Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Cardinal Müller: Can’t receive Communion? You can still participate in Church’s life

Cardinal Müller: Can’t receive Communion? You can still participate in Church’s life

Last updated on: March 3, 2016 at 11:30 pm by CNA Daily News

Cardinal Müller: Can’t receive Communion? You can still participate in Church’s life 2016-03-03T23:30:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Cologne, Germany, Mar 3, 2016 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A focus on the reception of Holy Communion by the divorced-and-remarried misses the larger point of pastoral care: participation in the Church's whole life, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said in an interview on Tuesday.

“The Pope always says that it is not about Holy Communion alone, but about integration within the life of the Church,” Cardinal Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told German daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in an interview published March 1.

The final step of this process, he said, may be the reception of Holy Communion, “after a process of conversion and repentance, if the generally valid prerequisites for this are fulfilled.”

“A second marriage or a second spouse, as long as the rightful spouse is still alive, is not possible according to the Catholic interpretation of the words of Jesus.”

“The Pope and all of us however want to carefully avoid people ‘drifting away’ from the Church as community of salvation,” he reflected.

There are other forms of participation in the life of the Church that are “valuable and legitimate,” the cardinal noted.

“Community with God and the Church is not only constituted in the oral reception of Holy Communion.”

In addition to discussing pastoral care of the divorced-and-remarried, the interview touched on Islam, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, the United States presidential election, clerical sex abuse, and the cardinal's relationship with Pope Francis.

Concluding with a discussion of divorce-and-remarriage and the reception of Holy Communion, Cardinal Müller acknowledged that “one may indeed struggle with the best way of handling a difficult situation.”

“But what certainly is not possible is putting the teaching of Jesus Christ up for negotiation,” he said.

“And that teaching is, after all: 'What God therefore has joined together, let no man separate'. There can be no compromise there, by which we as humans would turn the clear word of God into something vague. A sound pastoral approach is the opposite of relativizing the words of Christ.”

The cardinal defended the role of bishops in ensuring clear teaching. He compared this to motor vehicle inspections to ensure cars are roadworthy “so as to avoid accidents with serious consequences.”

“If the matter at stake is the salvation of humans and endangering eternal life, then bishops have an even bigger responsibility. And the word of God is in fact very clear. There is but one faith, even if there are legitimately different schools of theology.”

The Cologne newspaper asked the cardinal whether his explanation of the teaching on marriage and Holy Communion was a step back from the German bishops’ position at the 2015 Synod on the Family, characterizing it as finding participation in Communion being conceivable for the divorced-and-remarried after a discussion with a priest in the internal forum.

In response Cardinal Müller noted that this is possible only if the divorced-and-remarried take on the duty to live in complete continence. He said this citing St. John Paul II's reminder “regarding the perennially valid teaching of the Church on marriage in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio.”

He added that reception of Holy Communion by the divorced-and-remarried must also take “into consideration the manifold situations upon which the process of reconciliation is predicated.”

“The Church is not able to dissolve or suspend a valid and truly sacramental marriage.”

One of the German leaders at the center of the remarriage controversy is Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger noted Cardinal Kasper’s description of a “battle” in the Vatican over the future of the Church.

Cardinal Müller responded: “He retracted that problematic metaphor.”

“A battle is aimed at destroying the enemy. But this is neither about the subjugation of others nor certainly about enmities. The subject was the teaching on marriage,” he explained.

The interviewer cited Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, who, he said, considers unrealistic the expectation of sexual abstinence in an irregular union.

Cardinal Müller commented: “That is also what the apostles thought, when Jesus explained to them the indissolubility of marriage (cf. Matthew 19:10). But what seems to us human beings to be impossible, is made possible by the grace of God.”

Europe

Previous Post

March 3, 2016

Satanist ploy fails in Phoenix as city council reinstates prayer

Next Post

March 4, 2016 Cardinal Pell shares emotional meeting with abuse survivors

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern for prophesying against Jerusalem.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE