Anonymous wrote:Wait so if you’re unmarried but having sex, you’re not supposed to receive communion?

Nope

Anonymous wrote:Wait so if you’re unmarried but having sex, you’re not supposed to receive communion?

It’s a matter of debate.

You’re not supposed to take communion if you have committed “grave” sin and have not confessed. My grandmothers generation considered almost everything grave sin and so regularly went to communion on Saturday right before mass. I had an Elderly relative who was a shut in who never left the house but wouldn’t go to communion unless she had just confessed — I guess she felt like she was sinning in thought or eating too many cookies or something?

The more modern thinking is that “grave” means stuff that’s more really bad. So most modern Catholics don’t confess every time they have extramarital sex. (Although I think adultery would count as grave.)

I think there’s a few answers to OP here:
1) some people just don’t care and will take communion regardless. Look at all the mobsters in movies taking communion!
2) some people are divorced but not remarried so that’s fine under the rules
3) some people did get annulments. My SIL got one (and it wasn’t expensive despite PP) — her first husband told her they couldn’t have kids because she’d get fat, and then he eventually took off for a pack of cigs and never came back. Both were grounds for anulment. It took about a year.
4) some people have been told by a priest it’s okay and don’t worry about it. I have a very religious brother in this camp. His first wife had an affair and left him. He could have gotten an anulment probably but didn’t actually do it. His priest told him not to worry about it and his second marriage was actually in the church performed by that priest.

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps this is an don't ask don't tell situation, OP, in your particular church. I am sure all sorts of sinners get up to receive communion, just because they don't want to feel left out in the moment.

Taking unworthy communion is a sin equal in magnitude to whatever sin made one unworthy of communion, and the only remedy for either is the same is for the other.

So the only difference between taking unworthy communion and declining it is that declining it may be an active choice as a step toward forgiveness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This being DCUM, it's important to note that being divorced and even being remarried civilly does not prevent taking the Eucharist. Only living together as husband and wife (having sex), while bound to another through a non-annulled marriage, violates the marriage rules for Eucharist. And since middle aged DCUM couples don't have sex, they're in the clear.

Wow that is a lot of virgin births

And lots of completed Confessions prior to taking/receiving. Which you also have to do. OP needs to confess to being a busybody.

You aren't passing judgement on another, are you? I can't directly see since this is an anonymous forum post, but I presume you aren't God posting here.

Anonymous wrote:Wait so if you’re unmarried but having sex, you’re not supposed to receive communion?

If your taking the body of non-Christ, don't also take the body of Christ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This being DCUM, it's important to note that being divorced and even being remarried civilly does not prevent taking the Eucharist. Only living together as husband and wife (having sex), while bound to another through a non-annulled marriage, violates the marriage rules for Eucharist. And since middle aged DCUM couples don't have sex, they're in the clear.

Wow that is a lot of virgin births

Does not necessarily follow. A virgin birth is only implied if someone, who is not currently in their first non-annulled marriage, and who has not received absolution after a sinful procreative act, has a baby.

Wait so if you’re unmarried but having sex, you’re not supposed to receive communion?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the many reasons I stopped believing. So someone who escapes an abusive husband can't ever get communion again? That doesn't seem very God like. I've found religious people to be the most intolerant and judgy people I've ever met.

I have some personal experience with this as my mom was divorced and my parents did not get married in a Catholic Church and she did not get an annulment. So growing up, yes, my parents used to sit in the pew while everyone else took Communion (my sister and I were OK to take Communion though)

At the time, I thought it was an incredibly ostracizing feeling — like we have this God of love and grace and yet my parents were excluded from what is clearly the most important part of the Mass on the basis of a bad decision a long time ago. This absolutely skewed my view of religion for a long time.

Now, as an adult, divorced myself, I can understand the theological reasons for the Catholic Church’s position. But I still think they are wrong on this.

The Bible is clear that we get Jesus’s perfect record before God through her faith in him — even when we are sin and do not deserve it. Romans 8:1 is clear that there IS no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. My non-denominational church would not preclude someone from taking communion just because they were divorced.

Which gets to my larger point — this isn’t a reason to stop believing. Does the Catholic Church’s position on this one single issue mean that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? All of Christianity turns on THAT issue — not this issue.

In Catholic law, your mother was never condemned. Sin is the natural state for all humans and Jesus is with you and loves you regardless of your sin. Receiving the Eucharist is a specific sacrament, and receiving it is not a condemnation.

Under Catholic law, it's basically impossible to not get into Heaven if you sincerely love Jesus Christ in your heart and are contrite for your past sins (even mortal ones). And Heaven is the presence of Jesus Christ, nothing more and nothing less, so there's a near perfect correlation between people who enjoy being heaven and people who go to heaven, and likewise for the opposite.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This being DCUM, it's important to note that being divorced and even being remarried civilly does not prevent taking the Eucharist. Only living together as husband and wife (having sex), while bound to another through a non-annulled marriage, violates the marriage rules for Eucharist. And since middle aged DCUM couples don't have sex, they're in the clear.

Wow that is a lot of virgin births

And lots of completed Confessions prior to taking/receiving. Which you also have to do. OP needs to confess to being a busybody.

I used to believe that Jesus rose from the dead because the Church told me to believe. Then I realized the Church says to believe a lot of ridiculous things and aren't credible.

Divorced people who cannot receive holy communion:

- those remarried without an anullment
- those who initiated the divorce without grave reason (ie safety) and are unrepentant

annulment= pay us a lot of money and we can make it go away.

Anonymous wrote:This being DCUM, it's important to note that being divorced and even being remarried civilly does not prevent taking the Eucharist. Only living together as husband and wife (having sex), while bound to another through a non-annulled marriage, violates the marriage rules for Eucharist. And since middle aged DCUM couples don't have sex, they're in the clear.

Wow that is a lot of virgin births

This being DCUM, it's important to note that being divorced and even being remarried civilly does not prevent taking the Eucharist. Only living together as husband and wife (having sex), while bound to another through a non-annulled marriage, violates the marriage rules for Eucharist. And since middle aged DCUM couples don't have sex, they're in the clear.

Anonymous wrote:I only ask because divorce is somewhat common and I literally never see any middle aged or older people at Mass but not taking communion. Do divorcees and people who remarry just ignore that?

Im confused.

Its impossible for you to know this, because as a devout Catholic you would never see other people taking communion, as you would be busy with your own. Unless you are a non Catholic who frequently attends mass with a friend or family member?