5 Reasons Why Catholics Should NEVER Receive Communion in the Hand
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Summary
With orders to refuse the faithful Holy Communion on the tongue coming from governmental health authorities, and even from some bishops and priests, I wanted to give you the reasons why I could never receive Holy communion in the hand. And if the matter was forced, I would make the sacrifice of just making a spiritual Holy communion.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.
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With orders to refuse the faithful Holy Communion on the tongue coming from governmental health
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authorities and even from some bishops and priests, I wanted to give you the reasons
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why I could never receive Holy Communion in the hand.
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And if the matter was forced, I would make the sacrifice of just making a spiritual Holy
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I've tried to make this as simple as possible by dividing it into five reasons and the video
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description and over at my LifeSite blog will be including the links to the documents referenced.
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Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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So the very first point I'd like to make is about reverence due to Almighty God.
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I want to dismiss the false notion that people receive Communion on the tongue out of some
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kind of false piety or holier-than-thou attitude.
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While I can't of course discount that that is ever something that's going on, from those
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I've witnessed and read about receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, it comes from a deep
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reverential love for the King of Kings whom we receive in this great sacrament.
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And I believe receiving our Lord on the tongue while kneeling reinforces that reverence for
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Some of the most powerful arguments for the need for this type of reverence are in the Bible.
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Remember when Moses first met the Lord God in the burning bush, as we read about in Exodus
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Well, Moses was told not to come too near to the burning bush and to remove his sandals
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Come, let us adore and fall down and weep before the Lord that made us.
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We see it, of course, in the New Testament too.
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Remember when Peter, James, and John went up Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration.
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They saw the glorified body of Jesus, which we receive in Holy Communion, and they prostrated
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But the biblical account that speaks to this subject most directly for me is what happened
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You can read the account both in 2 Samuel 6, 1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13, 9-12.
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The Ark of the Covenant was designed by God and built to the Lord's specifications.
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It contained the manna, the staff of Moses, and the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
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It was also so sacred that it was never allowed to be touched, except by certain Levites, the
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The reservation of touching the Ark to priests only was potently or powerfully reinforced
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when a layman, whose name was Uzzah, who was transporting the Ark at the request of King
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David, was struck dead by God for touching the Ark.
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He was doing what he thought was right to save the Ark.
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You see, while he and his brother were transporting the Ark in a cart pulled by oxen, along the
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journey, the Ark got tilted or, you know, the oxen stumbled and it was tilting.
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So Uzzah used his hand to steady the Ark and for that was struck dead by the Lord.
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The scripture explains that the Lord struck him down because Uzzah was not to touch the
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It's actually very much the same in our time when many are trying to do what they think
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is right for the coronavirus by receiving on the hand.
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Yet with the Ark, it was not the right thing to do, even though it is what seemed expedient.
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It was done for good intent to save the Ark from harm, just as many are receiving on the
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hand today with good intent to save their brothers and sisters in Christ from possible coronavirus
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infection or to save the church, her freedom to be able to distribute Holy Communion at all.
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But nevertheless, touching the Ark was the wrong thing to do.
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The Lord's decision here actually perplexed David, as you can read in the scriptures.
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And after this incident, David was afraid to bring the Ark of the Lord to himself.
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And yet, what was the Ark of the Covenant compared to our Lord himself in the Eucharist?
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The Ark was revered in the temple, it was carried in ceremony, it was considered holy, and yet
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His presence was there veiled and prefiguring of his real presence in the person of our Lord
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Jesus Christ, whom we receive in Holy Communion.
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She asked me the other day, how communion in the hand can possibly make any sense, given
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the practices in the church of consecrating the altar and the sacred vessels used in the
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We see priests and bishops, even the Pope, covering his hands with the humoral veil, with a vestment
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called a humoral veil during benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
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This is all about the sacredness of Christ in the Eucharist.
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But if we allow everyone to touch the sacred host with their unconsecrated hands, the practice
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of the humoral veil becomes very confusing indeed.
