The John-Henry Westen Show - 5 Reasons Why Catholics Should NEVER Receive Communion in the Hand

00:00:00.240 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:00:04.120 With orders to refuse the faithful Holy Communion on the tongue coming from governmental health

00:00:09.420 authorities and even from some bishops and priests, I wanted to give you the reasons

00:00:14.280 why I could never receive Holy Communion in the hand.

00:00:17.980 And if the matter was forced, I would make the sacrifice of just making a spiritual Holy

00:00:23.320 Communion.

00:00:24.320 I've tried to make this as simple as possible by dividing it into five reasons and the video

00:00:29.200 description and over at my LifeSite blog will be including the links to the documents referenced.

00:00:35.260 So please stay tuned.

00:00:53.860 Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.

00:00:57.580 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

00:01:03.560 So the very first point I'd like to make is about reverence due to Almighty God.

00:01:10.020 I want to dismiss the false notion that people receive Communion on the tongue out of some

00:01:14.280 kind of false piety or holier-than-thou attitude.

00:01:18.640 While I can't of course discount that that is ever something that's going on, from those

00:01:23.420 I've witnessed and read about receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, it comes from a deep

00:01:28.440 reverential love for the King of Kings whom we receive in this great sacrament.

00:01:33.440 And I believe receiving our Lord on the tongue while kneeling reinforces that reverence for

00:01:38.520 our Eucharistic Lord.

00:01:41.040 Some of the most powerful arguments for the need for this type of reverence are in the Bible.

00:01:47.740 Remember when Moses first met the Lord God in the burning bush, as we read about in Exodus

00:01:52.620 3?

00:01:53.660 Well, Moses was told not to come too near to the burning bush and to remove his sandals

00:01:59.120 because he was on holy ground.

00:02:01.760 If you read Psalm 95, we read,

00:02:04.580 Come, let us adore and fall down and weep before the Lord that made us.

00:02:09.700 We see it, of course, in the New Testament too.

00:02:12.540 Remember when Peter, James, and John went up Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration.

00:02:17.780 They saw the glorified body of Jesus, which we receive in Holy Communion, and they prostrated

00:02:23.100 themselves with their foreheads to the ground.

00:02:26.320 But the biblical account that speaks to this subject most directly for me is what happened

00:02:32.080 with the Ark of the Covenant.

00:02:33.440 You can read the account both in 2 Samuel 6, 1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13, 9-12.

00:02:40.600 The Ark of the Covenant was designed by God and built to the Lord's specifications.

00:02:45.260 It contained the manna, the staff of Moses, and the tablets of the Ten Commandments.

00:02:49.520 It was also so sacred that it was never allowed to be touched, except by certain Levites, the 1.00

00:02:56.080 sort of priests of their time.

00:02:57.520 The reservation of touching the Ark to priests only was potently or powerfully reinforced

00:03:04.960 when a layman, whose name was Uzzah, who was transporting the Ark at the request of King

00:03:10.940 David, was struck dead by God for touching the Ark.

00:03:15.760 Now get this.

00:03:16.960 Uzzah was trying to do the right thing. 1.00

00:03:19.120 He was doing what he thought was right to save the Ark.

00:03:21.980 You see, while he and his brother were transporting the Ark in a cart pulled by oxen, along the

00:03:29.220 journey, the Ark got tilted or, you know, the oxen stumbled and it was tilting.

00:03:34.820 So Uzzah used his hand to steady the Ark and for that was struck dead by the Lord. 0.93

00:03:41.000 The scripture explains that the Lord struck him down because Uzzah was not to touch the 1.00

00:03:45.780 Ark.

00:03:46.740 It's actually very much the same in our time when many are trying to do what they think

00:03:51.240 is right for the coronavirus by receiving on the hand.

00:03:55.440 Yet with the Ark, it was not the right thing to do, even though it is what seemed expedient.

00:04:01.540 It was done for good intent to save the Ark from harm, just as many are receiving on the

00:04:07.580 hand today with good intent to save their brothers and sisters in Christ from possible coronavirus

00:04:13.000 infection or to save the church, her freedom to be able to distribute Holy Communion at all.

00:04:18.940 But nevertheless, touching the Ark was the wrong thing to do.

00:04:24.680 The Lord's decision here actually perplexed David, as you can read in the scriptures.

00:04:29.900 And after this incident, David was afraid to bring the Ark of the Lord to himself.

00:04:34.560 And yet, what was the Ark of the Covenant compared to our Lord himself in the Eucharist?

00:04:41.560 The Ark was revered in the temple, it was carried in ceremony, it was considered holy, and yet

00:04:46.860 it was only the footstool of God.

00:04:49.700 His presence was there veiled and prefiguring of his real presence in the person of our Lord

00:04:56.320 Jesus Christ, whom we receive in Holy Communion.

00:04:59.460 My wife is a convert to Catholicism.

00:05:03.800 She asked me the other day, how communion in the hand can possibly make any sense, given

00:05:09.140 the practices in the church of consecrating the altar and the sacred vessels used in the

00:05:15.160 mass and consecrating the priest's hands.

00:05:18.020 We see priests and bishops, even the Pope, covering his hands with the humoral veil, with a vestment

00:05:27.760 called a humoral veil during benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

00:05:31.660 This is all about the sacredness of Christ in the Eucharist.

00:05:36.260 But if we allow everyone to touch the sacred host with their unconsecrated hands, the practice

00:05:43.180 of the humoral veil becomes very confusing indeed.

