In the first years I was here at Saint Mary’s, I had many more contacts with Roman Catholic clergy than I would come to have as the years passed. Local priests retired; some were assigned to parishes away from the city. Jesuits move. And I was in touch with several Roman Catholic liturgical scholars. So, when on Maundy Thursday 2003, when Pope John Paul II issued what his church calls an “An Encyclical Letter,” its Latin title was Ecclesia de Eucharistia—Church of the Eucharist,[1] I looked forward to reading it.
Read more