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It may seem perhaps that the church, since it seems not to care about handling the body
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of Christ itself with unconsecrated hands, but only when it's in a monstrance, perhaps
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it's the gold in the monstrance that we are protecting with the use of the veil.
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But I'm going to conclude on this point of reverence towards our Eucharistic Lord, quoting
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He was a German Catholic philosopher and religious writer.
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He was known and loved by the last number of popes.
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He was a great fighter of, of course, Nazism and communism.
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He was called, and I quote, the 20th century doctor of the church by Pope Pius XII.
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Pope John Paul II greatly admired the philosophical work of Hildebrandt, remarking once to his widow,
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Alice von Hildebrandt, your husband is one of the great ethicists of the 20th century.
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Benedict XVI also had a particular admiration and regard for Hildebrandt, who knew Ratzinger
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The degree of Pope Benedict's esteem is expressed in one of his statements about Hildebrandt,
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Well, here is what Dietrich von Hildebrandt wrote about the subject of communion in the hand
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in his book, The Devastated Vineyard, and I quote,
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Unfortunately, in many places, communion is distributed in the hand.
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To what extent is this supposed to be a renewal and a deepening of the reception of Holy Communion?
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Is the trembling reverence with which we receive this incomprehensible gift perhaps increased
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by receiving it in our unconsecrated hands rather than from the consecrated hand of the priest?
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It is not difficult, continued von Hildebrandt, it is not difficult to see that the danger
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of parts of the consecrated host falling to the ground is incomparably increased, and the
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danger of desecrating it, or indeed of horrible blasphemy, is very great.
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And what in the world is to be gained by all this?
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The claim that contact with the hand makes the host more real is certainly pure nonsense.
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For the theme here is not the reality of the matter of the host, but rather the consciousness,
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which is only attainable by faith that the host in reality has become the body of Christ.
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The reverent reception of the body of Christ on our tongues from the consecrated hand of the priest
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is much more conducive to the strengthening of this consciousness than reception with our own
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The second reason I would give is the authority of the church.
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It's important to say, first of all, that I'm saying this knowing full well that we are in the midst
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of a coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the very first point I'd like to make about this point is
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to bring to your consideration that the church has already considered the matter of allowance of
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Holy Communion on the tongue in the midst of a virus. And that's in the midst of a pandemic even.
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It was in 2009 in the midst of the H1N1 swine flu influenza pandemic. A lay Catholic in England,
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in a diocese where Holy Communion on the tongue was restricted due to the pandemic,
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wrote the Vatican about the matter. And the response from the Congregation for Divine Worship
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and Discipline of the Sacraments, which is the sort of Vatican department that deals with these things,
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was dated July 24th, 2009. You're going to see a link to that below this video in the description
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and also over at my blog on this subject at lifesitenews.com. So that CDW or Congregation for
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Divine Worship document dated July 24th, 2009 was posted online by Rorati Celli. And you can also
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find a link to it below, as I said. So the Vatican congregation tasked with authoritatively responding
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to such questions, wrote, quoting church law on the subject, and I'll quote it for you. The letter
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says, each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. And end quote.
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And by the way, they were referencing number 92 of the Vatican instruction on the subject,
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called Redemptionis Sacramentum. They said, nor is it licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ's
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faithful who are not impeded by law, and that means church law, of course, from receiving the Holy
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Eucharist. End quote. So the Vatican in their response added this, and I quote, the congregation
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thanks you for bringing this important matter to its attention. Be assured that the appropriate
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contacts will be made. End quote. Now there's a very fascinating explanation of what this letter means
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and the implications that it has. Over at Canon Law Made Easy, which is a blog from canonist Kathy
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Caridi, the canonist points out the significance of that line about appropriate contacts will be made.
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Caridi says, and I quote, it makes it clear that after sending this letter, the CDW intended to contact
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the clergy who were illegally barring Catholics from receiving Communion on the tongue to inform them
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in a formal official way that by doing that they were violating the law. End quote.
