Help! A non-Catholic receives the eucharist?

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Mogue_PF

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Hello everyone. There is an awkward situation, if it is not terrified.
A friend introduced me to a person attending the Sunday mass in his church. The church was operating by a monastic community, this person also went to retreats and many other activities organised by the community. It seems he has a very good relationship with the community, maybe because he speaks very good French and the community is a French one. Since we all have Chinese origins so he invited me to join a small prayer group, which my other Chinese Baptist friend also joined. Only after that I learnt all other four members of that group are protestants (while they are not very active).

As I have been in that group for a couple month, it seems to me that HE IS NOT A CATHOLIC. Since, I was a protestant before so I am familiar with the practise of so-called “pray-for-each-other” with a laundry list of things that you want God to do for you and others, yes sometimes Catholics do it too but I have been in the group for a while and he never mention any Catholic devotions like rosary, novena, chaplets, saints, etc. Never once Mary. Plus all the devotion articles he shard in the group are from pastors of the reformed church. At first I thought maybe because it’s hard to find Chinese Catholic devotion materials, so I shared some resources from the John Duns Scotus Bible Reading Promotion Center. While he keeps sharing links of protestant preachers and Bible quotations from protestant bibles (The only Catholic Bible in Chinese is the Scotus Catholic Bible, all other versions are protestant).

Yet those things are all secondary, the main problem is: HE IS RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST BOTH THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD.

Maybe he was baptised and confirmed into the church but slipped away… BUT, what about HE IS NOT A CATHOLIC AT ALL?

I don’t think brothers and sisters of that community will help. I don’t know if they know it or not. It is a very Ecumenical community, their liturgy rite is a “lite-version” of Eastern Orthodox one. They have hosted Ecumenical conference and staged a Lutheran concert singing the “A Mighty Fortress is our God” before the main altar and the Crucifix…icon …(May God forgives me, but you may know which church I’m talking about if I say I’m in Firenze…) Am I the only intolerant over-worrying too-sensitive jerk? But HE IS RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST BOTH THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD! What should I do now?

In the mean time, please pray… Leonie prayers after mass.

IHS <3+MA
 
Mogue_PF said:
Hello everyone. There is an awkward situation, if it is not terrified.
A friend introduced me to a person attending the Sunday mass in his church. The church was operating by a monastic community, this person also went to retreats and many other activities organised by the community. It seems he has a very good relationship with the community, maybe because he speaks very good French and the community is a French one. Since we all have Chinese origins so he invited me to join a small prayer group, which my other Chinese Baptist friend also joined. Only after that I learnt all other four members of that group are protestants (while they are not very active).

As I have been in that group for a couple month, it seems to me that HE IS NOT A CATHOLIC. Since, I was a protestant before so I am familiar with the practise of so-called “pray-for-each-other” with a laundry list of things that you want God to do for you and others, yes sometimes Catholics do it too but I have been in the group for a while and he never mention any Catholic devotions like rosary, novena, chaplets, saints, etc. Never once Mary. Plus all the devotion articles he shard in the group are from pastors of the reformed church. At first I thought maybe because it’s hard to find Chinese Catholic devotion materials, so I shared some resources from the John Duns Scotus Bible Reading Promotion Center. While he keeps sharing links of protestant preachers and Bible quotations from protestant bibles (The only Catholic Bible in Chinese is the Scotus Catholic Bible, all other versions are protestant).

Yet those thins are all secondary, the main problem is: HE IS RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST BOTH THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD.

Maybe he was baptised and confirmed into the church but slipped away… BUT, what about HE IS NOT A CATHOLIC AT ALL?

I don’t think brothers and sisters of that community will help. I don’t know if they know it or not. It is a very Ecumenical community, their liturgy rite is a “lite-version” of Eastern Orthodox one. They have hosted Ecumenical conference and staged a Lutheran concert singing the “A Mighty Fortress is our God” before the main altar and the Crucifix…icon …(May God forgives me, but you may know which church I’m talking about if I say I’m in Firenze…) Am I the only intolerant over-worrying too-sensitive jerk? But HE IS RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST BOTH THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD! What should I do now?

