Can A Non-Roman Catholic Priest Administer The Sacraments To Roman Catholics and Vice-Versa?
Roman Catholic Canon 844, sec. 3 says: “Catholic ministers may licitly administer the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick to members of the oriental churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church, if they ask on their own for the sacraments and are properly disposed. This holds also for members of other churches, which in the judgment of the Apostolic See (Pope) are in the same condition as the oriental, Eastern Orthodox, churches as far as these sacraments are concerned.” (An unbroken line of Apostolic succession)
Canon 844, sec. 4 says: “If the danger of death is present or other grave necessity, in the judgment of the RC diocesan bishop or the U.S. Catholic conference of (Roman) bishops, Catholic ministers may licitly administer these sacraments to other Christians who do not have full communion with the Catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and on their own ask for it, provided they manifest Catholic faith in these sacraments and are properly disposed.”
Can A Divorced Person Receive Holy Communion?
Yes! As a priest of the Church I look at two circumstances when participation in Holy Eucharist is requested by a divorced person. First what was the reason for the divorce? Can I contrast the answer back to Jesus definiton of divorce found in Mattew 19: 1-11 and Mark 10:1-12. Then I look at the intention of the person who entered into the marriage in the first place. Was the intention to marry under duress, was there an education of what a covenant means when two people marry and of course other variables. Each circumstance is different.
My mother divorced my father after 27 years of marriage with two children, myself and my brother– my father remarried. At her passing I found her church documents and circumstances that the church allowed her to continue her participation and granted her annullment. In her situation the marriage to my father was performed under duress.
After death do we go directly to heaven or hell or do we have to wait for the judgment day?
In Ludwig Ott, *Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma*, we read: “Immediately after death the particular judgment takes place, in which, by a Divine Sentence of Judgment, the eternal fate of the deceased person is decided” (p. 475).
This doctrine is “proximate to the Faith, regarded by theologians generally as a truth of revelation, but not yet finally promulgated as such by the Church” (p.9).
“The Union Councils of Lyons and of Florence declared that the souls of the just, free from all sin and punishment, are immediately assumed into Heaven, and that the souls of those who die in mortal sin or merely in original sin descend immediately into hell” (p. 475).
The Church was a long time in coming to clarity on this doctrine. At the present time it is beyond question by reason of the teaching of Popes, and Councils the testimony of the liturgy, and the general consensus of Catholic believers. It is my opinion that It is reasonable to keep in mind that when we speak about God, God can exist in the past, present and future simultaneously. God can also exist outside of time. In Hebrews (9:27) it states, “It is appointed on to man to die once and then there is the judgment.”
I would suggest that we discontinue thinking like humans when there is a discussion about God. God can be in time and outside of time. When we die we enter that—“out of time” scenario to meet with God for our final judgment along with all the others as Jesus said the sheep will be on one side and the goats on the other. See Matthew 25:31–46.