Ecclesia de Eucharistia- Pope John Paul II

As promised I checked into the question of whether Catholics may receive Communion at Protestant services. (I assume that this includes all non-Catholic services)

In April 2003, Pope John Paul II released the fourteenth encyclical of his pontificate, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. It focuses “on the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church.”

The importance of the topic for all Catholics, the Pope explains, is that “the Church draws her life from the Eucharist . . . The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ ‘For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself’” (EDE 1; cf. Lumen Gentium 11; Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5). He emphasizes that “the Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession that the Church can have in her journey through history” (EDE 9).

Yet today correct doctrine and practice regarding the Eucharist is threatened. While noting positive signs of eucharistic faith and love in the Church, he acknowledges that “unfortunately, alongside these lights, there are also shadows” (10), which are his reason for writing.
 

PROTESTANT SERVICES

The blurring of the fact that a validly ordained priest is needed to celebrate the Eucharist has led some, out of a well-meaning but misguided sense of ecumenism, to treat Eucharists as valid among Protestant groups, which lack the sacrament of holy orders.

Against this the Pope argues: “The Catholic faithful, therefore, while respecting the religious convictions of these separated brethren, must refrain from receiving the communion distributed in their celebrations, so as not to condone an ambiguity about the nature of the Eucharist and, consequently, to fail in their duty to bear clear witness to the truth. This would result in slowing the progress being made toward full visible unity” (30).

“Catholics may not receive communion in those communities that lack a valid sacrament of orders” (46).

In the same way, the Pope stresses, Catholics cannot satisfy their Sunday obligation by attending Protestant services: “It is unthinkable to substitute for Sunday Mass ecumenical celebrations of the word or services of common prayer with Christians from the aforementioned ecclesial communities, or even participation in their own liturgical services. Such celebrations and services, however praiseworthy in certain situations, prepare for the goal of full communion, including eucharistic communion, but they cannot replace it” (30).