www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Visited a Greek Orthodox Church last week

Last week I was in Wildwood, New Jersey.

A Catholic Church was like 25 blocks away. A Greek Orthodox Chuch was like only 10 blocks away.

I went to the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. It was very close to the Byzantine Rite - a lot of things were the same. The altar servers has simmilar vestmants, the communion prayers were close. But there were some prayers in Greek.

They had Orthos, a Divine Liturgy and Holy Communion, just like most Orthodox Churches. I caught most of the Divine Liturgy. I was not sure if I should recieve communion here so I did not.

It's my understanding that the Catholic Church still forbides its faithful to receive communion (or other mysteries) at churches that are not in communion with the Pope of Rome (except in case of grave danger) and forbides its priests to give them to Non-Catholics.

The Orthodox Church holds the same principle. Communion is reserved to the Orthodox faithful except in rare cases (like in the Soviet Union where Catholics had been totaly deprived of priests).

Mexican:

Read the 5th thread below this one about PaulNik's introduction of himself and a query on this specific matter.

The Catholic position is, I think, spelled out clearly and to correct the misinformation about Catholic practices you seem to enjoy disseminating!

Amado

"Modernized" Roman Code of Canon Law 1983:

If the danger of death is present or other grave necessity, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or the conference of bishops, Catholic ministers may licitly administer these sacraments to other Christians who do not have full communion with the Catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and on their own ask for it, provided they manifest Catholic faith in these sacraments and are properly disposed.

I am aware that there is another part where it says Oriental Christians may receive the Eucharist if they ask for it and if they are disposed.. I suppose that's what you refered to previously.

Now I had said this because of personal experiences and contacts with Catholics. In the summer where there's an important amount of American (or non Mexican tourists) I was at a Roman Church when some approached for Communion and the priest always asked first if they were Catholics. The priests refused to give communion.

At least in the RC Diocese of Cuernavaca where I used to work part-time they DO NOT give communion to non-catholics.

Remie:

The one you cited is the general rule which covers presumably all persons, but at least all Christians who have displayed a modicum of understanding about the Holy Eucharist and its reception during EMERGENCY cases.

Among the Christians, the 1983 Code of Canons gives special exception to faithful of the Orthodox (Eastern and Oriental) Churches, of the PNCC, and of the Assyrian Church of the East: the Catholic Church does not object to the reception of the Holy Eucharist by the faithful of these Churches from (Eastern and Western)Catholic priests under ORDINARY circumstances, i.e., in addition to emergency situations.

However, the Catholic Church always reminds the faithful of the above-enumerated Churches to follow their own guidelines for such reception. In practice, these Churches, especially most of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, forbid their faithful from receiving communion from Catholic Churches/priests. There is no complementation.

But in the Middle East and elsewhere in the diaspora, frequent intercommunion between Antiochian Orthodox and the Melkites and between the Assyrians and the Chaldeans have been noted.

You will notice that this "exception" does not extend to Protestants and pseudo-Protestants, whose congregations are referred to by the Catholic Church as mere "ecclesial communities," they possessing NO valid sacraments as recognized by the Catholic Church.

Amado

It can be very confusing.

Next time I am in an RC church I will look in the missal and see what it says - most have guidelines for communion in it.

From what I gathered talking to Byzantine Priests, the RC Bishop might not like me visiting an Orthodox Church.

...the Catholic Church does not object to the reception of the Holy Eucharist by the faithful of these Churches from (Eastern and Western) Catholic priests under ORDINARY circumstances, i.e.,

But in this case, who is faculted to decide in what cases these rules apply or not? Bishop Luis Reynoso of blessed memory, when some priests (look above) asked him what to do if foreigners came to communion he directed his priests to ask them if they were Catholic.

If they weren't he instructed them not to give them communion (after all very few priests here know about the Assyrian Church of the East for example, and most American tourists are not Orthodox so it would be unnecesary to hold any conversation).

He will (most likely) not care about it.

"...provided that they manifest Catholic faith in these sacraments and are properly disposed."

Well, to manifest "Catholic faith" in the Most Holy Eucharist means to believe that It is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of OLGS Jesus Christ.

Not too many Protestants I know qualify for that.

We also know that, in Catholic terminology, to be "properly disposed" to receive Communion means being free of any moral/grave sin. Since these can only be forgiven through confession and absolution by a Catholic or Orthodox priest, I'd venture to say the vast majority of non-Catholic/non-Orthodox Christians are not "properly disposed" to receive. In fact, I can't really imagine when they are.

ISTM that these rules are a lot more restrictive than some would have us believe (and thank goodness for that). To receive unworthily is to eat and drink condemnation unto oneself.

Logos Teen