00:05:47.640 It may seem perhaps that the church, since it seems not to care about handling the body

00:05:52.300 of Christ itself with unconsecrated hands, but only when it's in a monstrance, perhaps

00:05:58.420 it's the gold in the monstrance that we are protecting with the use of the veil.

00:06:02.280 And of course, that's nonsense.

00:06:04.440 But I'm going to conclude on this point of reverence towards our Eucharistic Lord, quoting

00:06:09.820 from Dietrich von Hildebrandt.

00:06:12.520 He was a German Catholic philosopher and religious writer.

00:06:15.820 He was known and loved by the last number of popes.

00:06:19.200 He was a great fighter of, of course, Nazism and communism. 0.82

00:06:22.760 At Wikipedia, you can read about Hildebrandt.

00:06:25.720 He was called, and I quote, the 20th century doctor of the church by Pope Pius XII.

00:06:31.380 Pope John Paul II greatly admired the philosophical work of Hildebrandt, remarking once to his widow,

00:06:36.860 Alice von Hildebrandt, your husband is one of the great ethicists of the 20th century.

00:06:43.040 Benedict XVI also had a particular admiration and regard for Hildebrandt, who knew Ratzinger

00:06:48.540 as a young priest in Munich.

00:06:49.860 The degree of Pope Benedict's esteem is expressed in one of his statements about Hildebrandt,

00:06:57.560 and I quote,

00:06:58.020 Well, here is what Dietrich von Hildebrandt wrote about the subject of communion in the hand

00:07:17.140 in his book, The Devastated Vineyard, and I quote,

00:07:21.720 Unfortunately, in many places, communion is distributed in the hand.

00:07:27.620 To what extent is this supposed to be a renewal and a deepening of the reception of Holy Communion?

00:07:34.840 Is the trembling reverence with which we receive this incomprehensible gift perhaps increased

00:07:41.080 by receiving it in our unconsecrated hands rather than from the consecrated hand of the priest?

00:07:45.860 It is not difficult, continued von Hildebrandt, it is not difficult to see that the danger

00:07:54.220 of parts of the consecrated host falling to the ground is incomparably increased, and the

00:08:00.740 danger of desecrating it, or indeed of horrible blasphemy, is very great.

00:08:06.560 Von Hildebrandt continued,

00:08:07.840 And what in the world is to be gained by all this?

00:08:11.780 The claim that contact with the hand makes the host more real is certainly pure nonsense.

00:08:18.520 For the theme here is not the reality of the matter of the host, but rather the consciousness,

00:08:24.760 which is only attainable by faith that the host in reality has become the body of Christ.

00:08:31.220 The reverent reception of the body of Christ on our tongues from the consecrated hand of the priest

00:08:36.360 is much more conducive to the strengthening of this consciousness than reception with our own

00:08:43.480 unconsecrated hands." 0.83

00:08:45.360 The second reason I would give is the authority of the church.

00:08:52.980 It's important to say, first of all, that I'm saying this knowing full well that we are in the midst

00:08:59.160 of a coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the very first point I'd like to make about this point is

00:09:08.440 to bring to your consideration that the church has already considered the matter of allowance of

00:09:13.720 Holy Communion on the tongue in the midst of a virus. And that's in the midst of a pandemic even.

00:09:21.160 It was in 2009 in the midst of the H1N1 swine flu influenza pandemic. A lay Catholic in England,

00:09:28.680 in a diocese where Holy Communion on the tongue was restricted due to the pandemic,

00:09:32.520 wrote the Vatican about the matter. And the response from the Congregation for Divine Worship

00:09:37.560 and Discipline of the Sacraments, which is the sort of Vatican department that deals with these things,

00:09:42.920 was dated July 24th, 2009. You're going to see a link to that below this video in the description

00:09:49.560 and also over at my blog on this subject at lifesitenews.com. So that CDW or Congregation for 0.83

00:09:57.640 Divine Worship document dated July 24th, 2009 was posted online by Rorati Celli. And you can also

00:10:05.800 find a link to it below, as I said. So the Vatican congregation tasked with authoritatively responding

00:10:12.040 to such questions, wrote, quoting church law on the subject, and I'll quote it for you. The letter

00:10:17.320 says, each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. And end quote.

00:10:25.080 And by the way, they were referencing number 92 of the Vatican instruction on the subject,

00:10:29.880 called Redemptionis Sacramentum. They said, nor is it licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ's

00:10:37.480 faithful who are not impeded by law, and that means church law, of course, from receiving the Holy

00:10:42.600 Eucharist. End quote. So the Vatican in their response added this, and I quote, the congregation

00:10:49.960 thanks you for bringing this important matter to its attention. Be assured that the appropriate

00:10:54.840 contacts will be made. End quote. Now there's a very fascinating explanation of what this letter means

00:11:02.200 and the implications that it has. Over at Canon Law Made Easy, which is a blog from canonist Kathy

00:11:09.320 Caridi, the canonist points out the significance of that line about appropriate contacts will be made.

00:11:17.880 Caridi says, and I quote, it makes it clear that after sending this letter, the CDW intended to contact

00:11:24.600 the clergy who were illegally barring Catholics from receiving Communion on the tongue to inform them

00:11:31.080 in a formal official way that by doing that they were violating the law. End quote.

