[redgolum]

Neither Catholics nor Baptists have a "central structure" dictating which of their members can receive communion, under what circumstances. In BOTH cases, it is entirely up to individual pastors to make that call.

So the magisterium doesn't exist? Or the little thing called interdiction, in which the Catholic Church denied communion to whole countries and kingdoms. It could be argued that the majority of the structure of the Roman Catholic church is about who can, cannot, and may not receive sacraments.

Several here in FR used to argue that politicians that support abortion are excommunicated (Denied sacraments). Of course, that is not true, but on paper it is.

[BillyBoy]

>> So the magisterium doesn't exist? <<

It exists, the cathechism of the Catholic Church specifically says its up to individuals to examine their own conscience to determine if they are worthy to partake of Holy Communion, and up to their pastor to intervene in those matters and work with them on that, rather than its up to the Vatican and the Pope to micromanage Catholics on a case-by-case basis and then tell priests who can and cannot receive. If you read the catechism you'd know that.

This is why we always hear about priests being asked about giving Joe Biden communion, not the Pope. It's only up to the "central authority" if Joe Biden happens to attend mass at the Vatican one day. Same reason why Joe Biden's "mask mandate" only applies to "national momnuments" and he isn't deciding whether schoolchildren in Sandusky, Ohio are masked up.

There's actually very little difference between Catholics, Orthodox, and protestants when it comes to the worthiness of breaking bread with their fellow members. The issue is left up to the pastors and individual congregations, who know those people best.

The main difference is most protestant churches see communion as "merely a symbol". But apparently don't feel the need to withhold that "symbol" from phony Christians who present themselves in public as good people of faith.