38 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION discernment which they can publicly express in the Catholic Church, when appropriate by receiving Holy Communion, too. ”92 Or, quoting the pressrelease about the original draft, the main question is: “to examine the concrete situation in pastoral dialogue and to come to a responsible discernment concerning the non-Catholic partner’s ability to receive Holy Communion.”93 By this expression, the bishops seem to have captured Pope Francis’ preferred pastoral approach rather well: to depart from people’s actual situation and to discern from that point a realistic and merciful path towards the ideals of the church. Additionally, the bishops tie their proposal to a specific interpretation of canon law. Canon 844§4 of the Code of Canon Law of 1983 (CIC/1983), which governs the admission of non-Catholics to communion and which is explicitly quoted by the bishops, states that when “danger of death is present, or if, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops, some other grave necessity urges it, Catholic ministers administer these same sacraments licitly also to other Christians.” The majority of the German bishops have concluded that the durable situation of mixed couples itself can be considered a grave necessity and that the bishops’ conference has the competence to implement this wider interpretation. In order to clarify the nature of the grave necessity in the context of mixed marriages, Mit Christus gehen states: It is a grave necessity when the faith, which inspired a woman and a man to administer the sacrament of Matrimony to one another and to reciprocally receive it from one another, sparks a desire to receive 92 Deutsche Bischofskonferenz, “Mit Christus gehen,” sec. 6. Original text in German: “Wir zeigen, wie Eheleute, die in einer konfessionsverbindenden Ehe leben, in pastoraler Begleitung zu einer Gewissensentscheidung kommen können, der sie öffentlich in der katholischen Kirche Ausdruck verleihen können, gegebenenfalls auch mit dem Empfang der Kommunion” (translation: FW). 93 Deutsche Bischofskonferenz, “Pressebericht des Vorsitzenden der Deutsche Bischofskonferenz, Kardinal Reinhard Marx, anlässlich der Pressekonferenz zum Abschluss der Frühjahrs-Vollversammlung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz am 22. Februar 2018 in Ingolstadt,” February 22, 2018, 5, https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/diverse_ downloads/presse_2018/2018-033-Pressebericht-FVV-Ingolstadt.pdf. Original text in German: “um im seelsorglichen Gespräch die konkrete Situation anzuschauen und zu einer verantwortbaren Entscheidung über die Möglichkeit des Kommunionempfangs des nichtkatholischen Partners zu kommen” (translation: FW).
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