I’ve been looking for what the Catholic Church teaching on those with medical conditions are. Can they receive the Eucharist? What is their place in this world? How are we, as Catholics, suppose to treat them and behave around them? And why did God make them this way?
I’m looking for info within the Catechism or the Bible on this. I want hard proof from one of these sources, or from a wise Saint.
-Karl
The Magisterium nor the great teachers of the Church address every conceivable situation and they don’t need to do so. The Catholic Church is Socratic, meaning that it operates out of principles and uses systems to apply those principles. What the individual needs to do is to learn the principles and use the Aristotelian method to apply the principles. There are times when by necessity the Church has to speak on a specific subject, but that is the minority, not the majority of the time. If you examine the CCC and the writings of the teachers of the Church, they have more principles than direct address of any particular issue. So let’s look at some of them.
- The first and most important principle Christian morality is the fact that every human being has an inalienable right to live given to him by the Creator. This includes people with a disability, be it developmental or acquired after birth.
- The second principle that follows is that everything was created through the Eternal Logos and everything was created for Him. The word everything, includes people with disabilities.
Now we have established two truths.
a. They have an inalienable right to life.
b. They were created through the Eternal Logos and for the Eternal Logos
Revelation does not tell us that they have to have the same abilities as everyone else. That’s not a requirement for the right to life. Obviously, they would not be alive were it not for the Eternal Logos.
- Sacred Scripture tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But where did he dwell? He dwelt among the voiceless
By deduction we can conclude that the voiceless also had a place in God’s redemptive plan. There was never a doubt that the strong and faithful had a place. But the disabled were often excluded. They still are, in many societies. Christ makes his dwelling among them. Most of his miracles involve people with disabilities. People with disabilities play a significant role in Christ’s ministry. “So that you may know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, I say to you, ‘Pick up your bed and walk’.” Through the disabled God reveals his eternal mercy.
- Your next question is about the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The principle in Canon Law for the Latin Church is that any baptized Catholic who can distinguish between bread and the Body of Christ is to be admitted to Holy Communion. The Canon Law for the Eastern Churches does not require that the individual be able to recognize the difference between bread and the body of Christ. Therefore, Eastern Catholics receive first Holy Communion with Baptism and Chrismation within the first month of life.
If we apply the principles, let’s see what we get.
a. If the individual is Latin Catholic, he has to distinguish between ordinary bread and the Eucharist. He need not know how to explain it. He just needs to say, "That is Jesus.
b. If the individual is Eastern Catholic, he need not be able to distinguish it at all, because he receives Holy Communion from the time that he’s born and continues to do so for the rest of his life This was instituted by the Apostles.
We simply apply the appropriate principle, depending on whether the person is Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.
Why does go make people with disabilities? Let’s go to the next philosophical principle.
- God created nature and gave it laws. Like everything he created, he gave it freedom to evolve. Nature evolves, it does not make choices, since nature is not a person. with a soul and will.
- Through the sin of Adam, the balance that God built into the universe was disrupted. There is a ripple effect to sin that even influences nature. At times nature does not follow its laws and an exceptional human being is born. This is a human being with either a disability or a gift that others don’t have. Remember, in the area of exceptiionallities there are two extremes, the person with disabilities and the person with no so common gifts, such as savants.
- The Jews asked Jesus if the man with a disability was born that way because of his sin or the sins of his father. Jesus response that the answer was neither. He was born that way that the glory of God may be made known. Here again, Jesus points to the place of the disabled in our world
If we take this principle, that the glory of God is made known through the disabled, along with the wonders of the universe, Jesus raises the dignity of the disabled.
If we observe Jesus interaction with the disabled we will see the next principle. How should we Catholics deal with them.
- Jesus forgave them their sins and then healed them. In other words, he was compassionate, merciful, kind and respectful of them. He brought them into the community. They were no longer outcasts.
- In Evangelium Vitae, Bl. John Paul reminds us that people with disabilities retain their human dignity. They do not lose the right to belong to the Church and the world community.
This is what Hitler, Stalin, Mao,Margaret Sanger and the Pro Choice movement have believed, because they believe that human dignity can be regulated by men. Human dignity is given to us by the Incarnation. The Father vested his son in human nature, because human dignity was the crown jewel of his creation. Therefore, through the Incarnation, human dignity is restored to its rightful place in the world.
