Eucharist in a Church not in Communion with Rome?

[adamhovey1988]

Hello, I was having a discussion with a friend of mine, who is a convert. He said that he received Communion in an Old Catholic Church (his son being an Old Catholic priest). He told me he got two different answers from two different priests. My advice to him was unless it was a case of necessity that he should never receive in a Non-Catholic community, and even then only under extraordinary circumstances. I told him that even the OCC has a valid Eucharist, he still went to Mass that same morning, he is not incapable of going to the local parish church, and that it was more about obedience than anything else. I gave him precedent where I was told I could receive communion in a Syriac Orthodox Church, but did not because I felt to do so without a valid reason would be an act of schism. He feels like it’s insulting to his son if he does not receive at his son’s church. Am I wrong in what I have stated? Is there anything else I can tell him? Thank you!

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

You are correct.

Canon 844 §2. Whenever necessity requires it or true spiritual advantage suggests it, and provided that danger of error or of indifferentism is avoided, the Christian faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister are permitted to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid.

Reception of sacraments in a Church not in communion with the Catholic Church should only happen when a Catholic is truly impeded from receiving them in the Catholic Church. The reason for this is that these groups broke away from the Catholic Church because they do not believe what we believe.