00:11:37.800 The canonist concludes this way. She says, it would be only logical to assume that if the faithful contact

00:11:44.840 the CDW now with the information about the current illegal practices in their own parishes and dioceses,

00:11:51.240 where they are forbidden to receive Communion on the tongue, the CDW will respond in precisely the same

00:11:57.320 way. That is, if you're being denied Holy Communion right now in coronavirus time, contact the Vatican

00:12:05.160 and they will respond in the same way as they did during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus, saying that it

00:12:13.160 is not permissible. Or here's the words actually of canonist Caridi. The CDW will have to respond in the same

00:12:20.600 way, not because coronavirus isn't dangerous, but because the right of the faithful around the world

00:12:26.120 to receive the Eucharist in the way that is the church's established norm on the tongue cannot be

00:12:33.080 curtailed by anyone other than the supreme authority of the church. She continues, this is an issue,

00:12:40.120 not of germs, but of the church's hierarchical structure. No bishop on earth, still less a priest

00:12:47.640 acting on his own, has the authority to countermand a law or specific directive of the Vatican that is

00:12:55.640 intended to apply to the universal church period. And again, that's from the blog Canon Law Made Easy.

00:13:03.400 The third point that I wanted to make is about the witness of the saints and popes and angels.

00:13:12.440 So first off, we have St. Thomas Aquinas, regarded universally as the greatest doctor of the church.

00:13:17.400 He wrote in the 1200s in his Summa Theologica, and I quote, out of reverence towards this sacrament,

00:13:24.520 nothing touches it but what is consecrated. Hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated,

00:13:29.400 and likewise the priest's hands for touching this sacrament. Hence it is not lawful for anyone else

00:13:36.760 to touch it, except from necessity, for instance, if it were to fall upon the ground or else in some

00:13:43.240 other case of urgency. And you can find that in the Summa Theologica. That's actually Q82, Article 13.

00:13:52.040 So, also, in 2008, Pope Benedict decided to stop giving Holy Communion on the hand to the faithful,

00:14:00.040 and would only give Holy Communion to the faithful on the tongue and kneeling.

00:14:05.880 A Vatican webpage commemorating this decision was published in 2009. It has been updated since,

00:14:11.880 of course, to include a photo of Pope Francis, but it can still be found on the Vatican website.

00:14:17.400 The Vatican webpage says this, and I quote,

00:14:21.320 From the time of the Fathers of the Church, a tendency was born and consolidated whereby

00:14:27.000 distribution of Holy Communion in hand became more and more restricted in favor of distributing

00:14:33.720 Holy Communion on the tongue. The motivation for this practice is two-fold. A, first, to avoid as much

00:14:41.640 as possible the dropping of the Eucharistic particles. B, second, to increase among the

00:14:47.400 faithful devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. End quote.

00:14:53.640 The letter continues. A celebrated saying of St. Augustine cited by Pope Benedict in Benedict XVI,

00:15:01.240 in number 66 of his encyclical Sacramentum Caritatis, that is the Sacrament of Love,

00:15:07.400 teaches, quote, No one eats that flesh without first adoring it. We should sin were we not to adore it. End quote.

00:15:17.800 Kneeling, continues the Vatican document, indicates and promotes the adoration necessary before receiving

00:15:25.240 the Eucharistic Christ. From this perspective, the then Cardinal Ratzinger assured that, quote,

00:15:31.960 Communion only reaches its true depth when it is supported and surrounded by adoration.

00:15:38.440 He said that in The Spirit of the Liturgy, which was published by Ignatius Press in the year 2000.

00:15:45.480 For this reason, Cardinal Ratzinger maintained that, quote,

00:15:49.480 The practice of kneeling for Holy Communion has in its favor a centuries-old tradition,

00:15:55.160 and it is a particularly expressive sign of adoration, completely appropriate in light of the

00:16:01.880 true, real, and substantial presence of our Lord Jesus Christ under the consecrated species.

00:16:07.400 This is from this congregation of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments,

00:16:17.400 dated July 1st, 2002. The Vatican webpage goes on to say,

00:16:25.320 John Paul II, in his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharista,

00:16:30.680 The Church Comes from the Eucharist, wrote in number 61, quote,

00:16:35.160 By giving the Eucharist the prominence it deserves, and by being careful not to diminish any of its

00:16:41.080 dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the greatness of this gift.

00:16:47.160 We are urged to do so by an uninterrupted tradition from the first centuries on has found the Christian

00:16:54.440 community ever vigilant in guarding this treasure, inspired by the love, inspired by love,

00:17:00.120 the Church is anxious to hand on to future generations of Christians, without loss, 0.51

00:17:06.520 her faith and teaching with regard to the mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no danger of excess in

00:17:11.960 our care for this mystery, for in this sacrament is recapitulated the whole mystery of our salvation,

00:17:19.000 end quote. The Vatican webpage concludes this way. It says, announcing the, or commemorating the change

00:17:27.320 of Pope Benedict, it says,

00:17:30.520 In continuity with the teaching of his predecessors, starting with the solemnity of Corpus Christi in the

00:17:36.600 year 2008, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, began to distribute to the faithful the body of the Lord,

00:17:44.040 by placing it directly on the tongue of the faithful as they remain kneeling, end quote.

00:17:49.720 The current head of the Vatican department that deals with the issue, known as, again,

00:17:55.800 the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, is Cardinal Robert Serra.

00:18:02.520 Without a doubt, he is one of the saintliest cardinals alive today. In fact, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

00:18:10.120 strongly endorsed Cardinal Serra, saying publicly in an afterword to a reprint of one of Cardinal Serra's

00:18:16.200 book, which you might know called The Power of Silence, and this is Pope Benedict, the one already

00:18:21.880 retired, by the way, so Pope Emeritus Benedict, saying, quote, about Cardinal Serra, quote,

00:18:27.000 With Cardinal Serra, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,

00:18:33.320 end quote. Benedict also added in that same afterword, Cardinal Serra is a spiritual teacher

00:18:41.160 who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him,

00:18:48.040 and thus really has something to say to each one of us, end quote. It is this cardinal, this saintly

00:18:55.720 African cardinal, Robert Serra, who is in charge of the church's dicastery, dealing with the sacraments,

00:19:01.640 that is pleaded with priests to only give communion to the faithful, kneeling and on the tongue.

