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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is actually a very complicated question and i don't know all the ins and outs, but will attempt to give a simplified answer.

Generally Christian baptism is a prerequisite.  However, it is not sufficient.  One must believe in transubstantiation, which is not a doctrine of Protestant churches, but it is of Orthodox churches.  So a Russian Orthodox, for example, could receive communion at a Catholic mass.  The rules around this can vary over time and across jurisdictions.  For example, in some places, it would be frowned upon for an Orthodox to regularly take communion at a Catholic mass if there was a nearby Orthodox church where they could go and vice versa.  (This probably has more to do with trying to preserve as much post-Schism harmony as possible.)

Signs that one believes in transubstantiation are receipt of first communion or the sacrament of confirmation in a church that has an official doctrine of transubstantiation.  Simply having been baptized by a priest does not make one eligible to receive communion in the ordinary course, although having a Catholic baptismal certificate would certainly make it much easier for the priest to decide in favor of giving communion for exceptional reasons to someone who has had neither first communion nor confirmation.

I do know Catholics who doubt the doctrine of transubstantiation.  That does not make them ineligible to receive communion if they have the will to believe it, yet do not believe.  If they have decided they utterly reject the doctrine, they are ineligible to receive communion even if they were baptized in a Catholic church, partook in first communion, and were confirmed.[/quote]

PP here who asked the question.  Thanks for your thoughtful response.  I'm a Protestant who doesn't believe in transubstantiation so it sounds to have sat out those communions.  Now back to the regularly scheduled programming...[/quote]

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