Q: I recently attended the wedding of a friend’s son who was married in a Protestant ceremony. This wedding included a communion service. In order to show respect for my friend and his son, I received communion but afterwards questioned if I should have. How does the Catholic Church view this situation?
A: The Catholic Church does not see this as proper because the physical act of receiving communion is virtually the same during a Catholic Mass and a service such as this one. The faith represented by this action, however, is not the same. It certainly is not on the level of what these faith communities officially teach about the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Your desire to honor your friend and his son is commendable, but should that come at the cost of obscuring what you believe about the Eucharist?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that eucharistic intercommunion with ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation is not possible because of the absence of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
The Catechism goes on to teach: “However, these ecclesial communities, ‘when they commemorate the Lord’s death and resurrection in the Holy Supper… profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and await his coming in glory’” (article 1400, citing section three of Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism).
Someday intercommunion may represent a common belief in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, but at present it does not. This issue is openly addressed in various ecumenical dialogues.
2 thoughts on “Receiving Holy Communion in a Protestant Church”
You should ask yourself, what would Jesus do because all the protestant faith believe in the same thing the Catholic Church does, Jesus is our Lord and Savior and whatever rituals are performed differently between them, wouldn’t matter to Christ and it shouldn’t to you as well
As Catholics, we believe that the bread and wine are truly the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also strongly believe in apostolic teaching and succession, from Christ himself to St Peter, stemming all the down to Pope Francis. As such, only ordained priests (with the authority of Christ) can convert the bread and wine. This is no small matter. My wife is a born-again Christian. She doesn’t accept communion in my church and vice versa for all of the aforementioned reasons. I have often asked myself whether Jesus wanted 40,000 plus different denominations or one church where everyone sings from the same hymn sheet. I think we all know the answer.