Baptism and the Eucharist in the Teaching of the Council of Trent and of the Contemporary „Catechism of the Catholic Church”

Andrzej Adam Napiórkowski

Abstract

An ecclesiastical role of the two Sacraments, namely Baptism and Eucharist, has been presented with an ecumenical sensitivity in the perspective of Catholic and Protestant theology. The presentation of the Church and the Sacraments in the Medieval Catholic theology is the starting point of these considerations. Then we have sketched the discrepancies between the Roman theology in force at that time, and the postulates of the reformers in the XV and XVI century’s tendencies for the renewal of the whole Church. The next part of the article focuses on the perspective of the Church and its connections with Baptism and the Eucharist in the original Lutheran doctrine. Further analysis is a presentation of the modern approaches of these connections in both Catholic and Protestant perspectives. The synthesis for this study is the common Baptismal and Eucharistic elements, which make up the ecclesiastical reality, despite of Sacramental differences in their understanding. Baptism and Eucharist make ecclesial unity. Thanks to this theoretical and theological reflection there is a clearer view of pastoral and practical possibilities of brining those two traditions of the divided Christianity of the West (Roman/Lutheran) closer.