The head of the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, on Sunday rejected criticism by President Johannes Rau over the suspension of a Roman Catholic priest for celebrating holy communion with non-Catholics.
Cardinal Lehmann told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa he had no understanding for the criticism from Rau on German television Friday, a day after the suspension of Father Gotthold Hasenhuettl of Saarbruecken by Trier Diocese Bishop Reinhard Marx.
Hasenhuettl, 69, took part with Protestant and Orthodox clergymen in an inter-denominational communion service at Berlin's Gethsemane Church on May 29 which drew some 2,000 worshippers during the ecumenical congress in the city.
Rau said the congress had been a sign from young people in particular that institutions change. The suspension of the priest was "all the more terrible" in the light of this, he said.
Lehmann said he and the other German bishops were "very amazed" at Raus remarks.
The Bishops' Conference would have welcomed an understanding with Hasenhuettl, but the priest himself had provoked the controversy and was responsible for the suspension, Lehmann said.
"If someone breaks the rules in this manner despite repeated urgent requests and warnings then it cannot remain without consequences," he said.
The Trier bishop, in announcing his decision Thursday, said it had been "painful" for him to suspend the priest, but that Hasenhuettl had left him "no other choice" because he had ignored a Wednesday deadline for apologising and promising never to repeat the offence.
"He still has the option of repenting and having the entire thing forgiven and forgotten," Marx said.
The suspension was based on Pope John Paul II's 14th Encyclical, issued only weeks before the controversial communion service, in which the pontiff reaffirmed that non-Catholics are not permitted to receive holy communion from ordained Catholic priests.
"The holy father's stand on the issue is quite clear," Bishop Marx said. "I had no other choice in this matter."