I attended a Catholic funeral recently. It was extremely awkward when the Catholics lined up to take communion and the Protestants in attendance were excluded. Seemed strange to me.
A person who does not profess a Catholic belief, should not receive a Catholic sacrament. That would be mere play-acting, and disrespectful, wouldn’t it?
Half my family is Catholic, the other Missouri Lutheran.
So at weddings, baptisms, and funerals have the family will stay in the pews during communion.
Not awkward. We both have closed communion, but some people at the congregations looks at us funny.
I believe it's wrong for any Christian to be ostracized by a Christian church who denies them communion. Yes, ostracized is the right word. Wouldn't it be more in the Spirit of Christian love & unity to simply tell the congregation that "By receiving communion we believe that you are receiving the body and blood of Christ." Then let those in the pews decide whether they wish to receive.
Afraid that a non-Catholic will will offend Christ by taking "Catholic" communion? Really ??
When I think of Roman Catholicism, I think: power, control, rule driven, mixture of law and grace, strange doctrine, usurping Christ's role. Now to be fair, some of these elements exist in most churches but frankly, the RC church has more of these elements than any other church that I know of.
“Seemed strange to me.”
I would never take communion in an Episcopal or any other Protestant church.
For me as a Catholic, Christ is not present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, and most importantly, it is simply a symbol to you.
I would expect Protestants to realize that the Catholic Eucharist is a sacrament and is Christ under the species of bread and wine.
To expect to receive communion from a Catholic priest simply because of some perceived exclusion, is wrong. I don’t go into a synagogue and expect to read from the Torah because I might “feel” excluded.
One either believes the Eucharist is what a Catholic believes, or does not. If you don’t, don’t expect to participate.
It is a profanation of the sacrament if you do.