Non-Catholics Receiving Communion

Hello Father,

I have many non-Catholic friends that don't understand why they cannot receive communion if they go to a Catholic church when their churches off communion to everyone.  How do I explain this to them?

Thanks,
Kim

Kim,

The reason that many non-Catholic Christians have difficulty understanding why they cannot receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church is because they have a fundamentally different understanding of both the Church and The Eucharist.  Catholics understand the Church to be established by Christ on his twelve apostles with St. Peter as the head.  The descendants in the Faith down throughout history is the college of bishops under the Pope.  When Jesus gave us the real presence of His Body and Blood at the Last Supper He entrusted it to His Church under their leadership.  While we rejoice in the shared Christian faith that our non-Catholic brothers and sisters have we also must recognize the sad and deep divisions that still exist in us as Christians whom our Lord commanded that we should all be on.  Many Christians think that joint reception of Communion is part of that road toward unity.  However, for Catholics the reception of the Holy Eucharist is not merely a sign of our Christian belief but is supposed to fully manifest the reality of our Christian faith.  This means that when we receive Holy Communion we believe that it is truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ (which almost not non-Catholics believe).  We believe in the Church that Christ established (as Catholics understand that).  We believe in all that the non-Christians.  Even when one may come to believe these things it is important that they come into the Church for belonging to the institutional Church is part of the command of Christ that we all be one in faith in Him.  Therefore, to receive the Body of our Lord into our own bodies is and act of saying yeas to these realities.  If we do not hold to these realities than in effect