My “I don’t know” on this was only due to my lack of a more accurate choice.
Another option I considered was:
He should absolutely deny communion.
I would agree with this “temporarily” - just as “I don’t know” is a temporary answer until you DO know something more.
You can’t DO an “I don’t know” if you are confronted with the situation, can you?
You MIGHT be wrong in either of the two options you DO decided to do as an EM or priest.
If you deny an eligible person - who just looked wrong - you’ve made a mistake.
If you give a person the Eucharist when it appears you might be participating in another person’s sin of sacrilege - perhaps this is an even GREATER mistake.
What to do.
Perhaps this: Quietly refuse the Eucharist – and ask to see the person after the service*
(*Thinking of myself here - I’m a Communion Service Leader Sundays at a County Children’s Home. When a children present themselves for communion and don’t say the required “Amen” I pause … if they remain confused I repeat “Body of Christ”.
If I get a nod of the head or a yes instead of an Amen (this has happened - I have given the communion). If they do not say the Amen and remain confused I ask them if they’d like a blessing (not a priestly blessing - but a brief prayer of encouragement, sometimes referencing the time when this person may receive communion).
Once a child came to me afterwards and wondered why he’d been “refused”. In THAT case he quickly established that he HAD received his first communion, and remembered to say Amen. I had reserved a couple of Eucharist (at the request of the Juvenile Hall Chaplain that oversees our ministry) for return in case that former group ran short. I told the child to prepare himself for a moment, then gave him the Eucharist instructing him to go into prayer as if he were still “in church”. He remembered his “Amen” the next week and received quite a bit more reverently.
THIS child wasn’t an obvious sinner as in the above example.
If I refused communion to the above person - reserving a Eucharist for him/her might allow the “I don’t know” of my answer to be resolved in the best possible way, shortly.
A person undergoing this proceedure would be in sin (and a bit publicly too) and would do well to get the counsel as to why they were being refused (mortal sin and danger of sacrilege on top of it).
A person who HAD been undergoing the proceedure - but claimed to have repented of the sin via confession - I would have to encourage. I might possibly ask them to wait until next time - and seriously consider whether they were really eligible. Then I suppose, the next week, if they presented themselves in a devout manner - I might give it to them, barring some interior signal to me from God. It’s the honor system after all.
Some people who look SO holy might be committing a sacrilege too. But it is not bad for a person with an office to discern how best to do it. Particularly when the office is a spiritual one and the consequences of a mistake could be eternal or VERY long lasting.
A good spirit for refusing the Eucharist to someone would be: respect for the Eucharist and concern for the person about to receive. A bad spirit would be just exercising power
for its own sake, picking a fight with someone at a public moment, or getting angry in front of everyone and disturbing the worship that is supposed to be going on.
“Looks trans-gendered” people in one way are in the same boat as the rest of us if we draw a suspicion of ineligibility to ourselves.
If a priest saw someone sneak a bite of a candy bar during mass - and knew the person had not fasted long enough due to the law of the Church - he should probably refuse communion to that person (until that hour is up). Even if he later found that the person was diabetic and felt faint (say).
(Due to length - I will post a second part of this reply, with ACTUAL cases on this issue)
