Do Priests/bishops Have The Authority

[premed_jakey]

I have been reading in the news a lot about bishops saying that politicians should not be given the sacrament of Communion based on their stances on abortion, contraception, etc. Do priests and bishops have the right to tell someone that they are not allowed to recieve the sacrament? I was always taught that you had to examine your own conscience, and if you felt like you were in a state of mortal sin, then you should receive the sacrament of reconcilliation before you took the sacrament. So, if a person feels as if they are not in a state of mortal sin (Whether they are correct or not) shouldnt they be allowed to recieve the sacrament? Who is to know whether they have recieved absolution or not?Is it the priests job to regulate who can and can not come?

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
10/14 - Twenty-eighth Sunday

Premed_Jakey,

You are correct about examining one's conscience before receiving communion. That is me finding myself ready to receive communion. However, there is another side to this issue. The Church also decides whether I am ready to receive communion. She judges this by my actions in the external world. If I am living a life that sets me outside of communion with the Church (e.g., a politician who votes pro-abortion), I shouldn't be receiving Communion. If I present myself for Communion in this state, then the Church is able to judge that I am not ready to receive. Thus, her representatives (priests, bishops) can deny me communion. Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono

[Theoketos]

I would like to add to Pio's excellent post by mentioning that there are two purposes in doing this:

1. It prevents scandal and shows that the church does not nor can it condone such actions as voting for abortion.

2. It prevents the communicant from further sin, for St. Paul says the worst sin is to receive the Eucharist unworthily.

[cappie]

[i]Can. 915 Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.
[/i]
In approaching to receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, the faithful must both respect the holiness of the Sacrament, the Real Presence of Christ, and examine their own worthiness, lest they condemn themselves by receiving the Lord unworthily.

The emphasis is on self-examination, in order to discover preparedness to receive the Sacrament or not. If one is not prepared, for example, because of serious sin which is unremitted, then he simply is not to approach to receive Holy Communion. Here, one is dealing with what may be simply called a "reality check". Does the actual state of my soul dispose me to receive the true Body and Blood of Christ?

The self-examination necessarily has reference to one's relationship both to God and to others. Communion with Christ in His Body and Blood means putting into practice what He has taught us, namely love of God and of neighbor. Serious sin against God or against neighbor makes one unworthy to receive Holy Communion, until the sin has been confessed and forgiveness received through the Sacrament of Penance.

If the lack of right disposition is serious and public, and the person, nevertheless, approaches to receive the Sacrament, then he is to be admonished and denied Holy Communion. In other words, the Church cannot remain silent and indifferent to a public offense against the Body and Blood of Christ.

Perhaps the most recent authoritative commentary on Saint Paul's teaching regarding unworthiness to receive Holy Communion is found in Pope John Paul II's Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, "On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church," issued on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003. In Chapter Four of the Encyclical Letter, "The Eucharist and Ecclesial Communion," Pope John Paul declared:

[i]The celebration of the Eucharist, however, cannot be the starting point for communion; it presupposes that communion already exists, a communion which it seeks to consolidate and bring to perfection. The sacrament is an expression of this bond of communion both in its invisible dimension, which, in Christ and through the working of the Holy Spirit, unites us to the Father and among ourselves, and in its visible dimension, which entails communion in the teaching of the apostles, in the sacraments and in the Church's hierarchical order[/i]


For the full argument see: [url="http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/holycom/denial.htm"]Archbishop Burke article[/url]