Pope Cracks Door to Lutheran Communion

I guess I understand why Rod feels the way he does about this, but on Saturday I participated in a friend’s funeral, a ceremony in which an ancient Christian rite was lived into by a priest and a congregation who believe not only in the great ecumencal Creeds and conciliar formulae but also in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist — and yet the Catholic and Orthodox attenders of the funeral were forbidden by their own churches to receive the Bread and the Wine. And in that vital respect, though we are united with them by our shared commitment — “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all” — we were at the Lord’s Table itself divided from them. I cannot see this kind of policing of the Eucharist as a commendable form of church discipline. I see it rather as a tragic inability to overcome old resentments and grudges. It makes me weep, and if Pope Francis is grieved by it too, then that gives me at least a little bit of hope for the healing of the broken Body of Christ.