The president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity made that point about the Blessed Sacrament in a recently published book.
The volume, “Sacrament of Unity: Eucharist and Church,” published in German by Verlag Herder, and in French by Cerf, explains that “to understand the Eucharist as the sacrament of unity is not something accessory. The unity of the Church is the reason why the Eucharist exists.”
“The fact that in the present situation it is not possible, in the name of truth, that all Christians should gather around the Lord’s one table and participate in the one Supper of the Lord, is a profound wound inflicted on the body of Christ and, in the end, a scandal,” the cardinal writes.
“The unity of the Church is a gift of the Holy Spirit,” he states, clarifying that “ecumenical unity” will not give origin to “another Church, or a new Church; on the contrary, it will be placed in the line of Tradition.”
