It’s just 50 years since I spent several months working in a parish in Germany. When I arrived, Pastor Schneider had various rules and regulations to pass on to me. One concerned workers who were Greek Orthodox. Since few, if any, Orthodox priests were ministering in that part of Germany, it had been officially agreed that Catholic priests should – yes, should and not merely could – make the sacraments available to any Orthodox who wished to confess their sins and receive Holy Communion.The arrangement made me think of the application of “economy”, by which the Orthodox Church can dispense from normal canonical prescriptions and accept the situation of a second marriage. A first marriage is “dead” and cannot be revived; the parties involved have r