CHAPTER 6: TEMPORARY SOLUTION FOR A PERMANENT PROBLEM 185 if... to renounce to celebrate for some time... waiting for things to be settled, could help (…). And it's in this context, and, and that was not so easy for everybody here. Maybe for some brothers, but mainly also for people, that then, in the seventies… no sorry, in the eighties um, it became more and more clear that would not happen like this, this agreement, not so quickly... ... and then it was very important, that, and that is what I understood also for the brothers to be able to receive Holy Communion together, and that was possible in the Catholic celebrations.431 Taizé’s current practice was initiated during the very optimistic heydays of the ecumenical movement following Vatican II. The widespread expectation that full visible unity was within grasp has certainly been a factor in the evolution of Taizé’s Eucharistic practice, together with Brother Roger’s insistence that the community must not be separated at the sacrament. The solution of sharing the Eucharist in the Roman rite seems to be a rather pragmatic one. The interviewees do not express a solid doctrinal framework to justify this choice. Instead, TB points at the willingness of the Protestants in the community to acknowledge the rich Catholic tradition with its centrality of the Eucharist and to accept the limits set by the Roman Catholic Church: We recognize that the Eucharist has been, more present in the Catholic Church, more central... that there are different forms in the protestant churches, different traditions, and... and if, if that would help, to say, we recognize that we are... a bit younger brothers in that... in this regard, we would accept.432 TC indicates that this practice was not the fruit of a solid theological argument but one further step in the community’s search for a common Eucharist that would be acceptable to all traditions involved: And uh, so that was, like I say, that was a provisional... temporary solution, just trying to be together, without knowing how exactly, to move forward, and uh... and there had been other attempts before, you know.... in the, some brothers may have told you, no, and before in the sixties, even up to seventy-, I'm not sure, '73 maybe… uh 431 TB-1,4d. 432 TB-1,4d.
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