|
Rules On Receiving Communion
It is frequently asked whether
non-Catholics can receive Communion at a Catholic Mass. Quite often this comes
up in the context of family events - weddings, baptisms, funerals - situations
which put a great deal of pressure on families and Eucharistic ministers,
Ordinary and Extraordinary, to allow it. As a result it happens quite frequently
that Communion ministers believe themselves authorized to extend Eucharistic
hospitality, either for the sake of kindness or a genuine sense of unity among
the members of the Congregation. While such motives are admirable, the result
nonetheless falsifies the sacramental meaning of the Eucharist as both a sign of
communion with Christ and communion with the Catholic Church.
In order to safeguard the sacrament,
and to ensure that Christ is received with the proper dispositions (something
very important for the authentic good of the person receiving Him), the Church
has enacted certain norms for determining those occasions when intercommunion is
legitimate. In the 1983 Code of Canon Law the following is prescribed:
Canon 844 (c.671 in the Code of
Canons of the Eastern Churches)
1. Catholic ministers may licitly
administer the sacraments to Catholic members of the Christian faithful only
and, likewise, the latter may licitly receive the sacraments only from
Catholic ministers with due regard for parts 2, 3, and 4 of this canon, and
can. 861, part 2.
2. Whenever necessity requires or
genuine spiritual advantage suggests, and provided that the danger of error or
indifferentism is avoided, it is lawful for the faithful for whom it is
physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, to receive
the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from
non-Catholic ministers in whose churches these sacraments are valid.
3. Catholic ministers may licitly
administer the sacraments of penance, Eucharist and anointing of the sick to
members of the oriental churches which do not have full communion with the
Catholic Church, if they ask on their own for the sacraments and are properly
disposed. This holds also for members of other churches, which in the judgment
of the Apostolic See are in the same condition as the oriental churches as far
as these sacraments are concerned.
4. If the danger of death is present
or other grave necessity, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or the
conference of bishops, Catholic ministers may licitly administer these
sacraments to other Christians who do not have full communion with the
Catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and on
their own ask for it, provided they manifest Catholic faith in these
sacraments and are properly disposed.
5. For the cases in parts 2, 3, and
4, neither the diocesan bishop nor the conference of bishops is to enact
general norms except after consultation with at least the local competent
authority of the interested non-Catholic Church or community.
In keeping with the sacramental
meaning of the Eucharist this canon reserves the sacraments to Catholics, that
is, those who are in communion with the Church. It then addresses the question
of Catholics receiving the sacraments from non-Catholics. It sets the
following strict conditions:
a. necessity or genuine spiritual
advantage
b. when the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided
c. it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister
d. a church which has valid sacraments
This last condition is the key one,
since it eliminates ALL the Reformation churches (Anglican, Episcopalian,
Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist etc.), none of whom have valid sacred orders,
and therefore, a valid Eucharist. The possibility of a Catholic receiving from
the minister of another church, when the first three conditions are fulfilled,
is limited to the Orthodox Churches, other Oriental Churches, Old Catholics,
Polish National and others whose sacraments are | 
