Launching the "One Bread One Body" document yesterday the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, said it was important to note that "while the church's teaching on the Eucharist does not change, the norms on sacramental sharing can be developed and changed over time, on the basis of the church's deepening understanding of that teaching."
The document included "the updated norms for sacramental sharing which are to be applicable in Ireland and Britain". He said the bishops felt "it was opportune to publish a teaching document to renew within the Catholic community a sense of reverence for and appreciation of the Eucharist". It reaffirmed the place of the Mass at the centre of Catholic life, he said, and was intended for all Catholics in these islands "to refresh and renew our understanding of Catholic teaching and enhance our reverence for this great mystery of faith."
The document was being offered to other Christians, and was a contribution to ongoing dialogue with the other Christian churches. It was "a statement of Catholic belief. It is not a document from an ecumenical body," but the positions of other churches had been taken into account.
Two principles were kept in balance in the document. The first was that "going to Communion together bears witness to the fact that we are one in faith" while the second principle was that in particular cases "by way of exception and under clearly defined conditions it may not only be possible but also desirable for a member of another Christian church to receive communion in the Catholic Church."
Bishop Anthony Farquhar, auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor, who was a member of the working group which prepared the document and is chairman of the Bishops' Ecumenical Commission, said the document "appeals to people of all traditions in a spirit of respect and asks as a contribution to ecumenism that they should observe these norms and encourage others to do so." Its first purpose was "to help Catholics to a greater understanding of their own tradition." It was also intended to express that Catholic belief "clearly and in a positive, helpful way to other Christians". The bishops felt, he said, that "to present this teaching to Christians of other traditions would be to make a significant ecumenical contribution". The document "does not minimise differences and it faces them honestly, but I hope not hurtfully, e.g. on the questions of orders and authority," he said.
The theologian, Father Dermot Lane, who is president of the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin and parish priest of Balally, Co Dublin, said there was a fundamental unity between the major part of the document, which deals with the Catholic theology of the Eucharist, and the norms dealing with sacramental sharing.
One of its main features was the number of times it quoted from agreed statements between the different Christian Churches, he said. These references were "significant and striking, and are an indication of how ecumenically aware and sensitive the document is". It was also ecumenical "in the sense that it agonises over the scandal of disunity . . .", he said. The basic norm governing sacramental sharing was as follows, he said, quoting from Canon Law 844: "Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments only to Catholic members of Christ's faithful, who equally may lawfully receive them only from Catholic ministers." The exceptions followed from that.
He spoke of the necessity for recognition of difference between the churches, "honestly and openly", and said that "it is only then there can be true reconciliation". He said there was a necessity for respect for each other's tradition and "parity of esteem" between the churches.
Bishop Farquhar said that one significant factor in the success of the peace process in the North was that nationalists and unionists did not pretend to each other to be other than what they were. Dr Brady said the Eucharist was central to Catholic identity, and the more people learned to cope with other people's sincerely held views the better for unity within diversity.
