Reply #52: To Answer Your Questions

[outinforce]

To answer your questions, ("Why would you go forward to receive communion if you were inclined to spit it out? Why would you even think of doing something so disrespectful even if you did not share the belief of those who were partaking?"), let me simply say that I would not go forward to a partake of a meal at which I am not an invited guest.

My earlier post was simply to pose a hypothetical question. I was responding to something someone else had posted which said that an RC priest could never deny a person communion. I thought that there were indeed circumstances in which a person coming forward could be denied communion, and so I posted one such situation that I could think of.

I may disagree with the theology and the positions on certain social issues which the RC Church espouses, but I do understand that the RC Chuch, as is the case with any other church of worshipping community, is free to discern the wishes of its deity in the manner they think best honors the diety which they worship.

And I also understand that if I, for whatever reason (weddings and funerals being the most common for me) choose to attend a RC worship service, that I am a guest in the RC's house of worship. And my parents raised me to understand what being a guest means. It means that I am to show respect for the customs, beliefs, and practices -- however strange I may happen to think they are -- of the people whose house I am visiting.

Thanks both for asking these questions and for your reply concernig the obligation of an RC priest.