In the mean time, please pray… Leonie prayers after mass.

IHS <3+MA
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Mind your own business.
 
Thank you all for the suggestions, I’ll keep them in mind.
Also may I ask you all to spare a prayer for Chinese Catholics and Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin please? Thank to the Church’s prayers our bishop Joseph Wu Qin-jing was released two years ago, now we have confirmations and ordinations after eight years：）））
Thank you again and God bless.
IHS<3+MA
 
It IS your business…mention it to the celebrant. When out pastor notices new faces, he makes a very neutral, non offensive announcement that you must be catholic to recieve, if you are not you are welcome to come forward for a blessing, just cross your arms…

Last week he found it neccessary to add an announcement that you must say amen prior to recieving, and consume the host immediately, I would love to hear that story…but THAT IS none of my business!
 
Crusaderbear said:
It IS your business…mention it to the celebrant. When out pastor notices new faces, he makes a very neutral, non offensive announcement that you must be catholic to recieve, if you are not you are welcome to come forward for a blessing, just cross your arms…

Last week he found it neccessary to add an announcement that you must say amen prior to recieving, and consume the host immediately, I would love to hear that story…but THAT IS none of my business!
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You certainly do not have to say Amen prior to receiving and I’ve heard a priest say as much.

To the OP, as others have said mind your own business and stop worrying about this person using protestant resources while you are at it. It is unhelpful and divisive.
 
Crusaderbear said:
It IS your business…mention it to the celebrant.
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I think the thrust of the other comments is about the same. It’s not your job to directly confront or enforce the rules. By going to the Priest and letting him handle it in a neutral “professional” way, you were abiding by this approach.
 
peter26 said:
You certainly do not have to say Amen prior to receiving and I’ve heard a priest say as much.

To the OP, as others have said mind your own business and stop worrying about this person using protestant resources while you are at it. It is unhelpful and divisive.
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I thought the problem was a non-catholic receiving the transubstantiated eucharist (holy communion). Only catholics may receive the eucharist! Telling the priest their may be a problem is the least confrontational approach.

I think the amen thing at our church maybe was a personal thing, but something brought on the need to affirm they where catholic!
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
Mind your own business.
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Think of this timeless bit of advice (in today’s terms,) with some huge consequences if one doesn’t take it.

**Ez 3: **
17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life. 20 Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you will have saved your life.”

I show this because one can’t just mind their own business, **when **they see something wrong. Oh they CAN, mind their own business, but it is NOT without consequences. HOLY SMOKES :eek: kinda consequences.

Especially the part that says

“his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.”

When someone’s good deeds aren’t remembered, then they died in mortal sin. That’s a bad outcome for them :coolinoff:

but it’s also not good for the one who remained quiet when they could have said something to correct the error they saw.
 
What as you say he was baptized, but never had the benefit of ‘training’ of Catholic culture and traditions? Also, the prayers for the most part are private prayers and devotions. I know this will promote sparks and may seem a little bit heretical, but the Lord came to be the salvation of all of us, and not just available to those that fit a certain ‘legal’ criteria. I think I would leave it to the Lord to sort out according to His will.
 
Hard for me to see in the OP where there’s evidence that the person isn’t Catholic.

Seems like the whole thing could be clarified with a simple question. “Are you Catholic?”

And it’s also not clear that this is happening in a Catholic church.
 
Mogue_PF said:
Hello everyone. There is an awkward situation, if it is not terrified.
A friend introduced me to a person attending the Sunday mass in his church. The church was operating by a monastic community, this person also went to retreats and many other activities organised by the community. It seems he has a very good relationship with the community, maybe because he speaks very good French and the community is a French one. Since we all have Chinese origins so he invited me to join a small prayer group, which my other Chinese Baptist friend also joined. Only after that I learnt all other four members of that group are protestants (while they are not very active).

