Fr. Charles Bouchard and "A true (false) sense of Communion"

Then the skies cleared the next morning, Sunday, Aug. 1, as eight seminary presidents in matching robes led 5,000 of the best and brightest in American Christianity to a liturgical moment that past generations could barely imagine.

The Chautauqua Communion service is one of the more extraordinary signs of what religious leaders and scholars say are revolutionary changes in Christian attitudes toward the central ritual of their faith.

"Jesus was all inclusive no matter what denomination you are," said Mary Summers, 63, of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cleveland.

The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy and other groups such as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod still do not practice general intercommunion. Last year, Pope John Paul II warned that moving too fast toward intercommunion could produce a false sense of unity that diminishes a Catholic understanding of the Eucharist.

In the Catholic Church, laypeople are participating much more in services, including serving the transformed bread and wine to their neighbors. The practice of going to confession declined, but with it also went a lot of the guilt that kept many people away from receiving the sacrament out of fear they were not worthy.

But now, everyone is worthy - which is why we say, "Lord, I am now worthy to receive you..." (sarcasm)

Gwen Henderson, 49, said she no longer buys into the notion that some people are not worthy to receive Communion.

The principle is so important that some said they would rather switch if their church opposes intercommunion. Claire Hayes, a former Catholic, decided to join St. Luke's Episcopal Church after her daughter became an Episcopalian.

"It was an issue for me that she couldn't receive Communion" in the Catholic Church, Hayes said. "I thought when I die when she comes to my funeral she wouldn't be able to receive Communion. That really bothers me."

When the Son of Man returns, will He find anyone of Faith?

The rules on intercommunion are a lot more flexible than many people realize.

The Catholic Church permits Communion for non-Catholics in emergency situations or in places such as hospitals, prisons or battlefields where other Christians may not have access to the sacraments from their own clergy.

Diocesan bishops also may make exceptions. In special cases, such as weddings or funerals, Northeast Ohio Catholics may appeal to Bishop Anthony Pilla to allow, for example, the non-Catholic spouses to receive Communion.

Uhhh....Unless I'm incorrect, the Code of Canon Law (#844) does NOT permit this, nor does the the Code permit Bishops to deviate from this, unless I'm mistaken.

At the Chautauqua service, Campbell asked the Rev. Charles Bouchard, president of the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, to read the Gospel as a gesture to acknowledge a Catholic presence.

The Catholic leader, however, had different plans. He got so caught up in the spirit of things that he, too, distributed Communion at the service, and received Communion himself from a female Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. Cheryl Gosa.

"It was really a special moment," an ebullient Gosa said afterward. "I thought God was probably just fine with that."

I wonder what his superior has to say about this? Perhaps, nothing...Perhaps, Archbishop Burke could comment on this?

Source.