00:19:08.920 In the preface to a 2018 book, critically analyzing communion on the hand, Cardinal Robert Serra,

00:19:16.360 who again is the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, he wrote these words,

00:19:22.040 Why do we insist on receiving communion standing and on the hand? Why this attitude of lack of

00:19:29.400 submission to the signs of God? May no priest dare to impose his authority in this matter by refusing

00:19:37.240 or mistreating those who wish to receive communion kneeling and on the tongue. Let us come as children

00:19:43.560 and humbly receive the body of Christ on our knees and on our tongue. The saints give us the example.

00:19:49.800 They are the models to be imitated that God offers us, end quote. Cardinal Serra also warned

00:19:58.520 strenuously, and I quote again, The most insidious diabolical attack consists in trying to extinguish

00:20:05.560 faith in the Eucharist by sowing errors and fostering an unsuitable way of receiving it. He continued,

00:20:12.920 truly the war between Michael and his angels on one side and Lucifer on the other continues in the

00:20:19.560 hearts of the faithful. He said, Satan's target is the sacrifice of the mass and the real presence

00:20:26.440 of Jesus in the consecrated host. Let us now look at how the faith in the real presence can influence

00:20:36.360 the way we receive communion and vice versa, he said. And again, I'm quoting from Cardinal Robert Serra.

00:20:43.800 He said, receiving communion on the hand undoubtedly involves a great scattering of the fragments.

00:20:50.200 On the contrary, attention to the smallest crumbs, care in purifying the sacred vessels,

00:20:55.880 not touching the host with sweaty hands, all become professions of faith in the real presence of

00:21:02.120 Jesus, even in the smallest parts of the consecrated species. If Jesus is the substance of the Eucharistic

00:21:09.880 bread, and if the dimensions of the fragments are accidents only of the bread, it is of little

00:21:15.880 importance how big or small the piece of host is. The substance is the same. It's him. On the contrary,

00:21:23.880 inattention to the fragments makes us lose sight of the dogma. Little by little, the thought may

00:21:30.040 gradually prevail that if even the parish priest does not pay attention to the fragments, if he

00:21:36.280 administers communion in such a way that the fragments can be scattered, then it means that

00:21:41.240 Jesus is not in them, or that he is up to a certain point. Cardinal Serra continued,

00:21:49.480 the second track on which the attack against the Eucharist runs is the attempt to remove the sense of

00:21:55.240 the sacred from the hearts of the faithful. While the term transubstantiation points us to the reality

00:22:03.320 of presence, the sense of the sacred enables us to glimpse its absolute uniqueness and holiness.

00:22:11.400 The Cardinal continues, what a misfortune it would be to lose the sense of the sacred precisely in what

00:22:18.200 is the most sacred. And how is it possible by receiving special food in the same way as ordinary food?

00:22:29.640 He says, the liturgy is made up of many small rituals and gestures. Each of them is capable of

00:22:35.320 expressing these attitudes filled with love, filial respect and adoration toward God. That is precisely

00:22:42.280 why it is appropriate to promote the beauty, fittingness and pastoral value of a practice

00:22:47.880 which developed during the long life and tradition of the church that is the act of receiving Holy

00:22:54.440 Communion on the tongue and kneeling. He continued, the greatness and nobility of man as well as the

00:23:02.120 highest expression of his love for his Creator consists in kneeling before God. Jesus himself prayed on

00:23:09.800 his knees in the presence of the Father." Cardinal Sarah concluded his reflections on the Eucharist

00:23:19.560 and receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling this way. He said,

00:23:24.200 may this book, now remember he was writing the preface to a book which critically was examining this

00:23:30.360 notion of communion on the hand. He said, may this book encourage those priests and faithful who moved

00:23:36.440 also by the example of Benedict XVI, who in the last years of his pontificate wanted to distribute the

00:23:41.800 Eucharist in the mouth and kneeling, wish to administer or receive the Eucharist in this latter

00:23:48.760 manner, which is far more suited to the sacrament itself. The Cardinal said, I hope there can be a

00:23:56.840 rediscovery and promotion of the beauty and pastoral value of this method. In my opinion, he said,

00:24:03.560 and judgment. This is an important question on which the Church today must reflect.

00:24:08.840 This is a further act of adoration and love that each of us can offer to Jesus Christ.

00:24:15.640 I am very pleased, said Cardinal Sarah, to see so many young people who choose to receive our Lord so

00:24:22.360 reverently on their knees and on their tongues. One of the other aspects of his preface was actually

00:24:30.680 Cardinal Sarah's recollection of the Fatima apparitions and the angel that appeared to the

00:24:37.800 three Fatima children prior to their seeing Our Lady herself. At one of the appearances of the angel,

00:24:44.120 the angel of peace that is, or the angel of Portugal, he appeared to the children and the angel brought with

00:24:49.560 him Holy Communion. The angel prostrated himself before the Eucharistic Lord, teaching the children to do the same.

00:24:57.400 The fourth point I'd like to bring up is the profanation, what they call the profanation,

00:25:05.000 or the desecration of the Holy Eucharist. And it's most seen, of course, in what we just heard

00:25:11.160 Cardinal Sarah talking about, and that is the loss of the fragments of the Eucharist.

