Is Intercommunion with Protestants Possible?

Some brief comments from me on the parameters of Canon 844 §4... https://t.co/KHkNX08KPE

— Fr James Bradley (@FrJamesBradley) March 26, 2021

Bishop Bätzing Should Be Excommunicated

Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, has reaffirmed his view that intercommunion with Protestants should be possible, despite Vatican objections. https://t.co/d4QDIQ1XqA

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) November 9, 2020

Which Spirit in German Bishops?

The Vatican’s doctrinal office has expressed concern about an intercommunion proposal linked to the president of the German bishops’ conference. https://t.co/7PD87tLHXi

— Luke Coppen (@LukeCoppen) September 22, 2020

One More on Spiritual Communion

HPR: Epidemic and the Liturgical Reform by Dr. Joseph Shaw

It is not surprising to find that when medieval-style pestilence stalks the streets, the Church has to reach back into the past, before that brief gilded historical moment, for responses. The most obvious example is “spiritual communion”: the practice of uniting oneself in prayer to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, since one is not able to receive sacramentally. Our predecessors in the Faith used to do this at the great majority of the Masses they attended, either formally or informally, since they received Holy Communion only once or a few times a year. When I mentioned the practice as a response to the epidemic in a letter to the UK’s liberal Catholic weekly, The Tablet, the first response of one priest was ridicule. We wouldn’t, he wrote, have a “spiritual collection,” would we?¹

The concern that the faithful receive Holy Communion reverently and fruitfully, and not mechanically is correct. It might even be claimed that a Christian should even consider abstaining from Communion if necessary, because he does not have the right spiritual disposition, or the "minimum" that is needed for Communion to bear fruit. A spiritual father would have more to say in this regard and appropriate advice that has been fitted to an individual.

Written by a Latin

Rorate Caeli: The Realism of the Resurrection by Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

But we must remember this: the purpose of his Real Presence in the Eucharist is not only for Holy Communion. We have forgotten that what Jesus did at the Last Supper and what he told his disciples to do—in “memory” of me (that word memory is too weak a word in English to convey what it deeply means)—is the same act as the Sacrifice of the Cross. Holy Thursday and Good Friday commemorate the same act—the saving act of God—in two different ways: one sacramental, one in time and space. It is the offering of the Son to the Father for the forgiveness of sins in the Mass that is the heart of the matter, which then allows us to approach the altar to receive his true Body and Blood. In the Traditional Roman Mass, the bell rings after the priest receives the Sacred Species, for this marks the completion of the Sacrifice. Then comes the invitation to the people to receive Holy Communion.

It makes me ask whether an Oriental Orthodox or Assyrian Christian would write something like this?

The Eucharist Makes the Church

Public Orthodoxy: The Church without the Eucharist Is No Longer the Church
A (telephone) conversation with Metropolitan of Pergamon John Zizioulas (March 23, 2020)

(also published here)

"I don’t agree with the Divine Liturgy being transmitted by television. I’m confined to my home and will not be able to attend Liturgy. However, I will not turn the television on in order to watch the Liturgy. I consider that an expression of impiety. It is impious for someone to sit and watch the Liturgy."

Related:
Eucharistic Living without the Eucharist by Nicholas Denysenko

Do the Sacraments Prevent Illness? A Survey of Liturgical Sources by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko

No Danger of Disease from Holy Communion, Scientific Studies Say by Fr. Joseph Gleason

COVID-19 Adjustments Elsewhere

CNA/CWR: Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Ukraine consider how to distribute Communion

A Manifesto of Faith by Cardinal Müller

CWR Dispatch/CNA: Cardinal Müller delivers ‘manifesto’ on Catholic teaching
“Today, many Christians are no longer even aware of the basic teachings of the Faith, so there is a growing danger of missing the path to eternal life.”

The Mess Was Predicted

NCReg: Confusion Over Holy Communion for Protestant Spouses by Edward Pentin
Pastoral guidelines allowing the practice in some cases is predictably causing chaos and “great harm” to the Church, says Cardinal Gerhard Müller.

What Are the Consequences of This Bad Latin Pastoral Practice?

Namely, delaying Confirmation until after First Communion...

What are the consequences of administering Confirmation to non-adults after they have already received "First Eucharist" years earlier and have been receiving Eucharist regularly up to the point of receiving Confirmation? There were bishops who were aware of this problem and raised the alarm in the 19th ce according to Maxwell Johnson, but it seems little has been done to address this problem.

