32 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION ecclesiological paradigm includes the nuanced self-identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Church of Christ as discussed in section 1.1 and the acknowledgement of “elements of sanctification and of truth” 74 in other Christian churches and ecclesial communities. Thanks to this shift, every baptized Christian is now seen as being in communion with the Roman Catholic Church to a certain extent. In consequence, they can exercise the right to receive the sacraments as described in canons 213 and 843 §1 CIC/1983, Wijlens argues. Canon 844 merely lists some conditions to which non-Catholic baptized are subject.75 This is an important change of attitude towards individual nonCatholic Christians with great ecumenical significance and potential but does not take away the hesitance of the Roman Catholic Church to employ Eucharistic hospitality intentionally to promote the restoration of full, visible ecclesial communion. Instead, rather than encouraging Eucharistic sharing in ecumenical contexts, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church stress that spiritual ecumenism should not be limited to the Eucharist and that many other kinds of liturgy can be celebrated in ecumenical contexts. Nonetheless, the question of Eucharistic hospitality as part of ecumenical rapprochement is often entertained – by Roman Catholic as well as non-Catholic faithful and theologians.76 The attitude of listening to and learning from practical experience is also advocated by Peter Philips when he addresses the question of Eucharistic hospitality in the first volume on receptive ecumenism: “If we take the authority of experience as our starting-point we are sometimes led to a different conclusion about what is happening than that achieved by the rigorous application of carefully honed a prohibition, cf. Myriam Wijlens, “Eucharistiegemeinschaft mit anderen Christen. Vom Verbot mit Ausnahmen zur Erlaubnis unter Bedingungen als Folge vertiefter ekklesiologischer Einsichten,” in Iustum. Festschrift für Helmuth Pree zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Elmar Güthoff and Stephan Haering, Kanonistische Studien und Texte 65 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2015), 627. Other theologians refer to the starting point expressed in canon 844§1 CIC/1983 as a prohibition, cf. Jeffrey Vanderwilt, “Eucharistic Sharing: Revising the Question,” Theological Studies 63, no. 6 (2002): 828; Dutch canonist Ton Meijers speaks of “not allowed” and “exceptions” (“niet toegestaan” and “uitzonderingen” in Dutch), Ton Meijers, Compendium van het katholiek canoniek recht. Deel II: Verkondiging en sacramenten. (Nijmegen: Valkhof Pers, 2017), 90. 74 LG, sec. 8. 75 Wijlens, “Interchurch Marriages,” 264–65. 76 Several of these contributions will be discussed in section 1.5.
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