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The canonist concludes this way. She says, it would be only logical to assume that if the faithful contact
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the CDW now with the information about the current illegal practices in their own parishes and dioceses,
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where they are forbidden to receive Communion on the tongue, the CDW will respond in precisely the same
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way. That is, if you're being denied Holy Communion right now in coronavirus time, contact the Vatican
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and they will respond in the same way as they did during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus, saying that it
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is not permissible. Or here's the words actually of canonist Caridi. The CDW will have to respond in the same
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way, not because coronavirus isn't dangerous, but because the right of the faithful around the world
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to receive the Eucharist in the way that is the church's established norm on the tongue cannot be
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curtailed by anyone other than the supreme authority of the church. She continues, this is an issue,
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not of germs, but of the church's hierarchical structure. No bishop on earth, still less a priest
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acting on his own, has the authority to countermand a law or specific directive of the Vatican that is
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intended to apply to the universal church period. And again, that's from the blog Canon Law Made Easy.
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The third point that I wanted to make is about the witness of the saints and popes and angels.
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So first off, we have St. Thomas Aquinas, regarded universally as the greatest doctor of the church.
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He wrote in the 1200s in his Summa Theologica, and I quote, out of reverence towards this sacrament,
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nothing touches it but what is consecrated. Hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated,
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and likewise the priest's hands for touching this sacrament. Hence it is not lawful for anyone else
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to touch it, except from necessity, for instance, if it were to fall upon the ground or else in some
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other case of urgency. And you can find that in the Summa Theologica. That's actually Q82, Article 13.
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So, also, in 2008, Pope Benedict decided to stop giving Holy Communion on the hand to the faithful,
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and would only give Holy Communion to the faithful on the tongue and kneeling.
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A Vatican webpage commemorating this decision was published in 2009. It has been updated since,
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of course, to include a photo of Pope Francis, but it can still be found on the Vatican website.
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From the time of the Fathers of the Church, a tendency was born and consolidated whereby
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distribution of Holy Communion in hand became more and more restricted in favor of distributing
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Holy Communion on the tongue. The motivation for this practice is two-fold. A, first, to avoid as much
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as possible the dropping of the Eucharistic particles. B, second, to increase among the
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faithful devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. End quote.
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The letter continues. A celebrated saying of St. Augustine cited by Pope Benedict in Benedict XVI,
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in number 66 of his encyclical Sacramentum Caritatis, that is the Sacrament of Love,
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teaches, quote, No one eats that flesh without first adoring it. We should sin were we not to adore it. End quote.
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Kneeling, continues the Vatican document, indicates and promotes the adoration necessary before receiving
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the Eucharistic Christ. From this perspective, the then Cardinal Ratzinger assured that, quote,
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Communion only reaches its true depth when it is supported and surrounded by adoration.
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He said that in The Spirit of the Liturgy, which was published by Ignatius Press in the year 2000.
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For this reason, Cardinal Ratzinger maintained that, quote,
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The practice of kneeling for Holy Communion has in its favor a centuries-old tradition,
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and it is a particularly expressive sign of adoration, completely appropriate in light of the
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true, real, and substantial presence of our Lord Jesus Christ under the consecrated species.
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This is from this congregation of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments,
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dated July 1st, 2002. The Vatican webpage goes on to say,
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John Paul II, in his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharista,
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The Church Comes from the Eucharist, wrote in number 61, quote,
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By giving the Eucharist the prominence it deserves, and by being careful not to diminish any of its
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dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the greatness of this gift.
