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Protests follow Catholic priest's punishment for defying Pope on Eucharist
2003-139D
6/13/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Roman Catholic priest from Bavaria has been prohibited from performing his normal priestly duties or celebrating mass for defying Vatican orders by receiving Eucharist from the hands of a Protestant pastor.
The priest, the Rev. Bernhard Kroll, received the punishment, which is for an undefined period, following a service organized in Berlin at the end of May, to challenge official Vatican rules preventing Protestants and Roman Catholics from sharing the Eucharist, or Holy Communion.
Kroll preached at the service, which included a Protestant Eucharist, and received communion from a Protestant pastor. He has been sent on retreat with a spiritual mentor.
The sanction announced on June 4 led to protests in his parish in Grosshabersdorf, with the church choir and the organist boycotting services and 1000 people forming a kilometer-long human chain, after the following Sunday services, between the village's Catholic and Lutheran churches.
Bishop Walter Mixa of Eichstaett said that Kroll had defied church rules on the Eucharist most recently set down by Pope John Paul II in an encyclical published in April. 'These measures are intended to give Father Kroll the opportunity to reflect and think about how he understands his priesthood,' said Mixa in a statement.
Wir sind Kirche (We are Church), one of the groups that organized the service in Berlin, called on Bishop Mixa to reinstate Kroll. 'Imposing ecclesiastical punishment for accepting eucharistic hospitality in a Protestant service ... is a heavy affront to the ecumenical movement and the Protestant church,' Wir sind Kirche said in a statement.
It is not the first time that a Catholic priest in Germany has faced sanctions because of the Eucharist. In 2000, the Rev. Hermann Munzel was removed from office after celebrating communion with clergy from other denominations during a Catholic congress in Hamburg.
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