Category: Other Christians

Mark Shea is on his rock-star tour of Australia, itinerantly teaching about the Faith and spending time with some dear Auzzies. He’s speaking at an Anglican conference this weekend, and got to meet Anglican bishop Ross Davies, who affirms the Catholic faith, rejects heresies, and wants, together with his priests, to be in full communion with Rome. It looks like contacts with CDF are in the works. More from Mark here.
(Thanks to Jeff)..

The Protestant ethic, long a subject of great interest to numerous
generations of scholars (including the esteemed sociologist Max Weber), is
one of the most debated subjects within the field of sociology. This recent
report authored by two sociologists at the University of Chicago’s National
Opinion Research Center brings to light the fact that for the first time in
the history of the United States, members of the Protestant faith will no
longer constitute the majority of the population within the foreseeable
future. The 23-page report, authored by Tom W. Smith and Seokho Kim, notes
that the percentage of Protestants in the national population shrank from 63
percent in 1993 to 52 percent in 2002. Another interesting finding of the
report notes that from 1993 to 2002 the number of people who said they had
no religion rose from 9 percent to nearly 14 percent.

(From the Scout Report internet newsletter.)

Non-Catholic Elliot Bougis, a teacher over in Taiwan who’s been standing in for Mark Shea at the CAEI blog, has announced that he’s going to become either Catholic or Orthodox, with about a 90% probability for the Catholic option. It sounds like the decision has been under consideration for a long time, and it’s happy news. Congratulations, Elliot.
I think Elliot knows his way around the Church already, but if there’s anything we can do to help, do drop in!

Sal’s post on Jews for Jesus reminded me that one of their members gave me a pamphlet today, and I want to send them a thank-you note. Although I’d rather they were Catholic, it’s infinitely better to be baptized Protestant than not to be baptized at all, and I admire them canvassing for recruits in Lafayette Park, right across from the White House.
It also reminded me of the original Jews for Jesus:

The Vatican’s chief official for relations with other Christians gave a speech Friday morning. Here’s how our friends at Catholic World News led the story:

Cardinal Kasper backs “Eucharistic hospitality”
Vatican , Jun. 18 (CWNews.com) – Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, has said that “Eucharistic hospitality” is licit in some circumstances.
Speaking at a major conference of German Catholics in the city of Ulm on June 18, Cardinal Kasper said that “there are circumstances when a non-Catholic can receive Communion at a Catholic Mass.”

The CWN writer suggests that the Cardinal is at odds with the Pope’s recent writings and Vatican directives on the question of non-Catholics and Holy Communion:

In his 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II devoted most of a chapter to the issue, stressing that non-Catholics should not receive Communion. The Pope argued forcefully that the practice of intercommunion is an offense against ecumenism, not an aid, because it creates the false impression that non-Catholics share the Church’s teaching on the nature of the Eucharist.
In the recent instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum , the Congregation for Divine Worship reiterated that stand, emphasizing that under any normal circumstances “Eucharistic hospitality” is a grave abuse.

And as you might expect, readers chimed in with expressions of outrage:

“Kaspar is an embarrassment to Catholicism. His positions are heretical and reflective of an apostate who has lost the faith….”
“Cardinal Kasper should be given the boot out of the Vatican’s door….”
“What a joke – the head of the council for Christian Unity doing everything he can to destroy unity in the Church. …”

Now, I don’t know where CWN got their impression of the Cardinal’s speech, because their article does not reflect what he said on this subject. The term “Eucharistic hospitality” does not appear in the speech. The statement about circumstances in which non-Catholics may receive Communion isn’t his opinion: he’s citing the Code of Canon Law.
All in all, I think the CWN piece misrepresents the Cardinal’s speech, so here’s the relevant passage, available from the conference website (my translation):