Q: Recently I read a review of Matthew Tennant from University of Oxford of your book When Other Christian Become Catholic, and I must admit I haven’t read the book yet.
From what I was reading it’s a very interesting book and I will for sure will get a copy of it.
I belong to the “Assyrian church of the east” and for my knowledge our church have a dialog with the Catholic church and often I come cross a word “full-communion” and I tried to figure out (from the Catholic literature) what it means to be Full-communion with Catholic Church. I would be very thankful if you explain to me what Full-Communion with Catholic Church means.
Thanks in advance.
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A: Thank you for your comments on my work.
The word “fullness” is related to a point in Lumen Gentium 8 §2, cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 816. It maintains that the sole Church of Christ “subsists in the Catholic Church.” When a validly baptized Christian in another denomination becomes Catholic, we celebrate the Rite of Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church. It is not full communion “with” the Catholic Church, as if there were more than one communion. Rather, the person is received into the full communion, which exists in the Catholic Church.