Pope John Paul II: Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Part 38

In 2003, on Holy Thursday, 2003. Pope John Paul II issued what would be his final encyclical: Ecclesia de Eucharistia, "On the Eucharist and Its Relationship to the Church." This encyclical contains much to prayerfully ponder/meditate on. The encyclical's Chapter Four, The Eucharist and Ecclesial Communion, continues as follows:

"38. Ecclesial communion, as I have said, is likewise visible, and finds expression in the series of 'bonds' listed by the Council when it teaches: 'They are fully incorporated into the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept her whole structure and all the means of salvation established within her, and within her visible framework are united to Christ, who governs her through the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops, by the bonds of profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government and communion'.⁷⁷ 

"The Eucharist, as the supreme sacramental manifestation of communion in the Church, demands to be celebrated in a context where the outward bonds of communion are also intact. In a special way, since the Eucharist is 'as it were the summit of the spiritual life and the goal of all the sacraments',⁷⁸ it requires that the bonds of communion in the sacraments, particularly in Baptism and in priestly Orders, be real. It is not possible to give communion to a person who is not baptized or to one who rejects the full truth of the faith regarding the Eucharistic mystery. Christ is the truth and he bears witness to the truth (cf. Jn 14:6; 18:37); the sacrament of his body and blood does not permit duplicity."

Notes

⁷⁷Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 14.

⁷⁸Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 73, a. 3c.