180 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT is, that's the only thing that I remember from the last... twenty years here, like this.417 When traveling, too, the situation and the expected impact determine whether or not the Catholic brothers partake of a Eucharist in non-Catholic Eucharistic celebrations. TB adds that the prior, Brother Alois, is especially careful with this. In TB’s understanding, these instances of not-sharing are not motivated by an unwillingness to partake or by confessional or ecclesiological reservations; rather, they depend on the likelihood that the actions of the community could be misinterpreted by witnesses, and, as a consequence, stir up controversy. It does not seem to bother Brother TB that, occasionally, he is unable to communicate together with his brothers, as long as the default situation is one of sharing the Eucharist within the community: It, it doesn't bother me, no. Because it's... uh... ... ... no, no {laughs}. Because, then we are here again, together... (…) And that's why, to your question, when we cannot be together for some reason and certain circumstances, uh... ... {laughs} for me, why should I bother? We go on later....418 Brother BF, too, speaks of avoiding scandal by abstaining from receiving Communion in certain circumstances. About his presence at the Anglican Lambeth Conference, he says: I was with them for all the meal, the final prayer in the evening, and I could not share the, the Eucharist… … because of a sort of faithfulness to my church. I mean, I personally, if I were there as a tourist, or when I am in London as a tourist and nobody knows me, I don’t mind if it’s a Roman Catholic church or an Anglican one. And if it’s a, a service with the Holy Communion, I communicate, no problem. But, there is the problem of the scandal, there is the problem of the consequences of your decision….419 Despite the usual practice of Eucharistic hospitality towards all members of the Bose community today, the non-Catholic members sometimes choose not to partake. BF attests that the community’s current practice, which takes place with the consent of the local Roman Catholic bishop, is more or less in line with the rules for dispensation formulated in the Code of Canon Law. However, one additional precondition is added implicitly: scandal has to be avoided. BF says: 417 TB-2,26. 418 TB-2,28. 419 BF-1,24.
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