The president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity explained the policy of the Catholic Church regarding sharing Communion with Protestants, at a press conference during the visit by Pope Francis to Sweden. The Pope and Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan, the president of the Lutheran World Federation, had signed a joint statement pledging their efforts to restore full communion between Catholics and Lutherans, but did not suggest any immediate change to existing policies.

Cardinal Kurt Koch explained that sharing Communion is a sign of full unity among Christians—a unity that Catholics and Lutherans have not achieved. He said that on some special occasions, such as a marriage ceremony uniting a Catholic and a Lutheran, the non-Catholic party might receive the Eucharist. But this, he said, would be a case of “Eucharistic hospitality” rather than “Eucharistic communion.” Eucharistic hospitality, he said, is offered in individual cases, and it would be “very difficult to give a universal declaration because the pastoral situations are very different.”

In their joint statement, Pope Francis and Bishop Younan spoke of the pain suffered by married couples who do not share the same faith, and consequently do not regularly share Communion. However they did not offer a solution to that problem.