00:25:15.960 One of the things I wanted to show you was this clip of an experiment that was done on video in

00:25:24.520 order to see if particles are indeed left when it's administered. So they took these unconsecrated

00:25:30.680 hosts, they spread them here on a table, as you can see, and you'll notice when they examine it,

00:25:35.240 there it is, crumbs or particles left of the host. Now, this was unconsecrated, of course,

00:25:41.880 but they did the same thing in a person's hand. They used this glove to show what happens when

00:25:46.520 they put it in the person's hand, they put it in the hand, remove the host and sure enough,

00:25:50.440 take a look, particles. So also take a look at this clip from the interview that I did with Dan

00:25:58.360 Burke. Now, Dan Burke was a former head of EWTN news. And he had experience, of course, with the

00:26:03.960 coronavirus, but he is very firmly of the belief that part of this sort of coronavirus chastisement

00:26:10.360 is as a result of the profanation of the Blessed Sacrament. He talked about how our Lord has been

00:26:17.320 trampled underfoot for 50 years in our churches because of what we're doing and how we're letting

00:26:23.080 the particles of the Holy Eucharist fall to the floor. Have a look.

00:26:27.000 Because when you receive in the hand, it causes transact, you know, if I could speak like an

00:26:35.000 engineer for a moment, transactional activity that is that that is minimum of two, twice as much or

00:26:44.760 three times as much as receiving on the tongue because you grab it with your fingers or you or you,

00:26:51.720 which is the worst kind or it's placed in your hand and then you grab it with your fingers and

00:26:56.840 that causes particles to break loose. And at one time in my own parish, I watched and on Sunday,

00:27:03.400 we have a, it's a, it's a cathedral. So there are a lot of people, let's just say a thousand,

00:27:09.160 a hundred percent of those who received on the hand, John Henry, a hundred percent. And let me just say,

00:27:15.000 this is an Orthodox parish, you know, with an Orthodox, a very good and holy priest.

00:27:22.200 He's a great liturgist. He's a, he's a canon lawyer. He's the chancellor of the diocese,

00:27:26.680 Father Brian Jerebik. I watched, and I always sit in the front pew anyway, or somewhere real close to

00:27:31.960 the front. And just out of curiosity, a hundred percent John Henry that received on the hand did not

00:27:39.880 examine whether or not there were particles to be consumed before they brushed their hands down

00:27:46.680 on their side or whatever. And that, that's, that causes desecration because as the Council of Trent

00:27:56.680 clearly says, as tradition is clearly taught that the, that if you break the host down into small pieces,

00:28:04.600 the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ is still present in those pieces.

00:28:11.080 And if those drop to the floor and they're trampled underfoot, this is a grave sin. This is

00:28:16.120 desecration. And so maybe there's not as full culpability on an individual because they have

00:28:22.360 no intent of doing this, but certainly it's not going to go well in the judgment if they make it.

00:28:29.560 As we've already seen in the comments of the popes and the cardinals of the church,

00:28:33.000 one of the main concerns with communion in the hand is this loss of the fragments of the Eucharistic

00:28:39.080 Christ. It's been one of the main themes of the heroic Bishop Athanasius Schneider,

00:28:45.320 who penned a book on this subject of the reception of Holy Communion in the hand in 2012. It was called

00:28:52.600 Dominus Est. It is the Lord. And he says these words, I'm going to quote them at length because

00:28:59.880 it's just incredible. He says the fathers of the church demonstrate a lively concern that no one

00:29:05.800 lose the smallest particle of Eucharistic bread as exhorted St. Cyril of Jerusalem in this very

00:29:13.080 impressive manner, colon. Be careful that you do not lose anything of the body of the Lord.

00:29:19.240 If you let fall anything, you must think of it as though you cut off one of the members of your own

00:29:25.160 body. In other words, one of your limbs. Tell me, this is again Bishop Schneider quoting St. Cyril of

00:29:32.040 Jerusalem. Tell me, I beg you, if someone gave you kernels of gold, would you not guard them with

00:29:37.960 the greatest care and diligence intent on not losing anything? Should you not exercise even greater care

00:29:44.680 and vigilance so that not even a crumb of the Lord's body could fall to the ground? For it is far more

00:29:50.600 precious than gold or jewels. That's from the mystagogical catechesis of St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

00:30:00.760 Bishop Schneider continues in his book, already Tertullian. And by the way, Tertullian died in 240.

00:30:07.480 So we're talking very early in church history. Already Tertullian gave witness to the church's

00:30:13.160 anxiety and sorrow should even a fragment be lost. And quoting from Tertullian, he said,

00:30:19.480 we suffer anxiety lest anything from the chalice or the bread fall onto the ground.

00:30:26.440 St. Ephraim in the fourth century taught this way, quote, Jesus filled up the bread with himself and

00:30:33.880 the spirit and called it his living body. That which I have now given you, says Jesus, do not consider

00:30:40.920 bread, do not trample underfoot, even the fragments. The smallest fragment of this bread can sanctify

00:30:47.640 millions of men and is enough to give life to all who eat it, end quote.

00:30:55.400 By 1980, the practice of communion on the hand had become widespread, as did the desecrations of the

00:31:03.000 Holy Eucharist that would surely accompany it. In fact, Pope John Paul II published the letter

00:31:09.560 Dominique Sene on February 24th, 1980. And in it, he wrote this, and I quote,

00:31:16.280 in some countries, the practice of receiving communion in the hand has been introduced.

