Cardinal Woelki said there is ‘no basis’ for such a service as Catholics and Protestants do not agree on the Eucharist.
Catholics and Protestants do not have enough in common to celebrate a so-called ‘ecumenical Mass,’ a German cardinal has said. Card. Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne said there is “no basis” for such a service because the denominations “do not agree on the central issues” around the Eucharist. The cardinal explained in the Kölner Express that for Catholics, the Eucharist is not just a common meal; it is the true Body and Blood of Christ in the transubstantiated gifts of bread and wine. Protestants do not have this understanding. The Real Presence is an “incontrovertible certainty” for Catholics, he said. As long as these differences exist, there can be no “common supper.”
