Eucharistic Primacy of the Universal Church: The College of Bishops Makes the Eucharist, The Eucharist Makes the Universal Church

ABSTRACT:In its Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states that the universal Church is ontologically and temporally prior to the local church. This declaration began a well-known debate between Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper. This article does not adjudicate the Ratzinger/Kasper matter, but it proposes that their debate can be advanced with analyses of Henri de Lubac's famous proclamations that "the Eucharist makes the Church" and "the Church makes the Eucharist." It concludes that the universal Church maintains Eucharistic primacy and is prior to the local church.