"My Heart Stood Still"

Protestants and Catholics seem as far from reunion as ever. Joint worship is still expressly forbidden by the Church of Rome.* Yet there are times and places in mid-20th Century when the instinct for unity is stronger than the ban. In last fortnight's issue of the Roman Catholic Commonweal, Father Hans A. Reinhold cited recent instances. Outstanding was the report of a young priest among war prisoners in the Soviet Urals:

"My Easter High Mass was the most gripping and solemn service I ever experienced. Sixty Lutheran P.O.W.s from the Bible belt near Bielefeld, Germany, approached me on Holy Saturday night and asked for permission to come to our Catholic liturgy and Holy Communion. My heart stood still for a moment. By questioning them, I found out that all of them believe in the Real Presence,/- that nearly all of them were used to confessing their sins, and all knew how to elicit perfect contrition. All had been baptized . . . by believing Lutheran ministers."

Here Father Reinhold interpolated: "I am sure American Catholics, with their deep sense of the sacredness of law, will find it hard to stomach the next sentence: 'How could I obstruct their genuine desire for Christ the Lord by mere formal objections from Canon Law? We sang our old appropriate hymns. I consecrated the piece of hard and coarse Russian bread and the wine . . . Over 300 Catholics and 80 Evangelical Christians came to the Sacred Banquet. The speaker of the Lutherans thanked me, his voiced drowned in tears of joy. He was a student for the ministry from Eisenach. They would all go back one day and witness that through a Catholic priest the Una Sancta Catholica et Apostolica had once in their lives become living, real truth.' "

* A prohibition reiterated by the Vatican only last month (TIME, July 5). /- Of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine of Holy Communion.

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