I went to a funeral at a nice Catholic church recently. During eucharist, they explained that non-catholics were not welcome. I have run into this before. It has something to do with an inscrutable, medieval argument over the “real presence,” a concept which no Catholic priest has ever been able to explain to me; which perhaps one in one-hundred practicing Roman Catholics care about; and which ignores the plain meaning of the Words of Institution in the eucharist.
To me, it is all a technicality, a mechanism of trying to assert control. It is damaging to the very worthy interests of the Roman Catholic Church, most of which I support. It short, it is foolish and non-Christian.
It is funny that Catholics should be worried about some minor Protestant doctrines unfriendly to them, when Catholics do the same sort of thing. In my own ancestry, I have direct ancestors who (for a fact!) were dragged from their homes into the street by a Roman Catholic mob, and had their throats slit, almost in the style used by Moslem terrorists. If their 14-year-old son had not escaped, I would not be here!
Should I hold this against modern Catholics? Well, I don’t. I accept most Catholics as good Christians, even though certain of their teachings are un-Biblical, and are survivals from Roman pagan times. It is time we tolerated the Truth, even in different denominations, and it is time that we were free to criticize falsehood, wherever it crops up.
I really believe that the Devil can be working anywhere, and looks for any opening, just like a mouse trying to infest your house (only with worse results). Our only guide is what Jesus gave us: judge them by their fruits.
with 53 years experience I have NEVER EVER heard a catholic priest say anything OTHER THAN “All are welcome”
I call BS
“During eucharist, they explained that non-catholics were not welcome...To me, it is all a technicality, a mechanism of trying to assert control. It is damaging to the very worthy interests of the Roman Catholic Church, most of which I support. It short, it is foolish and non-Christian.
Do WELS Lutherans do the same thing? I just read on another one of these threads they aren’t even supposed to pray with other Christians. I don’t know if they enforce that or not.
Here’s what the UCCB says about Communion and other Christians:
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” (Jn 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 Holy 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 (canon 844 § 4). Members of the Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Polish National Catholic Church are urged to respect the discipline of their own Churches. According to Roman Catholic discipline, the Code of Canon Law does not object to the reception of communion by Christians of these Churches (canon 844 § 3).
Freegards