Bernard Longley, the Archbishop of Birmingham, has recently said he could foresee a “reconsideration” of the rules on giving Communion to non-Catholic Christians. So what might have encouraged the co-chairman of Arcic (the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) to speak out?
Days before he made the remarks, the archbishop attended a conference at Liverpool Hope University exploring how Christian denominations can work together for the common good. It is understood that after he celebrated Mass, a number of participants pressed him as to why baptised non-Catholics could not receive Communion despite the fact that the Mass took place during an ecumenical gathering.
The archbishop is believed to have taken on board their concerns and suggested that such a question ne
19 October 2013, The Tablet
Encouraged to speak up
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User Comments (3)
I am with you Denis. Unlike the USA, we in the UK put our resources into education over the last century. We are now reaping the fruits - or lack of them. We need to put our resources into the parish or more revolutionary the family. That is why the Pope's Synod is so exciting. A new model is emerging.
AJR, I agree entirely with the very perceptive points that you make. I wonder though if it is now time to accept that a great many Catholic schools are Catholic in name only. Perhaps for the sake of honesty we should hand these schools over to the state and re evaluate what Catholic education really means.
From my many years experience as a trained RE specialist in two large English comprehensives (London and Durham) and one Welsh comprehensive, and several years as HMI, the majority of 'non-Catholic' (shorthand) parents I interviewed wanted good discipline, good teaching and good examination results for their children. They regarded Catholic schools as having thee because of their seemingly more selective (read 'middle class' or 'well behaved') intake. As to religion, many really didn't want it but only hesitantly admitted it, being prepared reluctantly to accept it to get their child in for those other qualities.The presence of these pupils in increasingly larger numbers often created a subtle anti-religion or indifference to religion ethos in the school which, over time, undermined the faith commitment of Catholic pupils at an impressionable age. Its hard to feel that going to Sunday Mass is important when you are the only one in the class who still goes!