In 1995, Pope John Paul wrote his encyclical Ut Unum Sint. He mentioned the joy of being able to give Communion to non-Catholics who (1) greatly desire it, (2) freely ask for it and (3) share the Catholic faith in the Eucharist. Three years later, the bishops of these islands produced their teaching document One Bread, One Body (OBOB). In it they quote this passage from the Pope without realising that it had changed the prevailing law as set out in the “Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism” (1993). The Pope repeated his words of 1995 in his last document on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003). This time he passed over OBOB as well as the directory. This can only mean that the British/Irish document has lost all legal status. In 1996 the