A Roman Catholic priest led an open communion service at a
packed Lutheran church in Berlin, defying a papal admonition against receiving
communion in non-Catholic churches.
About 2,000 people attended the high-profile event on the sidelines of a German
ecumenical conference.
It was held in the red-brick Gethsemane Church, once a focal point for East
German pro-democracy activists yesterday.
The priest, Gotthold Hasenhuettl, distributed communion wafers among the
worshippers including hundreds who followed the evening service in the
sunshine outside.
In an effort to ensure he faced no pressure from the church hierarchy, lay
church groups that organised the service withheld the identity of the
Austrian-born Hasenhuettl, who is also a professor of theology at the
University of Saarbruecken in western Germany, until today’s service started.
I was a little nervous at the beginning, but I always am nervous before big events,
he told reporters later.
Although he said he could face suspension from celebrating Mass or even
excommunication by the church, he was unapologetic.
What consequences should there be? I didn’t break any rules, he said, adding
that he had not hesitated when approached by the organisers the
Catholic-based We Are Church movement and an ecumenical group, the Church from
Beneath Initiative.
Anyone who divides excludes himself, Hasenhuettl, 69, said during the
service.
There was no immediate response from Germany’s Roman Catholic Church and it was
unclear what disciplinary steps the priest might face.
Earlier yesterday, Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, the archbishop of Berlin, said he
would examine the case if the communion went ahead.
Disturbed by what he sees as abuses of sacred practices, Pope John Paul II in
April issued a stern reminder that services in Protestant churches cannot
substitute for Sunday Mass.
In an encyclical, he branded unthinkable the practice of substituting
obligatory Sunday Mass with celebrations of prayer with other Christians or
participation in their liturgical services.
He said Catholics, while respecting the religious convictions of these
separated brethren, must refrain from receiving the communion distributed in
their celebrations.