To the Editor:
Are other Catholics concerned that some bishops want to give holy Communion to Protestant spouses and divorced and remarried Catholics?
They give reasons of pastoral concerns of mercy. Have pastoral concerns trumped Catholic doctrine?
The consistent doctrine of the church from the Apostles is that holy Communion is eating and drinking the real, substantial presence of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ veiled by the appearances of bread and wine. It is not bread and wine anymore but Christ’s substantial resurrected self, his flesh and blood. A Catholic must be in a state of grace with no sin upon his soul and observe the fast to receive holy Eucharist.
St. Paul declares in 1st Corinthians 11:27 that anyone who receives Communion unworthily will answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
St. Paul also declares in 1st Corinthians 11:29 that anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. I believe that most Protestants remain Protestant because they do not discern the Eucharist is truly the body of Christ. It is judgment against them to receive the Eucharist without this discernment.
St. Paul declared what he believed happened to many Christians in Corinth who received Communion unworthily. He says in 1Corinthians 11:30, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” This is serious.
If receiving holy Communion unworthily or without discernment creates sin and judgment, how is this a good pastoral remedy of mercy for Protestant spouses? It is not. It is cruel not merciful.
Please pray that our bishops remain traditionally Catholic and do not teach such diabolically false mercies.
Francis Schatz
Newton
