Is this a mortal sin?

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belange

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I am a new Catholic along with my 10 year old granddaughter. We both came into the church in 2014. Previously, we were both Methodists.
For the past 5 years we have been attending a week long summer “camp” for grandparents and grandchildren sponsored by the Methodist church. It is a Bible school-type format. We enjoy it very much. As far as I can tell, the material has never been contrary to the Catholic church, but focuses on Jesus and what we can do for others.
This year at the end of the week, there was a visiting minister from England. She held a worship service that included communion. I did not know this was going to happen and had to make a quick decision. There were only about 35 people total so I didn’t have much time to think. My granddaughter even asked me if we could do this. I had many thoughts such as: we could just go up for a blessing, we could stay in our seats and be very obvious, or we could go up because it wasn’t the “real” Eucharist and then my granddaughter’s friends wouldn’t question her as to why she didn’t take communion. Well, I took the easy way out and we went up and received communion. Since then, the more I think about it and read to try and find answers, the more I am coming to the realization that we shouldn’t have done it. I also feel like I have led my granddaughter “astray”.
I have tried to get to confession, but my first chance I waited and waited for the priest and he never came, even though it was within the posted confession times. I will try again this weekend.
Did I commit a mortal sin?
Thank you
 
Well, I do not know your exact mindset at the time, so I cannot necessarily say whether or not it was a mortal sin. Remember, in order for something to be a mortal sin, there has to be grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent of the will. Now, you know very well that Jesus is truly in the Blessed Sacrament through consecration in the Catholic Church alone and that, in partaking of “communion” with the Methodists, you were just eating bread and not keeping true to the Truth of the Real Presence in the Catholic Eucharist. Thus, is was definitely something you should not have done, you should never do again, and you should definitely confess in your next Confession.

But don’t worry, Jesus loves you and is ready to forgive you if you’re willing for Him to and are contrite!

May God bless you abundantly and forever and show you His Mercy and Love! 🙂
 
I think, in all frankness, that we live in an era of weak catechesis and almost unbridled ecumenism, and I often wonder if many folks in your situation genuinely can be said to have sufficient knowledge of the gravity of attending Protestant worship services and doing things like “receiving communion” there.

However, I would also argue that Catholics *should *make an effort to understand what the Church teaches, at least to the extent that their state in life demands; and that it’s at the very least imprudent to go to Protestant services without thinking about whether or not there’s a Church teaching that relates to that. Depending on circumstances, there might even be a certain negligence there.

On an objective level, any time someone puts forward as true something that is actually a falsity, especially with regard to God, that action is offensive to Him. They may or they may not have culpability! God may or may not judge that they are doing this willfully! But! the action *itself *is sinful.

Doing things like “pretending” to offer Holy Communion, when its actually nothing of the sort, is objectively sinful. Doing things like teaching heresies as truth is objectively sinful. Offering a type of worship to God that is rooted in heresies, and which puts forth heresies, is objectively sinful. Someone who should know better, if they engage in these things, are certainly more *likely *to be culpable of sinning than someone who has no way of knowing better.

So the questions for reflection could be: did you know better, and did you go against your conscience? Could and should you have known better? Were you negligent in figuring out the correct course of action? Did you think the Church taught something different, and were you acting in good conscience based on this?

These things can help you to analyze your personal culpability: but if I were you, I would certainly go to Confession, especially if I wasn’t sure about my state of grace. There’s certainly something here to be at least somewhat concerned about.

… and as an aside, I really would encourage you to try to find at least a conservative Catholic Bible study to attend. I understand that, given even some of the views of the modern Pontifical Biblical Commission, it can be hard to find Catholic Bible materials that don’t, in a certain sense, undermine one’s faith. But going to the Protestants is not the answer. We have a moral duty to protect our Catholic faith, and not to expose ourselves to material which is contrary to it. Even if you think you see nothing wrong, nonetheless, we see the results of this: you’re now concerned for the state of your soul based on going to these people for theological training, and the consequent worship services you’ve attended.

We need to put our faith first. Not our feelings, and not the things that are fun or give us a good time. Our faith. And we need to stop going to other religions for the things we think we lack in our parishes. Fix the parish, help to make it actually Catholic. Don’t go to people to learn their teachings when, objectively speaking, they will only be saved by invincible ignorance.
 
