Non-Catholics and Receiving Communion
Guidelines
Non-Catholics may wonder whether or not it is proper for them to receive communion in a Catholic church.
Here are the guidelines from the Bishops’ Statement on Receiving Communion:
"We welcome our fellow Christians to this celebration of the Eucharist as our brothers and sisters. We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist will draw us closer to one another and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us. We pray that these will lessen and finally disappear, in keeping with Christ’s prayer for us ‘that they may all be one’ (John 17:21). "Because Catholics believe that the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign of the reality of the oneness of faith, life, and worship, members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Communion. Eucharistic sharing in exceptional circumstances by other Christians requires permission according to the directives of the diocesan bishop and the provisions of canon law. . . . "
This statement offers the following points:
Receiving Communion is both the sign and the effective means of participating and growing in Catholic unity.
We respect the beliefs of other Christians, and thus do not expect them to set aside those beliefs when they celebrate the Eucharist with us.
However, receiving Communion means more than just sharing a meal; it is a pledge of faith, a covenantal vow stating that we accept the faith of the Catholic Church in full.
If this is not true, then it would be very wrong to feign entrance into such a pledge without actually professing it.
Even for Catholics, we must be in a state of grace. In other words, we cannot receive if we have sinned grievously against love of God or neighbor without first receiving absolution in Sacramental Confession.
Scripture is clear that partaking of the Eucharist is among the highest signs of Christian unity: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Cor. 10:17). For this reason, it is not a proper practice for non-Catholic Christians to receive Holy Communion, for to do so would be to proclaim a unity exists that, regrettably, does not.
The Bible further states that it is for the protection of those who do not believe or reject the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Scripture warns that it is very dangerous for one not believing in the Real Presence to receive Communion: "For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died" (1 Cor. 11:29–30).
Thus, we restrict Communion only for Catholics in a state of grace, i.e. those who have not violated covenantal love.