Tuesday, October 04, 2005
COMMUNION AT TAIZE
The question of who received communion at Brother Roger's funeral and the controversy that developed in the blogs and elsewhere has ruffled some feathers in Rome, and George Weigel would like the truth to be told and the errors of the New York Times reporting to be corrected.
The first falsehood here is that Brother Roger believed in open and "indiscriminate" intercommunion, which he did not. The second falsehood is the suggestion that Cardinal Kasper (who presided at the funeral at the request of the Taize Community) distributed holy Communion "indiscriminately, regardless of denomination" --- which he did not.
The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity has prepared a note describing what took place.
The note explains that the celebration of Brother Roger's funeral "followed the usual practice at Taize," which had developed during the 1970s, in conversation and agreement with the Vatican, "for the singular circumstances" of this ecumenical monastic community and the pilgrims who spend time there. As the note put it, "everything possible is done to ensure that the Eucharist is celebrated in a way that excludes confusion regarding Church membership, or is against the rules in force."
Since the 1970s, all Eucharistic celebrations at the Church of the Reconciliation at Taize are Catholic liturgies, presided over by priests or bishops. "For those who...cannot or do not wish to receive Communion in the Catholic Church, a special arrangement enables them to receive the 'blessed bread.' After the Gospel reading...a basket of small pieces of bread is blessed by the celebrant and set on a table next to the altar. At the moment of Communion, the distribution of the Eucharist and the distribution of the blessed bread are done in a way that clearly indicates the difference. In this the Orthodox and Easter-rite Catholics recognize their traditional practice of distributing the 'antirodon,' namely parts of the altar bread that have not been consecrated. At Brother Roger's funeral, in accordance with the usual practice at Taize, those present could receive either the consecrated Eucharistic species or the blessed bread."
Actually, assuming that this time the accurate information has made it to press, it sounds like a good policy to use this blessed bread in an ecumenical setting. If I remember the explanation of this given to me by an Eastern Catholic, the blessed bread is a portion of the loaf, the rest of which will later be consecrated. Some of it is removed prior to consecration. Justin, correct me if my memory is faulty.
