CHAPTER 1: ECUMENICAL PROGRESS AND STAGNATION 35 press conference on 21 June 2018,83 despite his objections to the fact that it was the Bishops’ Conference that would issue the guidelines, rather than individual bishops. In its definitive form, eventually published with papal consent under the title Mit Christus gehen – Der Einheit auf der Spur; Konfessionsverbindende Ehen und gemeinsame Teilnahme an der Eucharistie, it is no longer a binding document obligating individual bishops to act accordingly but, rather, is a suggestion from the Bishops’ Conference. Each diocesan bishop now has the liberty to decide on an application suitable for their own diocese. Sharing the Eucharist, intercommunion, and Eucharistic hospitality In media coverage as well as interventions by theologians and bishops, the German proposal has often been referred to as a case of intercommunion. It is, in this case, better to speak of Eucharistic hospitality as a specific form of sharing the Eucharist. Sharing the Eucharist (which is the most general way of addressing the issue) is part of regular liturgical life. Within the Roman Catholic Church, for example, the Eucharist is shared amongst all the faithful affiliated with this ecclesiastical body. First of all, it is concretely shared with the faith community in which one celebrates Mass. The priest celebrates the Eucharist in intimate connection with his bishop whose episcopal ministry is, ecclesiologically speaking, the most fundamental ministry within the Roman Catholic Church. The bishop, in turn, secures communion with the church universal through maintaining fraternal bonds with the bishop of Rome, the pope. Especially when seen through the lens of communio ecclesiology, the Roman Catholic Church is already in itself an utterly ecumenical reality: it is a collection of local churches, most profoundly unified in and through the Eucharist. Current PCPCU president Cardinal Koch therefore speaks of a “network of Eucharistic communities.” 84 This connection is not only established with Christians all over the world (Roman Catholics, Eastern Catholics, etcetera), but also diachronically: communio exists between present communities and Christians from past times (the heavenly church or church triumphant), as well as with generations to come. This conception of full 83 Francis, “Press Conference on the Return Flight from Geneva,” June 21, 2018, http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/june/documents/papafrancesco_20180621_voloritorno-ginevra.html. 84 Kurt Koch, Die Kirche Gottes: Gemeinschaft im Geheimnis des Glaubens (Augsburg: SanktUlrich-Verlag, 2007), 34–36. Title of that section in German: “Kirche als Netz von eucharistischen Gemeinschaften,“ (translation: FW).
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