Church / Eucharist / Sacraments
by hazelelponiSC · Published August 27, 2018 · Last modified August 25, 2018
First communicants at St Mary’s cathedral in Cape Town hold up their cupcakes at the tea after the ceremony. The Communion Mass was celebrated by Fr Celestine Okekeofojebe with Deacon Stephen Armstrong. (Submitted by...
With the Church in Germany having launched the debate about Communion for non-Catholics, BISHOP VICTOR PHALANA notes that the Southern African Church dealt with the question many years ago, and explains what the rules...
While some German bishops have decided that non-Catholic spouses of Catholics may receive Communion in individual cases according to pastoral needs, inter-Communion in Southern Africa is governed by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s “Directory on Ecumenism”, which was approved by the Holy See and released in 2003.
Church / Church Teaching / Eucharist / Shackleton
by Michael Shackleton · Published August 7, 2018 · Last modified August 13, 2018
Some Catholics do not know that there is such a thing as a Eucharistic fast, or know but ignore it. Is the fast still required? If not, why have we not been informed officially? Joe...
Church / Ecumenical dialogue / Eucharist
by Jael SC · Published July 3, 2018 · Last modified July 2, 2018
The German bishops are not the only bishops in the world to propose or adopt pastoral guidelines for allowing an Anglican or a Protestant married to a Catholic to receive the Eucharist under certain...
Church / Eucharist / Letter of the Week
by Letters Editor · Published June 9, 2018 · Last modified June 7, 2018
Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg – Dutch Cardinal Wim Eijk of Utrecht has taken issue with Pope Francis’ supposed failure to give clear guidance to German cardinals on whether non-Catholic partners of Catholics should be allowed...
Church / Ecumenical dialogue / Eucharist / Letter of the Week
by Letters Editor · Published June 7, 2018 · Last modified June 4, 2018
At Communion, especially at nuptial and funeral Masses which invariably include a broad spectrum of Christians, we experience a heightened sense of the unfortunate divisions in the body of Christ.
Holy Communion is exclusively for Catholics in a state of grace and not something to be shared between friends like beer or cake, said a former senior adviser to two popes.
Church / Eucharist / Feast Days / Fr John Allen Green
by asiel · Published June 3, 2018 · Last modified June 1, 2018
Fr John Allen Green OFM – Our first window opens on March 18, 1958. Thomas Merton’s experience in Louisville happened in the middle of an ordinary day when Merton was running errands for the...
Eucharist / Feast Days / Fr Ralph de Hahn
by Kilian SC · Published June 2, 2018 · Last modified May 31, 2018
There are great volumes of books and articles published on the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist, and still, with this treasure within our grasp, with all our weekly and even daily Masses, many of us still struggle to believe, accept and live the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ.
In February, the Vatican statement said that more than three-quarters of the members of the German bishops’ conference had approved a pastoral handbook titled “Walking with Christ: In the Footsteps of Unity: Mixed Marriages and Common Participation in the Eucharist”.
Church / Ecumenical dialogue / Eucharist
by Letters Editor · Published May 8, 2018 · Last modified May 6, 2018
With regard to the ongoing debate on Communion for non-Catholics, the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the section on the Seven Sacraments of the Church says: “Only validly ordained priests can preside at the Eucharist and consecrate the bread and the wine so that they become the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1411).