00:31:20.680 This practice has been requested by individual Episcopal conferences, that's bishops conferences,

00:31:26.040 and has received approval from the Apostolic See, that is from the Vatican.

00:31:30.280 However, continued John Paul II, however, cases of a deplorable lack of respect toward the Eucharistic

00:31:38.280 species have been reported, cases which are imputable not only to the individuals guilty of such behavior,

00:31:45.560 but also to the pastors of the Church who have not been vigilant enough regarding the attitude of the

00:31:51.480 faithful toward the Eucharist. It also happens on occasion that the free choice of those who prefer

00:31:58.920 to continue the practice of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue is not taken into account in those

00:32:04.600 places where the distribution of communion in the hand has been authorized. And so there's John Paul II

00:32:11.640 lamenting the abuses of the Eucharist because of communion in the hand and lamenting that some

00:32:18.040 would dare to ignore the requests of the faithful to receive communion on the tongue.

00:32:25.080 Well, in a 2014 interview with the magazine of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales,

00:32:30.920 Bishop Schneider said, and I quote, and these are probably some of the strongest words he said on the

00:32:35.320 subject. I quote, to my knowledge and experience, the deepest wound in the actual crisis of the

00:32:43.080 Church is the Eucharistic wound, the abuses of the Blessed Sacrament. Bishop Schneider said,

00:32:49.720 there is the question of the objectively irreverent reception of Holy Communion. The so-called new

00:32:55.800 modern manner of receiving Holy Communion directly into the hand is very serious because it exposes Christ

00:33:02.680 to an enormous banality. Bishop Schneider added, there is the grievous fact of the loss of Eucharistic

00:33:10.120 fragments. No one can deny this and the fragments of the consecrated host are crushed by feet. This is

00:33:17.400 horrible. Our God in our churches is trampled by feet. No one can deny it. And this is happening on a

00:33:25.960 large scale. This has to be for a person with faith and for love of God, a very serious phenomenon.

00:33:32.680 Bishop Schneider added, we cannot continue as if Jesus as God does not exist as though only the bread

00:33:41.000 exists. This modern practice of communion in the hand has nothing to do with the practice in the

00:33:47.320 ancient church. The modern practice of receiving communion in the hand contributes gradually to the

00:33:54.040 loss of the Catholic faith in the real presence and in the transubstantiation. He concluded,

00:34:02.600 a priest and a bishop cannot say this practice is okay. Here is at stake the most holy, the most divine,

00:34:10.040 and concrete on earth.

00:34:15.240 So, for my fifth point, I'd like to discuss the history of Holy Communion in the church.

00:34:23.080 Well, of course, the first and earliest accounts of Holy Communion are, of course, in the scriptures

00:34:27.320 themselves where our Lord gave himself as communion to the apostles at the Last Supper. Now, some suggest

00:34:34.520 that even there he might have given them Holy Communion on the tongue, especially since we read

00:34:39.960 in the Last Supper narrative in the Gospel of John that our Lord dipped a morsel of bread before giving it

00:34:45.880 to the apostle Judas. And, of course, that would be rather messy to dip a morsel of bread into liquid and

00:34:53.480 then hand it to someone. But, nonetheless, he might, of course, have given it in the hand. That's not clear.

00:35:00.280 But, even if Jesus did give the apostles Holy Communion in the hand, they were all, of course, 0.99

00:35:05.240 bishops, not laymen. So, they had consecrated hands. However, it does seem as though in the early church

00:35:13.960 there was at least, in some places, this practice of communion in the hand. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem,

00:35:20.200 who lived in the fourth century, wrote this. Or, some people actually contest that he wrote it,

00:35:27.320 but, nonetheless, I think most people accept that he wrote this. And I quote,

00:35:31.800 "...approaching therefore, do not come forward with the palms of the hands outstretched, nor with the

00:35:37.320 fingers apart, but making the left hand a throne for the right, since this hand is about to receive

00:35:43.480 the King. Making the palm hollow, receive the body of Christ." Adding, Amen. Then, carefully sanctifying

00:35:51.160 the eyes by touching them with the Holy Body, partake of it, ensuring that you do not mislay any of it.

00:35:57.240 Saint Cyril, of course, added the admonitions about not allowing the particles to drop, as mentioned in the

00:36:02.520 previous point. Quoting again from Bishop Schneider's book, Dominus asked about the history of communion on the

00:36:08.600 tongue, quote, "...aware of the greatness of the moment of Holy Communion, the Church, in her two-millennium-long

00:36:16.920 tradition, has searched to find a ritual expression that can bear witness, in the most perfect manner, to her

00:36:24.920 faith, love, and respect." This is verified when, in the wake of an organic development stemming from

00:36:31.640 at least the sixth century, the Church began to adopt the method of distributing the sacred species

00:36:37.480 of the Eucharist directly into the mouth. This is attested to in several places, in the biography of

00:36:44.760 Pope Gregory the Great, and an indication by the same Pope relative to Pope Agapitus. And then he gives,

00:36:53.080 and you'll see it in my blog, the reference for that in his book.

00:37:00.520 He said, "...the Synod of Cordoba in 839 condemned the sect of the so-called Casiani because of their

00:37:09.240 refusal to receive Holy Communion directly into their mouths." Then the Synod of Rouen in 878 confirmed

00:37:15.640 the norm in force regarding the administration of the Lord's body on the tongue, threatening sacred

00:37:20.840 ministers with suspension from their office if they distributed Holy Communion to the laity on the hand.

