Noncatholic and communion

[jmb100]

ok, i am just really becoming more and more immersed in my faith, i have become very involved for the past 3 years, although not so much prior to that (i am 38). i have been married to a great guy for 12 years, he was born presbeterian but has been practicing catholisim with me for the past 15 years. we have 2 girls, soon to be receiving their sacraments. i never knew that he should not be taking communion, we have been for 15 years together. it came up in conversation w/ some church ladies concering another issue. most people know my husband did not go thru rcia, but we are at mass every week as a family, and he participates. he says he does not want to go thru rcia after all this time and i am not going to tell him to stop taking communion. but i almost feel like i am doing something against the rules.

 

[dhgray]

W E L C M E to the forum. Does he have any interest in joing the Catholic Church? As a protestant, I normally received communion with my family until one day the Lord put it on my heart that it was not right. (note: my wife did nothing to stop me - later stating “That’s between you and God.”) I stopped taking communion when I started going to RCIA.

 

[jmb100]

thank you for your reply davis. its funny, he feels like he is catholic. unless something happens to him like you, i think we will continue down this path. things are so great. we had some issues w/ the church years ago and that is why we wandered, but never felt at home anywhere else, so have come back to stay for sure. now i have this on my mind, and i dont want anything to mess it up for us. we are one happy family, embracing the church and fully emersing our girls along with us… i have this fear that one of these days the priest or EM is going to refuse him communion.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

jmb100:

ok, i am just really becoming more and more immersed in my faith, i have become very involved for the past 3 years, although not so much prior to that (i am 38). i have been married to a great guy for 12 years, he was born presbeterian but has been practicing catholisim with me for the past 15 years. we have 2 girls, soon to be receiving their sacraments. i never knew that he should not be taking communion, we have been for 15 years together. it came up in conversation w/ some church ladies concering another issue. most people know my husband did not go thru rcia, but we are at mass every week as a family, and he participates. he says he does not want to go thru rcia after all this time and i am not going to tell him to stop taking communion. but i almost feel like i am doing something against the rules.

Well it is the responsibility fo catholics to tell their friends and family or other guests at Mass what the rules are about intercommunion. When he registers for RCIA they will also tell him. But don’t wait you need to speak with him before next Friday. The assumption would be that he has not been to Confession in those years either so it would be better for him that you told him. Also remember that for a Baptized non-Catholic who has bee attending Catholic Mass and knows the Catholic Faith at least from a practical sense. May not be required to spend a full year in RCIA but may be able to meet with a Catechist or the Pastor for several sessions and be received into the Church possibly even this Pentecost.

 

[jbuck919]

There has long been a potential for an dispensation for non-Catholic Christians under certain special circumstances to partake in the Eucharist. The requirement, as I recall, is that they be baptized and believe in the real presence, but it has be granted on a case-by-case basis. When I was in college, no less a luminary than Cardinal Suenens of Belgium celebrated a special mass in the huge college chapel (one of the largest in the world, and it was filled to capacity). I realize he was very liberal, but we were assured that the dispensation to allow, say, the wonderful choir from the local Anglican church plus their clergy to receive was genuine. It is the abuses I have seen since that are simply ad hoc and without thought or permission that have disturbed me.

BTW off topic, all the fine music supplied for that Mass was done by the Episcopalians. The visiting choir from the cathedral of that diocese was huge, but couldn’t manage more than a mediocre rendition of the responsorial psalm.

 

[fix]

jbuck919:

There has long been a potential for an dispensation for non-Catholic Christians under certain special circumstances to partake in the Eucharist. The requirement, as I recall, is that they be baptized and believe in the real presence, but it has be granted on a case-by-case basis. When I was in college, no less a luminary than Cardinal Suenens of Belgium celebrated a special mass in the huge college chapel (one of the largest in the world, and it was filled to capacity). I realize he was very liberal, but we were assured that the dispensation to allow, say, the wonderful choir from the local Anglican church plus their clergy to receive was genuine. It is the abuses I have seen since that are simply ad hoc and without thought or permission that have disturbed me.

How was that not an abuse? If such folks actually believed what the Church teaches they should become Catholics. Do you have a Canon law citation we could read about this?

 

[jbuck919]

fix:

How was that not an abuse? If such folks actually believed what the Church teaches they should become Catholics. Do you have a Canon law citation we could read about this?

I know what I was told at the time. I was 20 years old and assumed a cardinal speaking through our Catholic chaplain knew what he was talking about. Also, my organ teacher happened to be the music director of that Anglican church (he is still an extremely famous Anglican musician), so when he said he had gotten the word I naturally believed him. It was a time of great, shall we say, latitudinarianism, If I am just wrong about this, someone will tell us. But if I am right, I hope no one will cite an anachronistic rubric or clause in canon law without doing the research. We really need an expert and a bit of an historian here and not just someone who knows how to quote chapter and verse from canon law.

 

[fix]

jbuck919:

I know what I was told at the time. I was 20 years old and assumed a cardinal speaking through our Catholic chaplain knew what he was talking about. Also, my organ teacher happened to be the music director of that Anglican church (he is still an extremely famous Anglican musician), so when he said he had gotten the word I naturally believed him. It was a time of great, shall we say, latitudinarianism, If I am just wrong about this, someone will tell us. But if I am right, I hope no one will cite an anachronistic rubric or clause in canon law without doing the research. We really need an expert and a bit of an historian here and not just someone who knows how to quote chapter and verse from canon law.

I found this piece:

Apart from the case of danger of death, the episcopal conference and the local bishop may specify other grave circumstances in which a Protestant may receive these sacraments although always respecting the conditions outlined above in the Holy Father’s encyclical: “that the person be unable to have recourse for the sacrament desired to a minister of his or her own Church or ecclesial Community, ask for the sacrament of his or her own initiative, [and] manifest Catholic faith in this sacrament and be properly disposed” (No. 131).

ewtn.com/library/Liturgy/zlitur43.htm

 

[kparlet]

jmb100:

ok, i am just really becoming more and more immersed in my faith, i have become very involved for the past 3 years, although not so much prior to that (i am 38). i have been married to a great guy for 12 years, he was born presbeterian but has been practicing catholisim with me for the past 15 years. we have 2 girls, soon to be receiving their sacraments. i never knew that he should not be taking communion, we have been for 15 years together. it came up in conversation w/ some church ladies concering another issue. most people know my husband did not go thru rcia, but we are at mass every week as a family, and he participates. he says he does not want to go thru rcia after all this time and i am not going to tell him to stop taking communion. but i almost feel like i am doing something against the rules.

And to put it bluntly (albeit lovingly) you are. When we receive the Blessed Sacrament, we are not only receiving our Lord Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, but we are announcing to all that we are in Communion with the Catholic Church. By not converting to Catholicism and continuing to receive the Eucharist, your husband is lying by virtue of his actions…and we all know that God is not too keen on the whole lying thing. Talk to him.