First, it does seem incongruous for Christians who have not completed Christian initiation to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit if they have already been receiving the Holy Spirit through the Eucharist (assuming that it is correct to characterize one of the effects of the sacrament thusly). Moreover, that also assumes that it is possible for those who have not received Confirmation to nonetheless derive the full benefit from receiving from the Eucharist. But is there any evidence that God "compensates" for what is lacking in the Catholic Christian who has not been fully initiated, so that the Eucharist is fully efficacious for the Christian? Or is the reception of Eucharist for a Catholic Christian who has not been fully-initiated fruitless, as it would be for someone in the state of mortal sin or a non-believer? Is it the case that the Church does not actually have the authority to admit a Christian who has not been fully initiated to (the reception of) the Eucharist? That is to say, that not only is it sacramentally not possible for someone not fully initiated to receive the Eucharist, but there is actually a Divine Law that only one who has been fully initiated cannot receive the Eucharist? Or is this merely a Ecclesial Law (of Apostolic origin)? Or if a Divine Law, is it possible for it to be mitigated or abrogated by the (actions of the) Church? Does God Himself dispense from the necessity of the first two sacraments of initiation to make the reception of the Eucharist fruitful? (If He does, has he revealed this to the Church?)

Let's bring up another concrete example from Latin pastoral practice: Would a dying non-Christian be allowed to receive the Eucharist by a Latin priest before being baptized? I don't think so; if there is only sufficient time for one sacrament, I would think that the preference would be given to Baptism rather than the Eucharist. Couldn't the dying non-Christian just be given the Eucharist if it simply conveys the same grace (e.g. life in Christ) of Baptism? (That they convey the same grace but in different modalities or instantiations or moments of salvation history is is an assumption with which Latin theologians would disagree.) It would seem from Latin pastoral practice that no, a dying non-Christian would not receive the Eucharist unless he had been first baptized. If that is the case, then why should Confirmation be skipped over, except because of Latin custom? The question is whether this is legitimte or not.

Sandro Magister: Figments. If Instead of Bergoglio They Had Elected Cardinal Scola Pope

What if?

Could the split of the Protestants have been prevented if the Latins had first reconciled with the Eastern Chalcedonian Christians ealier, and instead of elevating scholastic theological opinion as dogma at Trent, written the decrees differently?

Then we wouldn't have a problem about bishops endorsing practically unconditional intercommunion with Protestants.

The Intercommunion Proposal of the German Bishops is Unbiblical by Brian Kranick

With the Tacit Approval of Pope Francis

CNA: German bishop issues open invitation to Protestant spouses at Communion

And the Deluge Begins...

German bishop announces communion for Protestant spouses in ‘individual cases’

Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn

And so they followed the Pope's advice, and suggested guidelines for individual bishops

German Bishops Release New Intercommunion Statement The German bishops will look again at the issue when the episcopal conference gathers for its plenary assembly in September. by Edward Pentin

*Wink Wink Nudge Nudge*

After all, hasn't the pope given you enough hints how to do it right this time?

After CDF letter, German bishops' next assembly to explore #intercommunion https://t.co/fe3k1Gyk2d

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) June 28, 2018

Edward Pentin Comments

NCReg: Pope Leaves Intercommunion Decision to Local Bishops, Not Conferences

Rorate Caeli: Pope blocks German Guidelines allowing Holy Communion for Protestant spouses by New Catholic

The important document by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was made public by several German websites today (we are unsure of the exact order of those who broke the news, so we credit all of them). The translation of the document itself was provided by Settimo Cielo, Sandro Magister's blog. We post it below for the record of ongoing events. We just wish to add the following

CWR: Why talk of Catholic-Lutheran intercommunion damages Catholic-Orthodox relations by Ines Angeli Murzaku

If the Catholic Church can and will think of intercommunion, then intercommunion with the Orthodox Churches is the most reasonable, probable, and feasible.

Only a Latin Traditionalist Who Is a Thomist Could Have Written This?

Would non-traditionalist Thomists or Dominicans agree?

At any rate, the essay deserves a longer response, but I will say that charity has priority and primacy over all else. The problem may lie in St. Thomas's treatment of the virtue of religion, which may need to be reconsidered. (Can we say that religion is concerned with what is directed to the God as end, while the theological virtues are concerned with God as object, if religion is concerned with what we owe to God but charity is also owed to God?)