Cardinal Kasper on switching from ordaining women to the lesser obstacle of married priests. Pope Francis pushing again for Intercommunion. And George Weigel (did you know he wrote a biography of JPII?) reveals he could have backed up Archbishop Vigano’s claims about sanctions on McCarrick all along. This weeks most interesting news we didn’t get … Read more
Photo courtesy Paul Badde (EWTN) Today, the German bishops have published their very controversial pastoral handout which allows Protestant spouses of Catholics, in certain cases, to receive Holy Communion. Since Pope Francis, on 21 June, objected to a national bishops’ conference publishing such an official text, the German bishops now simply declare, as if by … Read more
The 21 June papal remarks concerning the German bishops’ handout allowing some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion have caused a strong reaction from several parties, including a German canonist/ Professor Thomas Schüller, a professor of canon law at the University of Münster, says that the Pope and his dicasteries have created a “pastoral patchwork” … Read more
In light of the 21 June remarks by Pope Francis concerning the German intercommunion handout allowing some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion, Cardinal Brandmüller reminds Catholics now of the fundamental principles involved in this matter. He reminds us that there are only few cases of dire emergency where Christians of the Eastern … Read more
I tried to warn everyone. When it comes to Pope Francis, you cannot trust what he says. There’s more and more evidence of that all the time. And of course, we must never forget The Peron Rule. On the matter of intercommunion, it’s true that he signed off on the CDF’s rejection of the German … Read more
When the story first broke in April that the CDF had, with the pope’s explicit blessing, rejected the German Bishops’ intercommunion handout, people weren’t sure what to think. Nobody had seen the communication, and it was very intentionally kept under wraps by the Vatican. At the time, I issued a cautionary note about thinking that … Read more
On 25 May, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), wrote a letter to Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the German bishops. He told the German bishops’ conference not to publish their pastoral handout allowing some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion under certain conditions. Today, … Read more
Last Thursday, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, Cardinal Rainer Woelki, one of the seven German bishops who opposed the new German intercommunion handout allowing for some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion, gave a moving speech at the end of the Procession and Pontifical Mass in his Cathedral of Cologne. In this speech, … Read more
A German theologian and member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission strongly criticized in a recent interview the German intercommunion handout as it was approved already on 20 February by a majority of the German bishops. He calls this handout “unlawful,” “unwise,” and “defective.” On 25 May, domradio.de, the radio station of the Diocese of … Read more
Image: Herforder Münster (Germany), formerly Marienkirche Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German bishops, is now opening up to the idea of different German dioceses having different rules concerning the possible admittance of Protestant spouses of Catholics to Holy Communion. Another bishop just said, moreover, that Pope Francis seems not to see in the … Read more
As was to be reasonably expected, the progressive wing of the German episcopacy now tries to interpret favorably the recent 3 May message sent by Pope Francis to the German bishops through Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The pope had told the German bishops in Rome … Read more
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