Joachin Meisner Hertz
(ZENIT News / Berlin, 24.08.2023).- Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, President of the World Council of Churches, called for the acceleration of the process, so that Catholics can “go to Communion” in Protestant Churches and vice-versa. The appeal was made from Dom Radio, a German Catholic medium, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Council’s foundation. It must be “possible that a community receive the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, as soon as possible.”
In the logic of a Protestant, he adduces that the Traditions of the different denominations are a great richness, and that “all lead to the one Lord Jesus Christ and must never put themselves in the first place, but must always understand one another as doors in the path to Jesus Christ.”
The subject of Inter-Communion is a German battle, which Benedict XVI opposed openly for one reason: Protestants do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, which is at the base of Catholic Theology. In fact, Martin Luther and the other heretics who started Christian denominations, such as Calvinism, did not believe either in the real presence. The fact of calling the Eucharist “Communion” implies communion in the faith, which in this case is specified by faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, which is not only a symbol, as the Protestant Tradition believes.
The Catholic Church is not a member of the World Council of Churches. The majority of Orthodox Churches (Byzantine and Oriental), as well as the Anglican, Baptist, instituted in Africa, Evangelical, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Pentecostal, Reformed, old Catholic, united and independent, Friends (Quakers), Disciples of Christ/Churches of Christ, and Assyrian Church do form part of this organization.
