gab@mtuxo.att.com (Gabriel Bergamo) (06/22/91)
After my conversion to the Protestant faith I attended the funeral of a close friend of mine in my former Catholic church. The priest saw me before the Mass and came up to me and told me that I couldn't take Communion in his church! When I asked him why he just left with no explaination. Can anyone tell me why not? I am still a Christian and beleive in the same God. This was one of the reasons I converted, a cold indifferent church. In any Protestant church all can take Communion. Another question, why do Catholics beleive that Communion is actually the body of Christ. [Actually there are Protestant churches that practice closed communion. I'll let our Catholic readers respond to the rest of the posting... --clh]
jhpb@garage.att.com (Joseph H Buehler) (06/25/91)
In article <Jun.22.01.41.37.1991.7211@athos.rutgers.edu> gab@mtuxo.att.com (Gabriel Bergamo) writes:
After my conversion to the Protestant faith I attended the funeral of a
close friend of mine in my former Catholic church. The priest saw me before
the Mass and came up to me and told me that I couldn't take Communion in his
church! When I asked him why he just left with no explaination. Can anyone
tell me why not? I am still a Christian and beleive in the same God. This
was one of the reasons I converted, a cold indifferent church. In any
Protestant church all can take Communion. Another question, why do Catholics
beleive that Communion is actually the body of Christ.
Such situations as you were involved in can be difficult to handle, so I
hope you will make allowances.
The point about closed communion is, believe it or not, charity.
Charity does not mean making everyone feel good all the time, it means
helping them to become better. This can involve making someone feel
really rotten sometimes.
In this particular case, I assume that the priest felt he had a duty to
refuse you Communion, to be charitable. Since the Catholic Church
believes herself to be the only one founded by Christ, she normally only
administers her Sacraments to those of her fold. Were she to do
otherwise, she would be acting uncharitably.
Catholics believe that the Eucharist is literally Christ, Body, Blood,
Soul, and Divinity, because that's the traditional Catholic belief.
This belief is called "Mysterium Fidei", the Mystery of Faith, because
it is so inaccessible to human reason.
I sympathize with your feelings about the lack of community in the
Catholic Church at present. The changes in the Church over the last 30
years have caused a lot of problems. I presume that you are young
enough that you never saw the Catholic Church before Vatican II, say in
the 1950's, but it was quite nice. Or so I'm told. I hope it comes
back soon!MNHCC@cunyvm.bitnet (06/27/91)
Gabriel,
The Catholic bishops of the United States require that the
missalettes distributed in Catholic churches include a set of
guidelines on receiving communion, from which I quote: "We
welcome to this celebration of the Eucharist those Christians who
are not fully united with us. It is a consequence of the sad
divisions in Christianity that we cannot extend to them a general
invitation to receive Communion. Catholics believe that the
Eucharist is an action of the celebrating community signifying a
oneness in faith, life, and worship. Reception of the Eucharist
by Christian not fully united with us would imply a oneness which
does not yet exist, and for which we must all pray."
You ask, "why do Catholics believe that Communion is actual-
ly the body of Christ?" Because He said so in John 6:51-58; Matt
26:26-28, etc. Cf. 1 Cor 10:16; 1 Cor 11:23-32
Marty Helgesen