Priest gets red card

2003-07-17 16:08

Trier, Germany - A German Roman Catholic priest was suspended Thursday for defying church law by holding a joint communion service with Protestants during an ecumenical festival in Berlin in May.

The bishop of the western city of Trier, Reinhard Marx, decided to temporarily bar Gotthold Hasenhuettl, a priest and theology professor at the University of Saarbruecken, from both his posts for the infraction.

Hasenhuettl, who has denied that the joint communion service violated church law, immediately appealed the decision, which he said he was informed of by fax.

He accused the bishop of using "Inquisition methods" in his case.

He threatened to take his complaint to the Vatican if Marx did not reverse his decision within two weeks.

"That will delay the suspension," Hasenhuettl told AFP.

Hasenhuettl served the ritual wafers and wine to both Catholics and Protestants at a packed Lutheran church in east Berlin in May, despite an admonition by Pope John Paul II in mid-April.

Some 2 000 worshippers joined the service at the Gethsemane Church, in a gesture aimed at fostering Christian unity.

Marx said that his decision had been "painful" but that he was bound by church law. He hoped Hasenhuettl would acquiesce and accept the ban on joint communions.

Another Catholic priest who had joined the Berlin communion service, Bernhard Kroll, was suspended in early June.

While Catholics believe that bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ during Communion, Protestants see the ritual as symbolic.

Protestant churches do not bar Catholics from their communion ceremonies.

- AFX