WASHINGTON (CNS): The German Bishops’ Conference published the Orientation Guide in the Responsibility of Individual Bishops on June 27 despite Pope Francis asking them this past May not to publish, deeming that the document “has not matured enough to be published (Sunday Examiner, June 10).
 
According to DomRadio, the official news site of the Diocese of Cologne, the guide is the same handout that the bishops’ conference developed in February, but with a different title.
 

VATICAN (CNS/UCAN): “The Holy Father has reached the conclusion that the document has not matured enough to be published,” said a letter signed by Archbishop Luis Ladaria, cardinal-designate and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in which the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Germany was asked not to publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Communion at Mass, but to continue having diocesan bishops judge specific situations.
 

VATICAN (CNS): “Pope Francis appreciates the ecumenical commitment of the German bishops and asks them to find, in a spirit of ecclesial communion, a result as unanimously as possible,” said a statement from the Vatican as the pope called for the bishops of Germany to continue working together to find broader consensus on guidelines for allowing a Protestant married to a Catholic to receive the Eucharist.
 

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.

BERLIN (CNS): The German Bishops’ Conference continues to develop its recent decision to allow non-Catholic spouses in mixed denomination marriages to receive Communion in limited cases.
 
The document, primarily addressed to pastors, contains specific guidance about whether Communion is possible in particular cases for married couples of different Christian denominations.