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We are urged to do so by an uninterrupted tradition from the first centuries on has found the Christian
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community ever vigilant in guarding this treasure, inspired by the love, inspired by love,
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the Church is anxious to hand on to future generations of Christians, without loss,
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her faith and teaching with regard to the mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no danger of excess in
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our care for this mystery, for in this sacrament is recapitulated the whole mystery of our salvation,
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end quote. The Vatican webpage concludes this way. It says, announcing the, or commemorating the change
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In continuity with the teaching of his predecessors, starting with the solemnity of Corpus Christi in the
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year 2008, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, began to distribute to the faithful the body of the Lord,
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by placing it directly on the tongue of the faithful as they remain kneeling, end quote.
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The current head of the Vatican department that deals with the issue, known as, again,
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the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, is Cardinal Robert Serra.
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Without a doubt, he is one of the saintliest cardinals alive today. In fact, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
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strongly endorsed Cardinal Serra, saying publicly in an afterword to a reprint of one of Cardinal Serra's
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book, which you might know called The Power of Silence, and this is Pope Benedict, the one already
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retired, by the way, so Pope Emeritus Benedict, saying, quote, about Cardinal Serra, quote,
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With Cardinal Serra, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands,
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end quote. Benedict also added in that same afterword, Cardinal Serra is a spiritual teacher
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who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him,
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and thus really has something to say to each one of us, end quote. It is this cardinal, this saintly
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African cardinal, Robert Serra, who is in charge of the church's dicastery, dealing with the sacraments,
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that is pleaded with priests to only give communion to the faithful, kneeling and on the tongue.
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In the preface to a 2018 book, critically analyzing communion on the hand, Cardinal Robert Serra,
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who again is the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, he wrote these words,
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Why do we insist on receiving communion standing and on the hand? Why this attitude of lack of
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submission to the signs of God? May no priest dare to impose his authority in this matter by refusing
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or mistreating those who wish to receive communion kneeling and on the tongue. Let us come as children
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and humbly receive the body of Christ on our knees and on our tongue. The saints give us the example.
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They are the models to be imitated that God offers us, end quote. Cardinal Serra also warned
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strenuously, and I quote again, The most insidious diabolical attack consists in trying to extinguish
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faith in the Eucharist by sowing errors and fostering an unsuitable way of receiving it. He continued,
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truly the war between Michael and his angels on one side and Lucifer on the other continues in the
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hearts of the faithful. He said, Satan's target is the sacrifice of the mass and the real presence
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of Jesus in the consecrated host. Let us now look at how the faith in the real presence can influence
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the way we receive communion and vice versa, he said. And again, I'm quoting from Cardinal Robert Serra.
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He said, receiving communion on the hand undoubtedly involves a great scattering of the fragments.
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On the contrary, attention to the smallest crumbs, care in purifying the sacred vessels,
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not touching the host with sweaty hands, all become professions of faith in the real presence of
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Jesus, even in the smallest parts of the consecrated species. If Jesus is the substance of the Eucharistic
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bread, and if the dimensions of the fragments are accidents only of the bread, it is of little
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importance how big or small the piece of host is. The substance is the same. It's him. On the contrary,
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inattention to the fragments makes us lose sight of the dogma. Little by little, the thought may
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gradually prevail that if even the parish priest does not pay attention to the fragments, if he
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administers communion in such a way that the fragments can be scattered, then it means that
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Jesus is not in them, or that he is up to a certain point. Cardinal Serra continued,
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the second track on which the attack against the Eucharist runs is the attempt to remove the sense of
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the sacred from the hearts of the faithful. While the term transubstantiation points us to the reality
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of presence, the sense of the sacred enables us to glimpse its absolute uniqueness and holiness.
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The Cardinal continues, what a misfortune it would be to lose the sense of the sacred precisely in what
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is the most sacred. And how is it possible by receiving special food in the same way as ordinary food?
