Diocese of Helana and Great Falls

The Eucharistic Sharing Guidelines for the Dioceses of Helena and Great Falls-Billings, Montana, U.S.A., was issued in April 1982, and were originally posted on the diocese's website. It was missed in the modifications of their website. A request has been made to the diocese to once again post those Guidelines. Meanwhile, a subsection of them, referred to in a paper entitled "The Ecumenical Household As Domestic Church? Ecclesial Threat or Pastoral Challenge and Even Resource?" by Dr Bernard Prusak of Villanova University, is posted below. Hopfully the entire document may soon once again be posted.

 “In our time there are significant events in the lives of individual Christians and their families when spontaneous requests to receive the Eucharist are possible. If we consider the high frequency of marriage between Roman Catholics and other baptized Christians, the fact that many of our people are well informed about other Churches, the extensive sacramental preparation programs which require the participation of parents, and the increasingly favorable ecumenical climate in our dioceses, it is very likely that such requests for sharing the Eucharist will be forthcoming on a variety of occasions, for example, when a baptized Christian of another denomination is: a. a parent of a child baptized within the context of a Mass; b. the parent of a child receiving First Communion within the context of Mass; c. the parent of a child receiving First Communion or Confirmation and has taken part of the child's preparation for the sacraments; d. the spouse in a mixed marriage celebrated with a Nuptial Mass; e. attending a funeral of a relative in the Catholic Church; f. confined in a health care facility; g. subject to some form of institutional confinement; h. living in an ecumenical marriage and wants to celebrate in faith a significant event in the marriage. The aforementioned occasions are not mentioned by way of category for which a general regulation is issued. Each particular request must be evaluated on an individual basis”.



[1] Eucharistic Sharing Guidelines for the Dioceses of Helena and Great Falls-Billings, 12.04.1982, available online at http://www.dioceseofgfb.org/userfiles/file/Policies/29_Eucharistic%20Sharing%20Guidelines.pdf; accessed 21.07.2011.

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