SPLIT: Can a Catholic commune with Anglicans?

[Nyika]

Hi there,
As a Catholic I don’t take communion in an Anglican church. A very well meaning lady advised me thet there was no reason why I couldn’t as it was just Anglicans that can’t take communion in a Catholic church. I just explained that I didn’t feel comfortable doing so.
Afterwards I tried to find supportive eveidence in the Bible for the Catholic belief in ‘Transubstantiation’ and so far I have not had much success. I’m hoping someone will be able to advise me.
with God’s Blessing
Nyika

 

[Joan_M]

Hi there,
As a Catholic I don’t take communion in an Anglican church. A very well meaning lady advised me thet there was no reason why I couldn’t as it was just Anglicans that can’t take communion in a Catholic church. I just explained that I didn’t feel comfortable doing so.
Afterwards I tried to find supportive eveidence in the Bible for the Catholic belief in ‘Transubstantiation’ and so far I have not had much success. I’m hoping someone will be able to advise me.
with God’s Blessing
Nyika

Nyika,

Jesus, Himself, changed bread into His Body and wine into His Blood. at the last supper. He, at that time, told His Apostles to “do this in memory of me.” Earlier, after the miracles of the multiplication of bread, He told the disciples that “unless you eat of my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” When many of the disciples could not handle this, they left Him. Yet He did not tell them that He was only speaking symbolically.

Jesus is God. He cannot lie. Believe His words and accept the fact, also, that not everything is spelled out in the Bible. Some things are shrouded in mystery. But if we refuse to believe in the Word of God, we are lost.

We do not have to understand everything. We cannot understand everything - if we could, we would be God! Jesus left us a magisterium - the Apostles, who were the first Bishops. We must submit to the authority of the Church. Only in faith and humble submission will we find peace of heart and soul.

It is a sin for a Catholic to knowingly receive communion in a non-Catholic church.

 

[Jean_Anthony]

aaa

 

[englishredrose]

Anglicans invite anyone who has been confirmed in their own church to receive communion when at ‘ours’

But we are well aware that it is different for Roman Catholics in that you are taught not to do so, but this doesn’t stop us from inviting you as along with any other visitor and we do not publically announce 'we know that if you are RC we understand etc in the invitation each time, it wouldn’t be constructive). We also are taught to accept that you guys do think differently and most of us will only invite you and let the invitation be received by you or not as with any visitor. It is your choice and we do not force. Though there may be some over friendly Anglicans who may over step the line because they do not understand enough perhaps?

In return we also know that if we are respecting Catholics then, we are to ask the priest of the Catholic Church we are visiting first and if he says yes then that is okay but if he says no then we don’t. If we can’t get to ask the priest first for whatever reason then we take it as read that we do not receive communion in a Catholic Church out of respect for what Catholics believe.

 

[Elizium23]

In return we also know that if we are respecting Catholics then, we are to ask the priest of the Catholic Church we are visiting first and if he says yes then that is okay but if he says no then we don’t. If we can’t get to ask the priest first for whatever reason then we take it as read that we do not receive communion in a Catholic Church out of respect for what Catholics believe.

Any priest that would give immediate permission to an Anglican whom he does not know to receive the Eucharist in a Catholic Church… leaves something to be desired, shall we say. It is better that you learn and understand that the Catholic Church practices “closed communion” and that it is not something that can ordinarily be dispensed in a five-minute conversation with a parish priest.

Here is the relevant canon, any priest who contravenes this should be gently reminded of its existence, and if he should demur, should be duly reported to his ordinary or superior.

Canon 844 §1 Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments only to catholic members of Christ’s faithful, who equally may lawfully receive them only from catholic ministers, except as provided in §§2, 3 and 4 of this canon and in can. 861 §2.

§2 Whenever necessity requires or a genuine spiritual advantage commends it, and provided the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided, Christ’s faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a catholic minister, may lawfully receive the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick from non-catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid.

§3 Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick to members of the eastern Churches not in full communion with the catholic Church, if they spontaneously ask for them and are properly disposed. The same applies to members of other Churches which the Apostolic See judges to be in the same position as the aforesaid eastern Churches so far as the sacraments are concerned.

§4 If there is a danger of death or if, in the judgement of the diocesan Bishop or of the Episcopal Conference, there is some other grave and pressing need, catholic ministers may lawfully administer these same sacraments to other christians not in full communion with the catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who spontaneously ask for them, provided that they demonstrate the catholic faith in respect of these sacraments and are properly disposed.

Please note that it is not otherwise lawful for Catholic ministers to offer the sacraments to non-Catholic recipients. Even though the recipient may not know the law and is not himself bound by Catholic Canon Law, both he and the minister are cooperating in the sins of sacrilege and disobedience when the Eucharist is offered in these cases.

Per the other sections of this same canon, we can see that because of invalid sacraments in the Anglican communion, Catholics are not permitted to receive there, at all, ever.

 

[1ke]

Hi there,
As a Catholic I don’t take communion in an Anglican church. A very well meaning lady advised me thet there was no reason why I couldn’t as it was just Anglicans that can’t take communion in a Catholic church. I just explained that I didn’t feel comfortable doing so.
Afterwards I tried to find supportive eveidence in the Bible for the Catholic belief in ‘Transubstantiation’ and so far I have not had much success. I’m hoping someone will be able to advise me.
with God’s Blessing
Nyika

No, Catholics may not do so. Canon Law has already been posted, and you can also read Ecclesia de Eucharistia which also addresses this.

 

[R_C]

Afterwards I tried to find supportive eveidence in the Bible for the Catholic belief in ‘Transubstantiation’ and so far I have not had much success.

Well, the issue is that as members of the Church of Christ we believe that Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are one, and that sola scriptura is an intolerable heresy It matters, in fact, very little that by your own you have not found any “evidence” for transubstantiation, inasmuch as it is the teaching of the Magisterium and that many learned theologians have found that “evidence” (that is, without even stepping into centuries of Eucharistic miracles and private revelations on the matter, and sticking with pure study of the Sacred Scriptures).

Anyways you may want to go over this article extensively quoting the Church Fathers and their support of what later would be described with the word transubstantiation.