Instruction Concerning Cases When Other Christians May be Admitted to Eucharistic Communion in the Catholic Church [antikvár]

1. The question We are often asked the question: in what circumstances and on what conditions can members of other Churches and ecclesial communities be admitted to eucharistic Communion in the Catholic Church? The question is not a new one. The Second Vatican Council (in the Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis redin-tegratio) and the Directorium oecumenicum dealt with it.1 The pastoral guidance offered here is not intended to change the existing rules but to explain them, bringing out the doctrinal principles on which the rules rest and so making their application easier. 2. The Eucharist and the mystery of the Church There is a close link between the mystery of the Church and the mystery of the Eucharist. a) The Eucharist really contains what is the very foundation of the being and unity of the Church: the body of Christ, offered in sacrifice and given to the faithful as the bread of eternal life. The sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, given to the Church so as to constitute the Church, of its nature carries with it: — the ministerial power which Christ gave to His apostles and to their successors, the bishops along with the priests, to make effective sacramentally His own priestly act—that act by which once and forever He offered Himself to the Father in the Holy Spirit, and gave Himself to His faithful that they might be one in Him; 51