Why are pro-lifers concerned about Communion in the hand？
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Summary
Pro-Life advocates all over the world spend their lives defending the reality of hidden life, the life of the child hidden in the womb of his mother, and that life is not recognized, not valued by most of society. Many fail to recognize the inestimable value of their child, precisely because these children are not seen. The truth of their lives, even though they are very much there and very much alive, is concealed in the wombs of their mothers. In the same way, Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, is not seen and thus not recognized for who he truly is in the sacred host. Our Lord and our God conceals himself under the appearance of a wafer of bread. And yet it is he, the creator of the universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords in the flesh, whom we are called to receive in Holy Communion. That same Savior who sacrificed himself in the terrible passion and crucifixion to save you and me from eternal damnation, is right there before us in Holy communion.
Transcript
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Have you ever wondered why pro-life advocates are making such a big deal about receiving Holy
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Communion on the tongue and kneeling and not receiving Holy Communion on the hand?
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Doesn't that seem strange? Why would they be doing that? Why would they risk the credibility
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they have to push for something so seemingly obscure? I'm going to tell you why so many of
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them are ready to sacrifice themselves and their reputations for this. Stay tuned.
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Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father,
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and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Pro-life activists all over the world spend
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their lives defending the reality of hidden life, the life of the child hidden in the womb of his
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mother. And that life is not recognized, not valued by most of society. Many fail to recognize the
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inestimable value of the child in the womb precisely because these children are not seen. The truth of
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their lives, even though they're very much there and very much alive, is concealed in the wombs of
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their mothers. In very much the same way, Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, is not seen
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and thus not recognized for who he truly is in the sacred host. He's our Lord and our God. Our Lord
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and our God conceals himself under the appearance of a wafer of bread. And yet, it's he. It's the creator
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of the universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords in the flesh whom we are called to receive in Holy
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Communion. That same Savior who sacrificed himself in the terrible passion and crucifixion to save you
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and me from eternal damnation, is right there before us in Holy Communion. If we truly recognized him,
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how could we fail to show him the reverence he is due? If we bow before the princes of this world,
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you know, the kings of this world, we salute the powerful, we make acts of self-effacing love towards
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those on earth to whom we're most devoted. How can we not be on our knees before Almighty God,
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our greatest love, compared to whom we are to disdain all other earthly loves?
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Now, what I'm about to say may be very controversial, but it's a thought that came to me while praying and
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meditating about this subject. It's that kind of inspiration that makes you feel that you have to
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share it, even though it seems very socially awkward and you worry about it being offensive to some.
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It relates to the pro-life struggle, and it relates the pro-life struggle directly to the issue of
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communion in the hand. Of course, the primary reason for not receiving Holy Communion in the hand is the
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awe and reverence due to our Lord, the need to have the consecrated hands of the priests and the
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ordinary ministers of Holy Communion be the only ones that handle our Lord in the Eucharist with
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consecrated hands. However, from the most ancient times of the Church, the Fathers spoke of the
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need to guard the fragments of the Eucharist from being lost. In fact, the most well-known quote used
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to promote communion in the hand is attributed to St. Cyril of Alexandria in the 300s. That quote,
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however, is used most often when it's taken out of context. While he did speak of receiving communion
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in the hand, St. Cyril's main emphasis was to warn against losing the fragments. Here's what he said in
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Approaching, therefore, do not come forward with the palms of the hands outstretched, nor with the
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fingers apart, but making the left hand a throne for the right, since this hand is about to receive
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the King, making the palm hollow, receive the body of Christ, adding, Amen. Then carefully sanctifying
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the eyes by touching them with the Holy Body, partake of it, ensuring that you do not mislay any of
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it. Be careful that you do not lose anything of the body of the Lord. If you let fall anything,
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you must think of it as though you cut off one of the members of your own body. Tell me, I beg you,
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if someone gave you kernels of gold, would you not guard them with the greatest care and diligence
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intent on not losing anything? Should you not exercise even greater care and vigilance so that not
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even a crumb of the Lord's body could fall to the ground, for it is far more precious than gold or
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jewels? End quote. So you might be asking, where does this tie into the pro-life movement? Well, one of
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the things that has been most distressing over the last 50 years has been the deception that has gone
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on in the medical field, concealing the grim realities of abortion. And one of the biggest
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deceptions was actually over the abortifacient nature of the birth control pill. For decades,
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women were unaware that the birth control pill could cause abortions. For decades, women were
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inadvertently aborting their children and had no clue about it. They were told by doctors the pill was
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healthy, even good for their ability to have children when they wanted them. Yet, the grim reality was that
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the pill caused the lining of the uterus to be inhospitable to life, such that when there were
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breakthrough ovulations resulting in conception of a new life, that newly conceived child could not
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implant in the uterine wall, leading countless women on the pill to lose their babies to abortions
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that they knew nothing about. It wasn't even their fault. They knew nothing about it. They were told,
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even by doctors and sometimes, sadly, by priests and bishops, that it was just fine to take the pill.
