Pope Francis has stalled the German bishops’ plan to loosen restrictions on giving communion to Protestants telling them their document on the topic is “not ready” for publication.

A two-thirds majority of the German hierarchy had voted in favour of a “pastoral hand-out” that would have made it easier for non-Catholic Christians married to Catholics to receive the sacraments. But seven bishops including a cardinal protested against the move and appealed to Rome. In a letter addressed to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, President of the German Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says the Pope has ruled against publishing the document on the grounds of preserving the integrity of Catholic doctrine and Church unity. “The question of admission to communion for evangelical Christians in inter-confessional marriages is an issue that touches on the faith of the Church and has significance for the universal Church,” Archbishop Ladaria writes in his letter which is also copied to the bishops.