00:37:28.360 In the early Church, before receiving the consecrated bread, people had to wash their palms,

00:37:35.000 had to wash the palms of their hands. Moreover, the faithful bowed profoundly in receiving the Lord

00:37:41.480 with the mouth directly from the right hand and not from the left. The palm of the hand served as

00:37:46.760 a kind of a patent or corporal, especially for women. One actually can read in a sermon from St.

00:37:53.800 Caesarius of Arles, that's from 470 to 542, quote, "...all the men who desire to communicate must wash their

00:38:03.080 hands, and all the women must carry a linen cloth on which they receive the body of Christ." 0.95

00:38:09.480 So again, quoting from Bishop Schneider's book, Dominus Est,

00:38:13.800 "...customarily, the palm of the hand was purified or washed after the reception of the Eucharistic

00:38:20.280 bread, as is up to now the norm of communion of clerics in the Byzantine rite. In the ancient

00:38:26.120 canons of the Chaldean Church, even the celebrating priest was forbidden to place the Eucharistic bread

00:38:32.280 into his own mouth with his fingers. Instead, he had to take the body of the Lord in the palm of his

00:38:36.520 hand. The reason for this was to signify that he was dealing here not with ordinary food,

00:38:43.720 but with heavenly food." To the priest, we read in the canon of John Bar

00:38:50.040 Abgari, quote, "...it is directed that he received the particle of the consecrated bread directly from

00:38:57.240 the palm of his hand. He may not place it with the hand into the mouth, but must take it with his mouth,

00:39:04.200 for this concerns heavenly food." And those are quotes again from Bishop Schneider's book, Dominus Est.

00:39:13.240 In the 1500s, communion in the hand was actually introduced by a Protestant reformer by the name of

00:39:20.840 Martin Busser. He was actually specifically aiming to end belief in transubstantiation. Busser actually

00:39:29.720 convinced Thomas Cranmer, the heretic Archbishop of Canterbury, not to give communion on the tongue.

00:39:35.960 And Busser taught this, and I'll quote it for you, quote, "...I have no doubt that this usage of not

00:39:43.400 putting these sacraments in the hands of the faithful has been introduced out of a double superstition.

00:39:50.120 Firstly, the false honor they wished to show to this sacrament, and secondly, the wicked arrogance

00:39:56.200 of the priests claiming greater holiness than the people of Christ by virtue of the oil of consecration." 0.80

00:40:02.840 End quote. But the practice had no place at all in the Catholic Church. Oh, by the way, again,

00:40:12.600 this is once again quoting from Bishop Schneider's book.

00:40:17.400 "...but the practice that is of communion in the hand had no place at all in the Catholic Church,

00:40:22.200 since it had been condemned universally prior to the year 1000." 0.82

00:40:27.000 In fact, and so all the way up to 1908, you can still read in the catechism published in 1908, the

00:40:34.360 Catechism of St. Pius X, it gives only one option for the reception of Holy Communion. It reads,

00:40:39.880 and this is question or section 47, it's a Q&A style catechism. So it reads,

00:40:45.720 "...how should we act while receiving Holy Communion?" The answer reads,

00:40:49.160 "...in the act of receiving Holy Communion, we should be kneeling, hold our head slightly raised,

00:40:54.760 our eyes modest and fixed on the sacred host, our mouth sufficiently open, and the tongue slightly

00:41:01.160 over the lips." End quote. Now, from an in-depth study, and a heavily referenced study at that,

00:41:10.040 of the question of communion in the hand by Michael Davies, we learn this, and I quote,

00:41:15.080 "...communion in the hand was reintroduced into the Catholic Church as an act of rebellion,

00:41:20.920 soon after Vatican II. It began in Holland as an arbitrary act of defiance of legitimate authority,

00:41:27.800 the practice spread to Germany, Belgium, and France." The consequences of this rebellion became so

00:41:34.760 serious that the Pope, and that of course is Pope Paul VI, consulted the bishops of the world,

00:41:40.920 and after obtaining their opinions, promulgated the instruction Memoriale Domini in 1969.

00:41:49.000 The instruction is included and will be referred to. I've included the link to the full instruction

00:41:58.920 under this video and in my blog, and the principal points laid out in it are covered by Michael Davies as

00:42:07.000 these. Quote, one, the bishops of the world were overwhelmingly against the innovation,

00:42:12.760 that's the innovation of communion on the hand. Number two, the traditional manner of distributing

00:42:17.240 Holy Communion must be retained. Number three, it is a sign of reverence, which does not detract from

00:42:24.280 the dignity of the communicant, that is communion on the tongue is a sign of reverence. And number four,

00:42:30.520 the innovation that is the communion on the hand could lead to irreverence, profanation and the

00:42:36.920 adulteration of correct doctrine. Therefore, Memoriale Domini, the 1969 document of Pope Paul VI,

00:42:48.120 said, quote, the apostolic see strongly urges bishops, priests, people to observe this law valid

00:42:55.720 and again confirmed, according to the judgment of the majority of the Catholic episcopate,

00:43:03.720 in the form which the present right of the sacred liturgy employs and out of concern for the common

00:43:10.920 good of the church. In Memoriale Domini, Pope Paul admonished Catholics, bishops especially, that,

00:43:19.640 quote, in view of the state of the church as a whole today, this manner of distributing Holy

00:43:25.240 Communion that is on the tongue must be observed, not only because it rests on a tradition of many

00:43:31.880 centuries, but especially because it is a sign of reverence of the faithful toward the Eucharist.

