More Bishop-Imposed Illegal Liturgical Abuse: Bergoglio-Protégé Argentine Archbishop Decrees First Communion must be received Standing and in the Hand (full text of decree)

The Argentine archdiocese of San Juan de Cuyo has sent a protocol to parish priests, parish vicars, Catholic school administrators, and catechists in which, in view of First Communions and Confirmations, it decrees that “catechumens (of any age) will receive Holy Communion only standing and in the hand.”

Report from Spanish website InfoCatólica:

In Poland, a Roadside Billboard: "Stop Communion in the Hand!"

 

That's it. We have nothing to add.

Just our most heartfelt congratulations to the Polish Association of Christian Culture for their beautiful campaign (click here) in promotion of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

“Digital Communion: A Modern Invention”: Guest Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

Introduction

From Lent to summer 2020, for fear of a virus, guidelines forbade the faithful to receive Our Lord in the Sacred Host (or from the Chalice). Being deprived of sacramental Communion, people got used to spiritual communion instead. In spiritual Communion, those in state of grace commune from a distance with Our Lord in the Sacred Host, without consuming the Host or even touching it. But it is a third type of Eucharistic Communion that we would like to examine here. We call it digital Communion.

 

What is digital Communion? Is it about receiving Holy Communion online, as some people wished could be the case with sacramental absolution of sins? No, digital Communion has nothing to do with the Internet (even though its appearance in the Catholic Church coincided with that of the first personal computer some fifty years ago). Digital Communion is a modern invention; it never existed in Christian antiquity. It is when one takes the Sacred Host with one’s fingers and puts it into one’s own mouth. We call it digital because digital is the adjective derived from the word digitus, a finger in Latin, which gave our English word digit (whence also the IT meaning of the same word digit: “any of the numerals from 0 to 9, especially when forming part of a number, following the practice of counting on the fingers”).

Dear Bishops: Take advantage of a God-given teaching moment...

A traditional priest wrote the following to me, and asked me to share it.

As we watch the pandemonium break out around us over the Coronavirus and take a few moments to reflect on just how vulnerable we are as a nation and a race, as our tower of Babel, built with the bricks of electronics, entertainment, distractions, and self-gratification, comes crashing down to reveal a humanity that wallows in fear of sickness and death, messengers of a long-forgotten God, perhaps faithful Catholics are raising their eyebrows over the cancelling of public Mass and worship in regions of the United States and around the world. While we certainly admit the need for due precautions to be taken, does the prohibition of public Mass and Sacraments really contribute to the welfare of humanity?

Regardless of how one may answer that question, things are as they are. However, we cannot overlook the opportunity that presents itself for bishops to hit the proverbial “reset” button on some dubious or outright irreverent practices that have plagued Catholic worship for decades. 

As bishops systematically banned the “sign of peace,” Holy Communion under the species of wine, and (in some places) even distribution of Holy Communion by extraordinary ministers, the liturgical pandemonium common in many parishes suddenly began to calm. Mass can and did continue without these things. And while we may wish these restrictions were rather the result of a newfound faith and reverence for the Blessed Sacrament on the part of the majority of the episcopacy, nevertheless an unprecedented opportunity now presents itself for bishops to patiently and prayerfully discern how much more essential and important faith and reverence truly are, and how dispensable the bad practices have proved to be.

‘Our bishops themselves deprive us of the Body of Christ’: Communion and the Corona Virus

Saint Tarcisius

Several French bishops have used issued guidelines for preventing in the spread of the Corona Virus, in which they instruct priests to refuse to give communion on the tongue. Riposte Catholique has posted a letter from a young Catholic protesting against what amounts to an uncanonical interdict against traditional Catholics. We offer an English translation here.

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Your Lordships,

With all of the filial respect that I owe to you as Successors of the Apostles and Princes of the Church, I write you this letter, in exercising my rights according to Canon 212 of the Code of Canon Law.

For several weeks, coronavirus (COVID-19) has been present on French territory, thus the bishops of several dioceses have taken precautions in order to limit the spread of the virus among the faithful gathered for the liturgical services, particularly the Mass, which poses a particular difficulty due to the distribution of communion.

Copied below are the instructions from the press release of your brother, the archbishop of Paris. 

Statement on the Corona Virus and Holy Communion from the Latin Mass Society

STATEMENT ON COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) AND THE RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION AT CELEBRATIONS OF THE MASS ACCORDING TO THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM

LATIN MASS SOCIETY

3rd MARCH 2020

The Bishops of England and Wales have issued ‘Guidelines’ (dated 27th February 2020) on steps to be taken in parishes in relation to the possible spread of COVID-19 (the Coronavirus).

While noting that these guidelines do not take the form of a decree with the force of canon law, we welcome them. We should like to make the following clarifications on their application to celebrations of the Extraordinary Form and other traditional Rites and Usages of the Latin Church, such as the Dominican Rite.

1.  In these celebrations the Sign of Peace is not given among members of the congregation; the Precious Blood is not distributed to the Faithful (from the Chalice); and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are not employed. In these respects these celebrations already adhere to or render unnecessary recommendations given in the Guidelines for a heightened level of hygiene necessary in the case of a more serious outbreak of the virus.

2.  In these celebrations Holy Communion (the Host) may not be distributed in the hand, according to the universal liturgical law applicable to them. Should the spread of COVID-19 necessitate the suspension of the distribution of Holy Communion on the tongue, this would mean the suspension of the distribution of Holy Communion to the Faithful in these celebrations.

