What non-Catholics can and cannot do at the Catholic Mass is straight forward. In fact, there is more that a non-Catholic can do at Mass than there is that he or she cannot do.
Yet, before we indicate the “boundaries,” it is important to first say something in general about the Mass and other sacred liturgical forms. Since the Mass is the Church’s highest and greatest liturgy she has, we should start by first defining “liturgy.” According to the Catechism of the Church Second Edition at 1069, “The word ‘liturgy’ originally meant a ‘public work’ or a ‘service in the name of/on behalf of the people.’ In Christian tradition it means the participation of the People of God in ‘the work of God.’” Further, “(t)he liturgy is … a participation in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 1073). “As the work of Christ liturgy is also an action of his Church” (CCC 1071). “The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows” (CCC 1074).
Now, according to the Second Vatican Council’s “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” better known as “Lumen Gentium (LG),” the Mass – the “eucharistic sacrifice” – is “the source and summit of the Christian life” whereby the People of God “offer the divine victim to God and themselves along with it” (LG 11). What we must emphasize and the faithful must realize is that the Mass is Christ’s own sacrifice of himself to the Father. Being present at this original sacrifice constitutes – again – the source and summit of life and redemption.
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Given this baseline understanding of the Mass, we are ready to say what non-Catholics can and cannot do at Mass. First, the term non-Catholic broadly includes Mainstream and Evangelical Protestant Christians; non-Christian monotheist religious peoples such as the Jews, the Muslims; non-Trinitarian faiths such as the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the like. The term non-Catholic also broadly includes atheists; and all new-age adherents of many stripes such as Scientologists, just to name one. Any, and all, are welcome to attend Mass. The fallen away, Irish Catholic writer, James Joyce famously said that “Catholic Church means here comes everybody.”
What both non-Catholics and Catholics are to do at Mass is to conduct oneself in a most dignified manner, being silent before Mass, and reverent in the sacred space of the church. The gestures, bodily postures, and dress attire of the people “must be conducive to making the entire celebration (the Mass) resplendent with beauty and noble simplicity” (The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) 42).
In keeping with this point, a few practical “no-no’s” bear highlighting, and these apply to both non-Catholics and Catholics. First, you may not, under any circumstances, bring any food or any beverages for yourself into a Catholic Church. It is neither the time nor the place. Second, men may not, under any circumstances, wear any hat in a Catholic Church. Men are to remove any headwear before entering the church. Third, gum chewing lacks social polish and is tactless: low brow. Chewing gum during Mass is not conducive to making the Mass resplendent in beauty and noble simplicity, nor is it dignified. Fourth, do not stand with your hands in your pockets. Instead assume a more reverent pose: folding one’s hands in a prayerful inclination.
“A common bodily posture, to be observed by all those taking part, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered together for the Sacred Liturgy, for it expresses the intentions and the spiritual attitude of the participants and also fosters them” (GIRM 42). The same bodily postures – the standing, the sitting, the kneeling – are also to be done by any, and all, non-Catholics attending Mass. As the saying is, “When in Rome, do as the Romans.” To not do as we Catholics do in Mass is rude, insulting, and – in justice – elicits disapproval. So, non-Catholics can do – and ought to do – all the routine ups and downs Catholics do at Mass.
Non-Catholics can also pray the Mass exactly as Catholics are supposed to pray the Mass. This means that non-Catholics can – as belief sounds in their souls – make the same prayerful responses that Catholics are supposed to make at Mass. Responses may be found in churches’ “missalettes” or song books. The readings for Sundays are also found there. So, there is guidance, and the Order of Mass, in the books in each pew, which will assist the non-Catholic in participating audibly/verbally.
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As these paragraphs indicate, non-Catholics can do most everything that Catholics do at Mass. There is just one – and it’s a major one – that non-Catholics can not do at Mass: namely, non-Catholics (as well as non-practicing Catholics and Catholics in a state of mortal sin) may not receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church. Generally, Mainstream and Evangelical Protestants, and naturally non-Christian peoples, do not share the Catholic belief that the natural elements become the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Christ Jesus at the consecration during Mass. And even if, like the Episcopalian ecclesial community and the Lutheran ecclesial community, a Protestant does believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, there are specific reasons why even these Christians may not receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church, but that is an issue beyond the scope of this column.
Thus, for someone who does not share the Catholic faith to take Holy Communion is to commit a serious lie – to oneself and to all others present at the Mass – simulating that one believes in spirit and in truth that the Holy Communion physically really is the Lord’s Body and Blood and simulating that one is in full union with the Catholic Church when, in fact, he or she is not.
To conclude as we started, what non-Catholics can and cannot do at the Catholic Mass is straight forward. In fact, there is more a non-Catholic can do at Mass than there is that he or she cannot do.
Father Mark Summers serves as pastor at Columbus St. Agatha Church in Upper Arlington.