As a newly wed. to a Protestant husband I have a lot of questions. I was baptized Roman Catholic and have completed everything except confirmation, I was only able to attend Catholic school for the first 8 years of my life and since I am part of a US military family we moved frequently (needless to say I missed out on a lot of Catholic teaching). I managed to attend a Catholic university…I am now 30 a newly wed and about to graduate from a Catholic graduate school. Since we want to have children soon I am looking into learning more about my faith and completing my confirmation. My husband (from a Protestant family) has completed the Catholic counseling with me prior to our marriage and has agreed that the children will be Catholic. Since we picked out a Catholic church we are unsure about communion. He partakes in the communion at his parents Protestant ceremony since he was a child, is it wrong for him to partake in a Catholic mass with me? As of right now he’s on the fence about converting and he knows how important it is for me to remain Catholic and I don’t want to push him, all in good time. He is already attending a new Catholic church with me and for our honeymoon we had mass at the Vatican – it was beautiful. Anyway, from what I read, the Catholic church doesn’t seem to be as open to him doing it without making a firm choice to be Catholic now and complete the necessary requirements. I love my religion but at the same time it seems that it’s solid unity is both a plus and a minus at times. I’ve been to his Protestant ceremony and his reverend welcomed all who are Christians to partake. Do Catholic churches ever allow this?
Best wishes on your marriage.
As a Catholic, you may not participate in communion at a protestant church. And protestants may not participate in communion in a Catholic Church. Not because those protestants are ‘inferior’ but because their communion is not the Real Presence, and for you to ‘accept’ it would show that you consider it an ‘equivalent’ to Catholic communion. Also, by your acceptance you would be saying that you ‘agreed’ to ALL THEIR TEACHINGS (this is what is implicit in acceptance of communion–which is literally, to be IN UNION).
This is also the reason that protestants may not accept communion in a Catholic Church.
It is not a question of ‘welcoming’. We are all Christians, we welcome people. . .but it is a question of prudent care to the souls of those Christians.
IF we were to permit protestants to ‘take’ communion with us, we would be saying not just that they need not ‘believe’ as we do in order to be ‘in union’, we would be permitting them to take the Body and Blood of Our Lord who is truly present (NOT just a symbol) into their bodies, even though they refused to accept Him as being present. IOW, they would be implicitly LYING if they received Him yet rejected the idea that He was present in the Eucharist, and we would be accepting their lying as being right and just. They would be sinning in their rejection of Him while presuming to 'take a symbol", we would be sinning in permitting this.
Likewise if we take THEIR 'communion, we say, “I believe that this symbol is all that communion is supposed to be.” That would be gravely wrong! The Eucharist, the True Eucharist, is NOT 'just a symbol!
So you and your hubby need to explore the Catholic faith very carefully. If possible, try to do so without the automatic knee-jerk reaction of "It seems like it is REJECTING people’ and try to look at it instead as “even though it ‘seems’ unwelcoming, it is actually trying to protect people which is a loving and good thing to do.”
I mean, imagine a young man who was, let’s say, drunk, and was asking you for his car keys. You wouldn’t let him drive, right? Even if he cried and begged and scolded you for not CARING enough to let him do as he wished, right? You wouldn’t mind being seen as a mean old thing because the important thing was not that he felt all ‘deprived’, but in keeping him from hurting himself and others, right?
Peace, Carlan