A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Finland has underlined that the Church has not changed its teaching on who may receive Holy Communion after Finnish Lutherans received the Eucharist in St Peter’s Basilica.
In a statement issued last week, Marko Tervaportti, director of the Catholic Information Centre in Helsinki, said that only members of the Catholic Church “in a state of grace” may receive the Eucharist, with some “special exceptions”.
A Finnish news agency reported that the priests celebrating the Mass were aware that the group were Lutherans. In his statement, Mr Tervaportti rejected speculation about a “new ecumenical attitude” at the Vatican, saying that the Church’s doctrine and practice “has not changed in recent years and decades”.
He also said that Pope Francis’s new approach “is not a sign that the Catholic Church is going to change its practice with regard to the distribution of the Holy Eucharist,” but rather it is a “sign” for Catholics to be more cautious about examining their conscience. Mr Tervaportti said: “For Catholics the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit’ of our Christian life.
It is, as it were, our credo. We carefully prepare to receive it, and confess our serious sins and fast before receiving it. We adjust our lives so that we might receive the Lord’s Supper worthily, knowing that ‘Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord’.” He added that “not every person distributing the Eucharist knows every point of teaching and practice of the Church” and so “mistakes” can occur.
More priests are saying no to being a bishop, says cardinal
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, has said it is no longer “exceptional” for priests to turn down an appointment as bishop.
Speaking on Monday about the course his office sponsors for new bishops, the cardinal was asked about rumours that more and more priests are declining an appointment even when the Pope, on the recommendation of Cardinal Ouellet’s office, has chosen them.
“Yes, that’s true. Nowadays you have people who do not accept the appointment,” he said, adding that the number was not huge. Priests decline for a variety of reasons, Cardinal Ouellet said, pointing to the example of a priest who was chosen, but who had cancer and had not told others of his illness. “It was a sign of responsibility not to accept the appointment,” he said.
Others decline because of something in their past or because they think they cannot handle the responsibility, he said. In the latter case, he said, “normally we insist” because people are not the best judges of their own abilities. But when a person makes “a decision in conscience”, the Vatican respects that, he said.
Be missionaries, urges Francis
The joy that comes from conveying God’s love and mercy is “the concrete sign that we have met Jesus”, the Pope said at his first Year of Mercy audience on Saturday. An estimated 30,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square for the jubilee audience, an event that will be held each month.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.