Receiving protestant communion is a grave matter, which is one of the criteria to constitute a mortal sin (the other being full knowledge and consent). It would seem you did not commit mortal sin, but if I were in your shoes, I would Confess what I did either way for my own peace of mind, happiness, and to be strengthened in the future when encountering these social pressure situations. You will be able to look to the future and leave what happened utterly and completely in the forgotten past. Jesus has no recollection of a sin that is confessed. Confession is a bulwark against every evil. As Catholics, we must be willing to sacrifice for the sake of what we love, and this can and will mean social anxiety at times.

The reason receiving protestant communion is a grave matter is because we believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, which is an incomprehensibly wonderful grace to be able to receive him, and more than that, in the act of receiving communion, you are making a statement, which is: “I submit to everything the Catholic Church teaches”. This is why we say “Amen”, which in English means “So be it”. In the act of receiving protestant communion, you are receiving a counterfeit of the Eucharist, and you are also making a statement: “I submit to everything that these people teach”. Of course, as a result of incomplete catechizing that doesn’t seem to be the case with you, but now you hopefully understand why receiving protestant communion as a Catholic is out of the question under any circumstances.

Welcome to the Church 🙂 It’s wonderful to be home.
 
belange said:
I am a new Catholic along with my 10 year old granddaughter. We both came into the church in 2014. Previously, we were both Methodists.
For the past 5 years we have been attending a week long summer “camp” for grandparents and grandchildren sponsored by the Methodist church. It is a Bible school-type format. We enjoy it very much. As far as I can tell, the material has never been contrary to the Catholic church, but focuses on Jesus and what we can do for others.
This year at the end of the week, there was a visiting minister from England. She held a worship service that included communion. I did not know this was going to happen and had to make a quick decision. There were only about 35 people total so I didn’t have much time to think. My granddaughter even asked me if we could do this. I had many thoughts such as: we could just go up for a blessing, we could stay in our seats and be very obvious, or we could go up because it wasn’t the “real” Eucharist and then my granddaughter’s friends wouldn’t question her as to why she didn’t take communion. Well, I took the easy way out and we went up and received communion. Since then, the more I think about it and read to try and find answers, the more I am coming to the realization that we shouldn’t have done it. I also feel like I have led my granddaughter “astray”.
I have tried to get to confession, but my first chance I waited and waited for the priest and he never came, even though it was within the posted confession times. I will try again this weekend.
Did I commit a mortal sin?
Thank you
Click to expand...
We don’t know if you met conditions 2 and 3 for mortal sin, but condition 1, grave matter was there. On that ground alone, I would say bring it to confession, because objectively speaking, it’s a serious sin.
 
belange said:
I am a new Catholic along with my 10 year old granddaughter. We both came into the church in 2014. Previously, we were both Methodists.
For the past 5 years we have been attending a week long summer “camp” for grandparents and grandchildren sponsored by the Methodist church. It is a Bible school-type format. We enjoy it very much. As far as I can tell, the material has never been contrary to the Catholic church, but focuses on Jesus and what we can do for others.
This year at the end of the week, there was a visiting minister from England. She held a worship service that included communion. I did not know this was going to happen and had to make a quick decision. There were only about 35 people total so I didn’t have much time to think. My granddaughter even asked me if we could do this. I had many thoughts such as: we could just go up for a blessing, we could stay in our seats and be very obvious, or we could go up because it wasn’t the “real” Eucharist and then my granddaughter’s friends wouldn’t question her as to why she didn’t take communion. Well, I took the easy way out and we went up and received communion. Since then, the more I think about it and read to try and find answers, the more I am coming to the realization that we shouldn’t have done it. I also feel like I have led my granddaughter “astray”.
I have tried to get to confession, but my first chance I waited and waited for the priest and he never came, even though it was within the posted confession times. I will try again this weekend.
Did I commit a mortal sin?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Since it sounds like you did not have all the information regarding this, it probably wasn’t exactly a mortal sin; but I think you know enough not to do it and did it anyway. You do need to bring this up in confession at your first opportunity.
 
I would also add that I doubt that would happen to me, since I am not inclined to take Communion in the church that I am currently associated with. I do not agree with all their teachings, so taking Communion would not be right, IMO. Can’t take Communion in the RC church until I become RC.
 
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