Father Dave first explains that we believe that the Last Supper was when the Eucharist was instituted as a sacrament. “If we look at the scriptural stories of what happened when Judas left, and went on his way to betray Jesus, that happened at the end of the meal. So presumably yes, Judas would have consumed just along with all of the other apostles.”
LISTEN: Father Dave on Bishops’ Vote for New Eucharistic Document
“There are a couple of things to note here, particularly since this is a fairly timely question. In the past couple of weeks, the United States bishops gathered for their twice-annual meeting, and the thing that was really focused on by a lot of Catholic and secular media was the discussion of creating a document about the Eucharist… There was also talk that the document might contain discussion about the beauty of the Eucharist teaching about Christ’s true presence, and our worthiness to receive it. We believe that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is not open to everyone on earth. We would say that it would be [for] Catholics because of our belief in the Eucharist, and to have communion and unity of belief would be important for Catholics who are in good standing, meaning a state of grace. And as Ron pointed out, being aware of a mortal sin on our souls is severe. That has separated us from God and broken our communion with the Church.”
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“However, the Church has never taught that it is ever appropriate to deny somebody communion… This is what the Church teaches: that it is always our job as church, ministers, and lay people who teach and pass on the faith to form the conscience of an individual who will then either present him or herself for communion or not, based on their awareness of their mortal sin. It is never our job to look out at the congregation, whether that’s a Eucharistic minister, or bishop, and decide who is worthy and who is not. That has never been the teaching in the Church.”
“We could get into a philosophical or theological discussion about whether or not Judas was in a state of mortal sin, but at that point… Jesus knew what was coming. He said to Judas in several of the accounts, ‘Go and do what you must do.’ But aside from the actual last supper, Jesus choosing to eat with people that were in fact known in the town to be notorious sinners, he chose to do that anyway.”