00:43:38.200 The practice in no way detracts from the personal dignity of those who approach this great sacrament,

00:43:44.200 and it is part of the preparation needed for the most fruitful reception of the Lord's body, end quote.

00:43:50.360 Michael Davies, in his paper, though, says that a calamitous error of judgment then followed,

00:43:59.320 because it was agreed to that wherever the practice has already developed in any place,

00:44:05.400 a two-thirds majority of the Episcopal Conference, that's the bishops of the country,

00:44:09.880 could petition the Holy See, that's the Vatican, for permission to legalize this abuse.

00:44:15.320 Quite clearly, the phrase has already developed, Michael Davies explains, meant that by that date,

00:44:24.840 that May 28, 1969 date. So countries where the practice had not developed by that date were

00:44:33.240 obviously excluded from the concession of allowance for Holy Communion in hand. And therefore, of course,

00:44:40.280 all English-speaking countries would fall into this category of not being able even to apply

00:44:48.200 for an allowance for this abuse of communion on the hand. However, when the National Conference of Catholic

00:44:55.320 Bishops got together in 1977, they debated the question. And they were, in fact, it was led by

00:45:03.880 Cardinal Bernardin, who was the president at the time, and he was trying to push it.

00:45:08.120 A bishop by the name of Bishop Blanchet, he was from Joliet, Illinois, he pointed out that the

00:45:14.200 procedure approved by the Vatican was permission could be requested from the Vatican if the contrary

00:45:21.640 usage prevailed. In other words, if the abuse was already going on. He pointed out that the bishops

00:45:26.760 could hardly take the second step that is applied to the Vatican without taking the first. So Bishop Blanchet

00:45:33.720 Blanchet actually recounts what happened in the pages of the National Catholic Register of June 12,

00:45:39.880 1977. And I'll quote it for you.

00:45:42.440 I said, we are now going to discuss and probably vote on whether we want to petition the Holy See,

00:45:49.160 and we've not established that a contrary usage prevails. In other words, that the abuse is going

00:45:53.720 on, that there is such a thing as communion on the hand in America. I said a simple way,

00:45:58.520 this is the bishop again, writing in the newspaper in 1977, I said a simple way to do that would be

00:46:04.440 to ask the ordinaries, that means the bishops, to indicate whether in their dioceses the contrary

00:46:09.720 uses prevails. In other words, whether there's a majority of people receiving on the hand.

00:46:14.840 The ordinary, that is the bishop, should know. He is the shepherd of the diocese. He has been asked

00:46:20.520 to obey, and his priests have been asked to obey. So if anybody knows whether the contrary usage

00:46:26.600 prevails, he should. And so I ask that the agenda be amended so that the first step, finding out whether

00:46:33.720 the contrary usage prevails, could be verified. And if it were verified, then we could get on with the

00:46:39.080 rest of the agenda. But if the first step is not verified, how can we logically go on to that second

00:46:45.240 step? And that was my motion. And those are the words of Bishop Blanchet. Of course, Bishop Blanchet's

00:46:51.800 motion was supported in writing by five other bishops and sustained by the president of the conference,

00:46:59.160 but it was actually ruled out of order. According to the rules, there should have been a written vote,

00:47:07.720 but supporters of the innovation objected and voted on a show of hands, apparently, to rule the president

00:47:15.000 out of order. So that is the account of what happened again by Michael Davies, a heavily researched

00:47:24.760 and annotated account that I encourage you to look up and you'll find the link to. And Michael Davies

00:47:30.600 continues in his paper. It therefore seems quite reasonable to ask just how legal this vote was.

00:47:38.440 Then, of course, other extraordinary measures were taken to get the innovation adopted.

00:47:43.400 So remember, they could apply, but they had to get to a two thirds vote of the bishops to also get there.

00:47:49.880 And what actually happened was this, as Michael Davies explains, retired bishops were prevented from voting.

00:47:56.040 And when the necessary majority had still not been achieved, bishops who had not been present were pulled

00:48:02.120 until the necessary total was arrived at. So, as you can see, communion in the hand in modern times

00:48:09.320 came by way of abuse, deceit, betrayal by wolves in the hierarchy. It is for these reasons that I believe

00:48:18.120 Catholics should not receive Holy Communion in the hand. Should you be in a situation where you will 1.00

00:48:24.280 refuse Holy Communion unless you take it in the hand? I would make a spiritual Holy Communion only.

00:48:31.480 And then contact the proper authority to remedy the situation. Take that letter that was written

00:48:36.840 by the Vatican on the question during the swine flu pandemic in 2009. Take it to your priest or bishop.

00:48:44.440 Ask them to give you Holy Communion at least after Mass, if they feel they can't do it during Mass.

00:48:50.120 This is actually a compromise being practiced in many dioceses today. And if they still won't permit

00:48:56.600 you your right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, apply to the Vatican's Congregation for Divine

00:49:02.360 Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments with the proof of their denial of Holy Communion on the tongue.

00:49:08.040 And pray, asking God that the remedy might come soon. In the meantime, offer up the sacrifice of

00:49:16.680 being deprived of the Holy Eucharist and still attend Mass, offering your own pain along with Christ's

00:49:23.640 own sacrifice. For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston, and may God bless you.

00:49:29.320 Hello, this is John Henry Weston. I'd like to invite you to subscribe to the John Henry Weston Show

00:49:36.680 YouTube channel if you haven't already done so. There you will find all the past episodes and much

00:49:42.040 more. Thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - May 13, 2024

5 Reasons Why Catholics Should NEVER Receive Communion in the Hand

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