VATICAN (Agencies): The National Catholic Register reported on April 4 that a recent proposal by the German Bishops Conference to allow some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion under certain conditions is meeting serious resistance in Germany, as well as opposition from some Church leaders elsewhere.
 
On April 4, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper reported that seven German bishops, among them Rainer Cardinal Woelki of Cologne, issued an urgent appeal to the Vatican in protest against the proposal.

ROME (SE): “I hope that the next declaration opens the way for shared Eucharistic communion in special cases,” Walter Cardinal Kasper said in expressing his hope for ecumenical progress through intercommunion.