.

If this is the understanding, why is a small group of Bishops in Germany changing the practice? Is there a benefit? Why does this affect Germany and not the whole Church? Do we have a Catholic faith for each country?

Are these spouses baptized, can they received the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

I would hope for better information and explanation.

[Fedora]

“We must get out of this way of argumentation which uses insinuation and suspicion and acts as if the position of the majority is out of line with church teaching,” said Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz.

We're not insinuating or suspecting: we're directly stating it. The Arians who denied Christ's divinity were also in the majority for a while.

[Skywise]

Mmhmm - a few peons stand in the way of my magnanimous gesture along with the vast majority of my fellow bishops and, of course, the Pope who gave me this position of letting non-Catholics partake in communion because of this silly belief in the Bible.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“We must get out of this way of argumentation which uses insinuation and suspicion and acts as if the position of the majority is out of line with church teaching...”

I didn't know it was a "democracy?"

[NewJerseyJoe]

>> "acts as if the position of the majority is out of line with church teaching"

St. Thomas More, unfortunately, was quite accustomed to this type of response.

[pepsi_junkie]

This is only a problem if you believe the Eucharist is a holy sacrament that you must prepare for and be ready to receive. In other words, if you are Catholic. Non Catholics and German bishop, which apparently are th same thing, don’t have a problem with it at all. Nor does the Pope who is letting it happen by intentionally leaving it in the hands of people he absolutely knows will make it happen.

The Catholic Church is no longer run by Catholics. That’s the sad truth now.

[metmom]

“I feel personally affected when, in their letter to Rome, the seven bishops warn that my vote and that of the majority of my fellow bishops is endangering the deposit of the faith and church unity,” he said in an interview published May 12 in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger

Oh, boo hoo.

When did grown men become such cry babies?

[Marchmain]

“Eucharistic hospitality” - isn’t that the stupidest expression you’ve ever heard?!

[daniel1212]

“Let’s be honest. People vote with their feet. And while I’m the last person to say, ‘OK, we must follow the crowd,’ conversely I ask myself if we really think we must protect God by deciding who may go to communion and who may not?” the bishop said.

That "protect God" Catholic concern is the result of making the Lord's supper to be focused upon the nature of the elements consumed rather than it being (as 1 Corinthians 10+11 teaches) an effectual communal remembrance of and thus a declaration of the Lord's death,(1 Corinthians 11:26) by which He purchased the church, (Acts 20:28) which declares this by sharing bread and wine with each other as bought saints bought by Christ's sinless shed blood.

Who are to manifest fellowship with Christ and each other by this communal sharing of a actual meal, like as pagans manifest fellowship with their object of worship and each other in their dedicatory feasts. (1 Corinthians 10:15-23)

Thus to eat independent of each others, ignoring and thus shaming those who have not, is to "not eat the Lord's supper," and which was the sin and cause of judgment in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 (see here ), that of not effectually recognizing the body of Christ, which theme of unity continues into the next chapter.

Likewise, to take part in pagan religious feasts as well as sanction Christian communion to anyone is also to incur judgment, by signifying fellowship with those who are not of God, and are contrary to Him, and in the case of Christian communion it is defiling what is to be a holy declarative communion with Christ and each other who are bought with His blood. To take part in the Lord's supper while being or acting contrary to those for whom Christ died is to "come together unto condemnation."

But if the congregation is told before hand what this supper is about, which thus requires manifest regeneration and treating others as blood-bought saints (both in positive affirmation as well as needed correction) then if some presume to be partakers their blood is on their own hands.

Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. (1 Corinthians 11:17)

When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. (1 Corinthians 11:20-22)

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 11:26-27)

Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come. (1 Corinthians 11:33-34)

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Meanwhile, if the concern is that of protecting God as being the Eucharist from defilement, then Catholicism needs to change her theology, since if the bread and wine are wholly changed into Christ's "true body" even down to the smallest particles, then some would be airborne, and subject to being trampled under foot and ending up in the vacuum cleaner, or carries about by wind to worse locales.