Non-R.C.s receive communion

From a Special Correspondent FIVE non-Catholic obser vers at the second conference of Latin American bishops in Medellin, Colombia, early this month received communion at the Solemn Mass. They received the Eucharist in both kinds with the Catholics.
The observers were Robert Giscard from the Mize Community; Bishop Reed David Benson, an Anglican; Pastor Manfred Rahman representing the Lutheran World Federation; and the Rev. Kurtis Naylor and Rev. Dana Green representing the U.S. National Council of Churches.
They had signed a joint letter to the presidents of the conference expressing their desire to participate in the Mass and Fr. Jorge Mejia, executive secretary of the ecumenical department of the conference gave his oral consent, while recommending discretion.
According to Henri Fesquet, religion editor of the Paris daily Le Monde. this ecumenical event marked "a new stage in inter-communion, encouraging interconfessional celebrations of the Eucharist both in private and in public; heretofore they have been held more or less secretly."