Jimmy Akin on Francis...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"...on Lutherans and Communion.\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self. I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jimmy Akin on Francis...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"...on Lutherans and Communion.\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self. I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-23T07:18:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-22T07:38:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html\",\"name\":\"Jimmy Akin on Francis...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-23T07:18:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-22T07:38:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"...on Lutherans and Communion.\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self. I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jimmy Akin on Francis…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jimmy Akin on Francis...","description":"...on Lutherans and Communion.\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self. I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jimmy Akin on Francis...","og_description":"...on Lutherans and Communion.\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self. I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2015-11-23T07:18:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-11-22T07:38:16+00:00","author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html","name":"Jimmy Akin on Francis...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-23T07:18:47+00:00","dateModified":"2015-11-22T07:38:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"...on Lutherans and Communion.\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self. I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jimmy Akin on Francis…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":94981,"date":"2015-11-23T00:18:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T07:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=94981"},"modified":"2015-11-22T00:38:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T07:38:16","slug":"jimmy-akin-on-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/jimmy-akin-on-francis.html","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Akin on Francis…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2026on Lutherans and Communion.<\/a>\u00a0Jimmy is his typically lucid self.<\/p>\n

I think Francis is struggling with this. As did Benedict. \u00a0Benedict, recall, gave communion to Br. Roger of Taize, who was not a Catholic.<\/p>\n

I realize this is all cut-and-dried for a lot of Catholics, but I think it is a real source of anguish for not a few of the Church\u2019s members, including two popes at least. \u00a0 For my part, I go with the present discipline of the Church and would counsel anybody not in full communion with the Church to do the same.<\/a>\u00a0But I also realize this is precisely one of those pastoral questions that actual pastors are really struggling with and that plump suburbanites like me have no business speaking of blithely. I have no dog in this fight. \u00a0But our bishops and pope\u2013unlucky souls\u2013have to figure out a way to navigate the problem. \u00a0My very strong suspicion is that, privately, bishops and priests do like Benedict did with Br. Roger on a fairly regular basis. \u00a0I know this makes those who see the faith as a System of Rules very nervous. But my sense has always been that our shepherds tend to take a much more \u00a0loose, easygoing Mediterranean attitude to such rules if they think it appropriate. \u00a0After all, the law was made for man, not man for the law.<\/p>\n

So I mostly thank God that it\u2019s not my problem and not my office to parse. \u00a0I have no idea how any of that will play out, nor do I have a big interest in in how it will play out. \u00a0My own guess is that nothing will change much, since the logic of the Church\u2019s position is really quite sound. But logic doesn\u2019t necessary quiet the heart so\u00a0I, for one, find it hard to get very upset about Benedict giving communion to an obvious old saint like Br. Roger. \u00a0I basically just say, \u201cGod, it was *you* who gave some to be bishops, not me. So I\u2019m gonna trust that you will guide them and I\u2019m not gonna worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"