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He says, the liturgy is made up of many small rituals and gestures. Each of them is capable of
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expressing these attitudes filled with love, filial respect and adoration toward God. That is precisely
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why it is appropriate to promote the beauty, fittingness and pastoral value of a practice
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which developed during the long life and tradition of the church that is the act of receiving Holy
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Communion on the tongue and kneeling. He continued, the greatness and nobility of man as well as the
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highest expression of his love for his Creator consists in kneeling before God. Jesus himself prayed on
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his knees in the presence of the Father." Cardinal Sarah concluded his reflections on the Eucharist
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and receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling this way. He said,
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may this book, now remember he was writing the preface to a book which critically was examining this
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notion of communion on the hand. He said, may this book encourage those priests and faithful who moved
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also by the example of Benedict XVI, who in the last years of his pontificate wanted to distribute the
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Eucharist in the mouth and kneeling, wish to administer or receive the Eucharist in this latter
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manner, which is far more suited to the sacrament itself. The Cardinal said, I hope there can be a
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rediscovery and promotion of the beauty and pastoral value of this method. In my opinion, he said,
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and judgment. This is an important question on which the Church today must reflect.
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This is a further act of adoration and love that each of us can offer to Jesus Christ.
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I am very pleased, said Cardinal Sarah, to see so many young people who choose to receive our Lord so
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reverently on their knees and on their tongues. One of the other aspects of his preface was actually
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Cardinal Sarah's recollection of the Fatima apparitions and the angel that appeared to the
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three Fatima children prior to their seeing Our Lady herself. At one of the appearances of the angel,
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the angel of peace that is, or the angel of Portugal, he appeared to the children and the angel brought with
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him Holy Communion. The angel prostrated himself before the Eucharistic Lord, teaching the children to do the same.
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The fourth point I'd like to bring up is the profanation, what they call the profanation,
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or the desecration of the Holy Eucharist. And it's most seen, of course, in what we just heard
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Cardinal Sarah talking about, and that is the loss of the fragments of the Eucharist.
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One of the things I wanted to show you was this clip of an experiment that was done on video in
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order to see if particles are indeed left when it's administered. So they took these unconsecrated
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hosts, they spread them here on a table, as you can see, and you'll notice when they examine it,
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there it is, crumbs or particles left of the host. Now, this was unconsecrated, of course,
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but they did the same thing in a person's hand. They used this glove to show what happens when
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they put it in the person's hand, they put it in the hand, remove the host and sure enough,
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take a look, particles. So also take a look at this clip from the interview that I did with Dan
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Burke. Now, Dan Burke was a former head of EWTN news. And he had experience, of course, with the
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coronavirus, but he is very firmly of the belief that part of this sort of coronavirus chastisement
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is as a result of the profanation of the Blessed Sacrament. He talked about how our Lord has been
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trampled underfoot for 50 years in our churches because of what we're doing and how we're letting
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the particles of the Holy Eucharist fall to the floor. Have a look.
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Because when you receive in the hand, it causes transact, you know, if I could speak like an
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engineer for a moment, transactional activity that is that that is minimum of two, twice as much or
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three times as much as receiving on the tongue because you grab it with your fingers or you or you,
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which is the worst kind or it's placed in your hand and then you grab it with your fingers and
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that causes particles to break loose. And at one time in my own parish, I watched and on Sunday,
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we have a, it's a, it's a cathedral. So there are a lot of people, let's just say a thousand,
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a hundred percent of those who received on the hand, John Henry, a hundred percent. And let me just say,
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this is an Orthodox parish, you know, with an Orthodox, a very good and holy priest.
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He's a great liturgist. He's a, he's a canon lawyer. He's the chancellor of the diocese,
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Father Brian Jerebik. I watched, and I always sit in the front pew anyway, or somewhere real close to
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the front. And just out of curiosity, a hundred percent John Henry that received on the hand did not
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examine whether or not there were particles to be consumed before they brushed their hands down
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on their side or whatever. And that, that's, that causes desecration because as the Council of Trent
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clearly says, as tradition is clearly taught that the, that if you break the host down into small pieces,
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the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ is still present in those pieces.
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And if those drop to the floor and they're trampled underfoot, this is a grave sin. This is
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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,
00:34:15.240
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,
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."
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."
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."
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,
00:45:42.440
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
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.