As I have been in that group for a couple month, it seems to me that HE IS NOT A CATHOLIC. Since, I was a protestant before so I am familiar with the practise of so-called “pray-for-each-other” with a laundry list of things that you want God to do for you and others, yes sometimes Catholics do it too but I have been in the group for a while and he never mention any Catholic devotions like rosary, novena, chaplets, saints, etc. Never once Mary. Plus all the devotion articles he shard in the group are from pastors of the reformed church. At first I thought maybe because it’s hard to find Chinese Catholic devotion materials, so I shared some resources from the John Duns Scotus Bible Reading Promotion Center. While he keeps sharing links of protestant preachers and Bible quotations from protestant bibles (The only Catholic Bible in Chinese is the Scotus Catholic Bible, all other versions are protestant).

Yet those things are all secondary, the main problem is: HE IS RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST BOTH THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD.

Maybe he was baptised and confirmed into the church but slipped away… BUT, what about HE IS NOT A CATHOLIC AT ALL?

I don’t think brothers and sisters of that community will help. I don’t know if they know it or not. It is a very Ecumenical community, their liturgy rite is a “lite-version” of Eastern Orthodox one. They have hosted Ecumenical conference and staged a Lutheran concert singing the “A Mighty Fortress is our God” before the main altar and the Crucifix…icon …(May God forgives me, but you may know which church I’m talking about if I say I’m in Firenze…) Am I the only intolerant over-worrying too-sensitive jerk? But HE IS RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST BOTH THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD! What should I do now?

In the mean time, please pray… Leonie prayers after mass.

IHS <3+MA
Click to expand...
This is really confusing. You say their liturgy is a “lite” Eastern Orthodox liturgy. Well if that is so, it is not a Catholic liturgy, and no wonder there are no Catholic devotions, Bibles, etc. Thus it is not your business who takes Communion there. And I hope you are attending a Catholic Mass and not this liturgy and taking Communion, because it does not sound like a real Eastern Orthodox Church, and it may or may not have a valid Eucharist. Please explain this further.
 
peter26 said:
You certainly do not have to say Amen prior to receiving and I’ve heard a priest say as much.

Why would you have a problem with "saying Amen?
.
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catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-receive-the-eucharist

That said,

pre Vat II, a paten ( a gold plate) was put under a communicant’s chin, so not even a crumb of the host would fall on the floor. Those patens were all wiped clean into the chalice, at the altar after communion, and the priest would purify the chalice so every particle of the host from the communion pattens, or vessel, that was no to be reserved, was consumed… THAT’s how it was pre Vat II.

Those were the days:shrug:
40.png
peter:
To the OP, as others have said mind your own business and stop worrying about this person using protestant resources while you are at it. It is unhelpful and divisive
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#13
 
steve_b said:
catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-receive-the-eucharist

That said,

pre Vat II, a paten ( a gold plate) was put under a communicant’s chin, so not even a crumb of the host would fall on the floor. Those patens were all wiped clean into the chalice, at the altar after communion, and the priest would purify the chalice so every particle of the host from the communion pattens, or vessel, that was no to be reserved, was consumed… THAT’s how it was pre Vat II.

Those were the days:shrug:

#13
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I guess in my diocese those still are the days. At my parish the patens are used when distributing communion, either on the tongue or in the hand, and the ablutions are done just as they were pre-Vat II. And this is in the ordinary form Mass, not the EF. Patens should still be used as before.
 
on_the_hill said:
Hard for me to see in the OP where there’s evidence that the person isn’t Catholic.

Seems like the whole thing could be clarified with a simple question. “Are you Catholic?”

And it’s also not clear that this is happening in a Catholic church.
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Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

I know many, many Catholics for whom Mass is the only “Catholic” thing they do. The rest of the stuff they do is indistinguishable from other Christians, or even non-Christians. Should it be that way? Well, maybe not, but I’m not persuaded to think that this guy must not be Catholic based on his lack of mentioning specifically Catholic devotional practices.
 
JimG said:
I guess in my diocese those still are the days. At my parish the patens are used when distributing communion, either on the tongue or in the hand, and the ablutions are done just as they were pre-Vat II. And this is in the ordinary form Mass, not the EF. Patens should still be used as before.
Click to expand...
:bowdown2:
 
I’m glad your priest was released. I’m praying for your intentions. Welcome to the forums. God bless you.
 
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