When President Clinton, a Southern Baptist, received Holy Communion at a Roman Catholic Mass in South Africa last month, he inadvertently spotlighted one of the biggest differences separating Catholics and their Protestant brethren: their understanding of the Eucharist.
Roman Catholics believe the "Blessed Sacrament," as Holy Communion is also called, is based on the doctrine of transubstantiation, which holds that when bread and wine are consecrated at Mass, they are actually transformed into the body and blood of Christ, even though their outward appearance does not change.
As New York's Cardinal John O'Connor said in a recent sermon, "To receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Church means one believes he is receiving not a symbol, but Christ Jesus himself."
Catholics are required to fast for one hour before Communion (it used to be 12 hours) and to be in "a state of grace" -- that is, not aware of having committed a serious sin. Technically, the latter requirement prohibits divorced Catholics who have remarried without obtaining an annulment from receiving Communion.
Advertisement
Although other non-Catholic politicians have taken Communion at Catholic Masses, their actions did not provoke the furor that Clinton's did. In June 1983, President Ronald Reagan received Communion at the funeral Mass in the U.S. Navy chapel for his longtime aide Joseph R. Holmes, a Catholic. And former President Jimmy Carter took Communion in 1986 during a Mass he attended while visiting El Salvador.
Under the church's canon law, non-Catholics may receive Communion only in grave or exceptional circumstances such as imminent death. Even then, there are conditions. The communicants must seek the Eucharist on their own, rather than be invited to take it; be unable to receive it from their own ministers; demonstrate that they comprehend the Catholic understanding of the sacrament; and, finally, believe themselves free of grave sin.
Clinton's Southern Baptist tradition, by contrast, "holds that the elements of Communion are symbolic and represent the body and blood of Christ but do not become the body and blood of Christ," said C. Ben Mitchell, professor of Christian ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.
Advertisement
Many Baptist churches used to follow a practice called "fencing the table" or "closed Communion," which meant that only church members in good standing could take Communion, Mitchell said. But these days, most Baptist churches have abandoned that practice and "leave it up to the communicant to judge whether they are worthy to take Communion."
Usually, he said, "the only requirement is that one be a confessing Christian and be baptized as a believer."
The Episcopal Church believes the Eucharist "is a sacrament and therefore it is not a memorial," said the Rev. Ronald H. Haines, Episcopal bishop of the Washington Diocese. "We do believe in the real presence of the Lord in the consecrated bread and wine."
Most Episcopal congregations "freely invite all baptized persons who are free to receive Communion in their own churches to partake in our Eucharist," Haines said. "We have always taken a more expansive view {than the Catholic Church} in that you assume that a person who presents himself or herself at the altar rail is there in an open, penitent and receiving intention."
Advertisement
Even if the person does not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, "I think we would err on the side of sacramental hospitality," he said.
Washington National Cathedral reflects this attitude, and its programs invite "all baptized Christians . . . to share in the festival banquet of the Lord's Supper."
Although the Eucharist is supposed to bring believers together, or into communion, the differing views on what it means and who can receive it have a lot to do with how Christian churches define themselves, said the Rev. Ladislas Orsy, who teaches jurisprudence at Georgetown University's law school.
"It's an issue of identity," said Orsy, also a canon law expert. "Each Christian community . . . has its own identity. Orthodox. Catholic. Episcopal. Lutheran. These groups diverge in organization but also in beliefs. And one of the most important beliefs is the belief in the Eucharist."
Advertisement
As each community seeks to preserve its own identity, he said, "immediately, the issue of giving the Eucharist enters into it."
Clinton taking Communion at Regina Mundi Church in Soweto was apparently unintentional. He and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Methodist, were responding to a section in the printed program that invited all baptized Christians to receive Communion. Jesse L. Jackson, who accompanied the Clintons on their trip to Africa and who is a Baptist, also took Communion.
White House officials have said the Clintons were given prior assurances from the parish priest that it was all right for them to receive Communion. In addition, the program did not carry the traditional warning against non-Catholics taking Communion that is often included when their presence is anticipated at a Catholic Mass in the United States.
Advertisement
The Basilica of the National Shine of the Immaculate Conception, for example, distributes a leaflet at its Masses stating that "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."
The same message was reproduced in programs at the recent funeral Mass of Arlington's Bishop John R. Keating.
In practice, however, Catholic priests rarely deny Communion to those come forward for it, Georgetown's Orsy said. CAPTION: During Roman Catholic Communion, the chalice holds the wine that Catholics believe, through transubstantiation, becomes the blood of Jesus.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnKSworiOanBycF9lgXB9l2iprqSVqHqwsoycpqalpaO2sLqMmqpmrpGntqawjJqqZpuYqr%2BktMSsZnFoY2mCpoOQZmlpaGRigaKFkmZvnWhgYrCmscRxbWluYmiGons%3D