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Well, it struck me that this is very, very similar to what we've experienced in the church for the
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last 50 years, where with communion in the hand, our bishops and priests, for the most part, never told
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us of the danger of the fragments of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist falling to the floor, never explained
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the reality of Jesus being present in those small fragments as he is in the full sacred host. We have
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for 50 years been counseled to receive our Lord in such a way that has us participating inadvertently
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in the trampling of our Lord with our feet at Mass. We were told communion in the hand was a better way
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to receive, a more dignified way, a superior way for mature Christians. And now we have had some
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bishops and priests suggesting, despite contrary opinion from some physicians, that communion in the hand
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is healthier, it's safer, a way to receive our Lord due to coronavirus. And never, in all that time,
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even now, do they explain about guarding the fragments. These thoughts were germinated with
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the statement of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, written in his most recent book-length interview
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with former LifeSite correspondent Diane Montagna, called Christus Vincit. And I quote it for you.
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There is the grievous fact of the loss of Eucharistic fragments because of communion in the hand.
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No one can deny this, he wrote. He continues, fragments of the consecrated host fall to the floor
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and are subsequently crushed by feet. This is horrible. Our God is trampled on in our churches
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and no one can deny it, end quote. That part about our Lord's body in Holy Communion being crushed
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via the practice of reception of Holy Communion in the hand is really struck home for me. Pro-lifers,
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you see, seek to stop abortionists from laying their hands on the child in the womb and violating them,
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literally stop them from crushing the precious child in the womb. And that's exactly the same with
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the Holy Eucharist when received in the hand, has fragments and particles scattered on the floor
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and trampled and crushed by the feet of parishioners. Even though each particle is Jesus himself.
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The awe and reverence due to our Lord and this desecration of the Holy Eucharist are exactly why
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Holy Communion in unconsecrated hands was banned for over a thousand years in the church until it was
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introduced in 1969, around the same time, by the way, that abortion came to most of the world.
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And sure, sometimes, totally inadvertently, fragments of the sacred host will be lost,
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despite the best efforts of priests and altar boys and the faithful not to let that happen.
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But to me, that's the same as miscarriages, where the death of the child in the womb happens,
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despite all of our best efforts for that not to happen.
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But why? Why? Why would priests and bishops who knew of this reality not tell the faithful about it?
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Why have we been left in the dark for 50 years? How many of us would never have dreamed of
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receiving Holy Communion in the hand had we known the risk of losing the fragments of the sacred host?
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We in the pro-life movement defend the reality of hidden life. We're accustomed to defending life
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hidden in the womb. And now we're being called to defend the divine life hidden in the sacred host,
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who is being abused by many of those who should be the first to love him. Catholics in the pro-life
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movement are actually uniquely prepared to counter these offenses. You know, I don't believe it's mere
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coincidence that communion in the hand that obscures the dignity of divine life was introduced about 50
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years ago, just as abortion in many Western countries that denies the dignity of human life
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was introduced about 50 years ago. Today, we reap the bitter fruits. Human life has lost its value
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in human society. And the body of Christ has become abused in his churches, his real presence doubted by
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a majority of those who call themselves Catholic. And just as it is impossible to calculate the
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countless desecrations of the body of Christ in the sacrilegious treatment of the Holy Eucharist
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brought about by the practice of communion in the hand, so it is impossible to number the unborn
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children made in the image and likeness of God killed worldwide not only under permissive abortion
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legislation, but also those killed as a result of abortifacient contraceptive drugs and devices and through IVF
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procedures. So many times I've been asked why, as a founder of one of the largest pro-life news sites in the
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world, I would be talking about this matter and matters such as this going on in the Catholic Church. Many
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suggest that these painful developments that trouble us as Catholics do not relate to our noble work of saving
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babies. However, I don't think that's the case. In fact, on the contrary, to be fully pro-life means
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being pro-eternal life. What sense does it even make to save the body if we lose the soul? In fact, that
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thought was our Lord's. He said, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it's
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better for you to lose one of your members or one of your limbs than for your whole body to be thrown into
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hell. It was that same Jesus who told us, quote, do not be afraid of those who will kill the body and
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are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell, end
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quote. The gift of eternal life comes only through Jesus Christ and the saving truth he has confided to
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the Catholic Church. How can we say that we care deeply about an unborn child, his mother, or anyone
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and not offer them the possibility of eternal life? The most convincing statement about this I've
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ever come across came in 2008 from a famous atheist named Penn Jillette, who's actually still very popular
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and well-known on television. Penn Jillette said in 2008, and I quote, if you believe that there's a
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heaven and hell and that people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you
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think that it's not really worth telling this because it's socially awkward, how much do you have to hate
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somebody not to proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is
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possible and not tell them that? For this reason, Voice of the Family has organized an online conference
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for this Thursday, July 16, to mobilize our fellow lay Catholics to offer the love and reverence to our
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Lord truly present in the Holy Eucharist. I hope to see you online at this free event, which you will find
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right here on this show channel, on the LifeSite News channel, and on our Facebook page.
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Out of the love and reverence due to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, please commit to receiving Him
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worthily, kneeling if possible, and on the tongue. I'm John Henry Weston, and may God bless you.