Don Pietro Leone: The Coronavirus and Holy Communion in the Hand

Translated from the Italian by Francesca Romana

If honour is due to another according to his dignity, that is to say according to the excellence that he possesses, it is due to God absolutely in virtue of His infinite dignity and excellence. The name of this honour due to God is ‘Adoration’, which encompasses an attitude both of the mind and of the body.

That of the mind is defined by Bossuet as: ‘The recognition of God’s Highest Sovereignty, and of our own most profound dependence’. The attitude to be adopted by the body, by contrast, when we are in God’s presence, that is to say when we are before Our Lord Jesus Christ in church, has been established by Holy Mother Church in tems of silence, genuflections, kneeling, and deep bows. To receive Holy Communion, more precisely, it is necessary to kneel at the Communion rail and communicate on the tongue.

This second practice, introduced in the first centuries A.D. and established for the Church Universal over a thousand years ago, was abolished by the so-called ‘Reformers’ in the 16th. century. As quoted in our book ‘The Destruction of the Roman Rite, the apostate Dominican Martin Bucer states in his ‘Censura’: ‘It becomes our duty to abolish from the churches... with all purity of doctrine, any form of bread-adoration that they wish the antichrists to use and maintain in the hearts of the simpler people’. Such were the reasons for which the Reformers Zwingli and Calvin also imposed Communion standing and in the hand. Communion in the hand was subsequently to become a mile-stone in the denial of the Catholic dogma of the Real Presence.

In the 1960’s the same practice was introduced into the Catholic Church by priests in central Europe as an act of defiance against Rome, some say as a reaction to the encyclical Humanae Vitae. The practice, as we well know, proceeded to expand throughout the Catholic world.  

Taking into one’s own hand the Sacrosanct Body of the Lord - typically while standing - brushing Its fragments off the hands, swallowing It while walking – how can such behaviour possibly be described as ‘Adoration’?  Indeed it was thought out precisely in order to render adoration impossible. Both priests and people alike should refuse absolutely to participate in act of such heinous injustice.

Can a Bishop Require Communion in the Hand to Prevent the Spread of the Coronavirus? (And Would This Apply to the TLM?)

The following article is intended as a follow-up on yesterday's post by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

A friend posed this question to me: “Our bishop sent out a notice suspending communion on the tongue temporarily in response to the coronavirus, and our pastor thinks that this applies to our Latin Mass. Do you know of any legislation or magisterial statement clarifying that not even a bishop has the authority to do this?”

Op-Ed - Bishop Schneider: The Rite of Holy Communion in times of a pandemic'The ban on Communion in the mouth is unfounded compared to the great health risks of Communion in the hand in the time of a pandemic. Such a ban constitutes an abuse of authority.'

By Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Nobody can force us to receive the Body of Christ in a way that constitutes a risk of the loss of the fragments, and a decrease in reverence, as is the way of receiving Communion in the hand. Although it is true that one could receive Communion on a small white and clean handkerchief (purificator, small corporal) directly in the mouth, this way is not always practicable and even refused by some priests.

In these cases, it is better to make a Spiritual Communion, which fills the soul with special graces. In times of persecution, many Catholics were unable to receive Holy Communion in a sacramental way for long periods of time, but they made a Spiritual Communion with much spiritual benefit.

Communion in the hand is no more hygienic than Communion in the mouth. Indeed, it can be dangerous for contagion. From a hygienic point of view, the hand carries a huge amount of bacteria. Many pathogens are transmitted through the hands. Whether by shaking other people's hands or frequently touching objects, such as door handles or handrails and grab bars in public transport, germs can quickly pass from hand to hand; and with these unhygienic hands and fingers people then touch often their nose and mouth. Also, germs can sometimes survive on the surface of the touched objects for days. According to a 2006 study, published in the journal "BMC Infectious Diseases", influenza viruses and similar viruses can persist on inanimate surfaces, such as e.g. door handles or handrails and handles in transport and public buildings for a few days.

Many people who come to church and then receive Holy Communion in their hands have first touched door handles or handrails and grab bars in public transport or other buildings. Thus, viruses are imprinted on the palm and fingers of their hands. And then during Holy Mass with these hands and fingers they are sometimes touching their nose or mouth. With these hands and fingers they touch the consecrated host, thus impressing the virus also on the host, thus transporting the viruses through the host into their mouth.

Communion in the mouth is certainly less dangerous and more hygienic compared to Communion in the hand. In fact, the palm and the fingers of the hand, without intense washing, undeniably contain an accumulation of viruses.

The ban on Communion in the mouth is unfounded compared to the great health risks of Communion in the hand in the time of a pandemic. Such a ban constitutes an abuse of authority. Furthermore it seems, that some Church authorities are using the situation of an epidemic as a pretext. It seems also that some of them have a kind of cynical joy to spread more and more the process of trivialization and de-sacralization of the Most Holy and Divine Body of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrament, exposing the Body of the Lord himself to the real dangers of irreverence (loss of fragments) and sacrileges (theft of consecrated hosts).

Communion handling: the gravest problem (First of Two Posts)

Inspired by recent debates on the matter, we repost this 2011 item.

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Translation problems? Mass celebrated towards the people? Altar girls? Postures?

No, the greatest and gravest problem of the liturgy of the Latin Church - that is, of the "Ordinary form", or Mass of Paul VI - is one that transcends all this, even it is related to all of them: it is the way the Body of Christ is treated.