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I need educating, please. Are non-Catholics not permitted to participate in Communion? I'm not Catholic, but I have taken Communion at a Midnight Mass.

In that case the host was blessed by the priest, but was actually distributed by nuns located at numerous locations in the auditorium.

Did I unintentionally cross a line?

I need educating, please. Are non-Catholics not permitted to participate in Communion? I'm not Catholic, but I have taken Communion at a Midnight Mass.

No they are not. Do not do it again unless you convert to Catholicism and are in a state of grace.

In that case the host was blessed by the priest, but was actually distributed by nuns located at numerous locations in the auditorium.

Irrelevant as to the details. Do not do this again unless you convert to Catholicism and are in a state of grace.

Did I unintentionally cross a line?

Yes and unless you become a Catholic and are in a state of grace, do not do it again.

Did I unintentionally cross a line?

Unfortunately, there are those in the Church who either ignore or do not know. How were you to know if you were not told?

Those receiving the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church must be prepared first. They need to be validly baptized and must have went through instruction. Also, they need to be in a state of grace, meaning no mortals sins on the soul.

Holy Communion is not just a wafer symbolically referencing Jesus. To us it is The Bread of Life, Jesus Himself. And He must be received only with those first prepared to receive Him.

I am sure you had know way of knowing all this.

Catholics believe in "transubstantiation", i.e., they believe that during the Mass, the bread ("host") and wine are actually converted into the real body and blood of Christ and that only individuals who are practising Catholics and who have been absolved from their sins can partake of communion.

Protestant faiths believe the bread and wine in the Service are symbolical representations of Christ's body and blood, not His body and blood in actuality. I believe traditional Episcopalians fall somewhere in between with a belief called "consubstantiation".

If you are a Protestant, you can receive Communion as part of a symbolic act in any Protestant Church without actually being a member of that Church. Its a symbolical act of Christian fellowship. As Catholics have a different view of this, non-Catholics should not participate in Communion in a Catholic Church. I believe the Orthodox Churches have a similar view to the Catholic Churches.

The difference in this perspective can lead to some innocent confusion among Protestants attending Catholic services.

The Clintons, however, should have known better.

Are non-Catholics not permitted to participate in Communion?

I take communion all the time, in my Presbyterian church.

As to the Catholic church, it is my understanding that the church does not knowingly offer communion to non Catholics. Although I have personally had priests offer it to me after I identified myself as a protestant. I think they were setting their own rules on that one.