Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Episcopalian Eucharist
ROME, JUNE 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Some readers of our May 30 column, on communion at an Episcopalian ordination, asked why I did not simply affirm that the ordination was invalid.
A specific mention of this fact would have been moot as I assumed that both the original questioner, and ZENIT readers in general, are sufficiently well formed to know that the Church could never recognize the sacramental validity of the ordination of a woman to Anglican orders.
The question, therefore, had to do with why it was not correct to receive communion at such a service. Since Pope John Paul II had authoritatively answered this precise question, I considered it best to use his very words in reply.
Another reader, a priest from Winnipeg, Manitoba, broached another point: "You mentioned recently that 'one may attend a relative's ordination as an Episcopal minister.' I've always appreciated the old practice of not attending an invalid marriage because of the witness value of attending. Since an Episcopal ordination does not produce a valid priest, would the attendance of a Catholic imply an approval of some sort? And if not, perhaps if the person submitting to the rite is a lapsed Catholic, it would be better if the Catholic did not attend."
I do not believe the two situations are perfectly parallel. Attending a ceremony involving an invalid marriage can signify approval for a couple entering into an objectively sinful state.
Attending, for a just cause, an Episcopalian ordination or analogous installation ceremonies for Protestant ministers does not imply any recognition of their sacramental validity and is simply a gesture of friendship or family ties.
I agree, however, that some particular circumstances, such as the ordination of a lapsed Catholic, would make it inadvisable for a Catholic to attend such a ceremony. No matter how much respect we may have for the sincere faith of other Christians, no Catholic could approve or view positively a person's publicly abandoning the Catholic faith, which we believe to be the fullness of Christ's Church, by becoming a minister in another Christian community.
Finally, a reader from Paris asked: "I'd like to know whether a Protestant can receive Catholic Communion or not, especially if he/she accepts the Catholic meaning of Eucharistic Communion."
We have addressed this issue in our column of Dec. 2 and 16, 2003.
Some readers of our May 30 column, on communion at an Episcopalian ordination, asked why I did not simply affirm that the ordination was invalid.
A specific mention of this fact would have been moot as I assumed that both the original questioner, and ZENIT readers in general, are sufficiently well formed to know that the Church could never recognize the sacramental validity of the ordination of a woman to Anglican orders.
The question, therefore, had to do with why it was not correct to receive communion at such a service. Since Pope John Paul II had authoritatively answered this precise question, I considered it best to use his very words in reply.
Another reader, a priest from Winnipeg, Manitoba, broached another point: "You mentioned recently that 'one may attend a relative's ordination as an Episcopal minister.' I've always appreciated the old practice of not attending an invalid marriage because of the witness value of attending. Since an Episcopal ordination does not produce a valid priest, would the attendance of a Catholic imply an approval of some sort? And if not, perhaps if the person submitting to the rite is a lapsed Catholic, it would be better if the Catholic did not attend."
I do not believe the two situations are perfectly parallel. Attending a ceremony involving an invalid marriage can signify approval for a couple entering into an objectively sinful state.
Attending, for a just cause, an Episcopalian ordination or analogous installation ceremonies for Protestant ministers does not imply any recognition of their sacramental validity and is simply a gesture of friendship or family ties.
I agree, however, that some particular circumstances, such as the ordination of a lapsed Catholic, would make it inadvisable for a Catholic to attend such a ceremony. No matter how much respect we may have for the sincere faith of other Christians, no Catholic could approve or view positively a person's publicly abandoning the Catholic faith, which we believe to be the fullness of Christ's Church, by becoming a minister in another Christian community.
Finally, a reader from Paris asked: "I'd like to know whether a Protestant can receive Catholic Communion or not, especially if he/she accepts the Catholic meaning of Eucharistic Communion."
We have addressed this issue in our column of Dec. 2 and 16, 2003.
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