I am a baptized, confirmed , Catholic school educated person and it has always been my understanding that because there is a very big difference (transfiguration of the bread and wine) that only Catholics should receive communion at a Catholic Mass. Protestant faiths willingly offer communion to catholics at their services because the bread and wine are a SYMBOL of the body and blood of Christ. Because I am a lapsed Catholic, I do not take communion when I do go to Mass occasionally because for me, it somehow feels disrespectful. But maybe that's just my hangup. However, if you are unaware of these kinds of nuances, you might do what my brother in law did and approached the priest during Mass like everyone else to receive communion, and then not knowing what to do with the host, put it in his pocket and forgot about it. The difference here is that Ms Quinn is a high profile journalist writing about the subject of religion, and should probablly have know to sit out Communion.