Why can't I go to Communion in another church?

Part one of two


By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

"Could you please explain, if or why not, a Catholic can receive Holy Communion at a non-Catholic church, while attending a funeral or a wedding of a relative or friend?" (M. Ernst, Green Bay)

The simple answer is "no." A Catholic may not receive the Eucharist -- by whatever name it may be called -- in a church that is not in union with the Church of Rome.

The next question, of course, is "Why not?" And, since the answer will take a bit of exploring, we will take it in two parts, continuing the discussion in next week's column.

Canon Law, the law of the Roman Catholic Church, states: "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" (Canon 844). In other words, Catholics can only receive Holy Communion that comes from the sacrament ministered by a Catholic priest. To do otherwise violates church law, with a few limited exceptions -- such as danger of death (par. 4). But most of these exceptions rarely apply to the circumstances in which most Roman Catholics find themselves.

Not in unity

Besides being a church law, however, there are other very good reasons why we cannot receive the Eucharist in another Christian church. One is that, while we may long for it, we are not one unified Christian church. While we all believe in Christ, we do not all believe the same things about how Christ acts through the church or the sacraments. And, for Catholics, the Eucharist is the sacrament. For some other Christians, there is no belief in sacraments.

Fr. Phil Hoffmann, ecumenical officer for the Diocese of Green Bay, explains it this way: "Communion is 'the sign' of unity, not the cause of unity. It's likened to intercourse. It comes after the wedding and is the consummation of the couple's lifelong commitment. The commitment (of the sacrament) is not only to Christ, but also to Christ's body, or to his bride (whichever metaphor you are using). In other words, it is a sign of unity with Christ and also with the Church."

As much as we long to come together as one church -- we have to wait until all believers in Christ are ready to come together. We don't all believe the same thing -- and participating in Communion is a public statement that you do believe in the same things.

The Real Presence

One of the biggest points of conflicting beliefs comes with the bread and wine themselves.

Roman Catholics believe that bread and wine become the Body and Blood (the Real Presence) of Christ. While some of the other Christian churches do share this belief, still others see the bread and wine only as a memorial meal. While it is a very powerful symbol for these churches, they do not look on it as a way of becoming sacramentally incorporated -- in a very real and mysterious sense -- into the actual body of Christ.

Fr. John Doerfler is administrator of Holy Trinity Parish, Casco/Slovan. He is also a canon lawyer and member of the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal. He said that the basic answer of "no" to this question comes down "to faith in the Real Presence of the Body of Christ in the sacrament," something, he said, which is not so in other faith traditions. For a Catholic "to go forward to receive communion in another church," Fr. Doerfler says, "would be a public denial of your Catholic faith in the Real Presence, a break in your union with the Church."

So, the first thing to keep in mind about receiving communion in another Christian church is that you are doing something that says you're separating yourself from your Roman Catholic faith -- both what we as Catholics believe and what the law of the our church says. It also says that you are not being faithful to the tradition of "apostolic succession." This is one of the main points made in the recently released Vatican document, Dominus Iesus. We will explore that more next week.

For now, we need to understand that there are some serious differences in what Roman Catholics believe and profess and what other Christians believe and profess. To share in communion while those differences exist does not give each other the dignity of acknowledging our differences nor the support needed to heal them.

"The Christian faithful are therefore not permitted to imagine that the Church of Christ is nothing more than a collection -- divided, yet in some way one -- of Churches and ecclesial communities. ...

The lack of unity among Christians is certainly a wound for the Church; not in the sense that she is deprived of her unity, but "in that it hinders the complete fulfillment of her universality in history" (Dominus Iesus, no. 17).

Next week: Eucharist and the priesthood

Sources: 1983 Code of Canon Law; Catechism of the Catholic Church; Ut Unum Sit (That All May Be One); Unitatis Redintegratio (Vatican II's Decree on Ecumenism); Dominus Iesus; and "The 1993 Directory For Ecumenism" by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.