As the Austrian Catholic news website Kath.net reports, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – with explicit approval of Pope Francis – rejected the 22 February 2018 pastoral handout concerning the admittance, in individual cases, of Protestant spouses of Catholics to Holy Communion as it had been approved by the German Bishops’ Conference under the leadership of Cardinal Reinhard Marx. We have confirmed their report with our own sources close to the Vatican.
Kath.net relies for its story on “well- informed Vatican sources,” according to which this handout “has been sent back to the sender.” Only last time, there had come out reports about a letter written by seven German bishops and addressed to the Vatican, in which they ask for clarification in this matter. One of these seven bishops, Bishop Stefan Oster, had subsequently explained in detail what the objections of these bishops were.
As Oster explained in an article published in his own diocesan newspaper, “We wish to receive a clarification as to whether this expansion of the interpretation of grave emergency situations is correct.” It does not seem a “simple” thing to “share the full Catholic understanding of the Eucharist,” while at the same time remaining in another denomination; and “thus to preserve for oneself, at the same time, that confession’s own understanding, let’s say of the Last Supper.” Oster does not see how this inner contradiction could – or should – be preserved of holding two different, incommensurate understandings of Holy Communion at the same time. While Cardinal Reinhard Marx meets Pope Francis to discuss a proposal by the German bishops to loosen restrictions on giving communion to Protestants married to Catholics.
The bishops’ conference revealed the forthcoming meeting at the Vatican in a statement where they described reports that the Vatican – on the Pope’s instruction – had rejected the German plan as “false.”
While a convincing majority of the bishops voted to agree a “pastoral hand-out” on how more spouses in inter-church marriages might receive the Eucharist, seven prelates have written to the Vatican asking for clarification on the matter.
