We MUST rethink Communion in the hand.
I found this over at Rorate:
When will the horror of Communion in the hand stop?
Leading by example is nice, but the general pontifical faculty of allowing Communion in the hand (extended to Poland, for instance, during this Pontificate) could be abolished in a single day…From Costa Rica (this Presidential candidate lost):
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHgCPzum3Z8]
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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I’m not in favor of communion in the hand, but in the this case, she placed the Eucharist in her mouth and removed it–the same thing could have happened here even if placed on her tongue by the priest (however, a policy of communion on the tongue might have helped in terms of ensuring that the formation of the individual here would have precluded even the possibility of doing what she did). It’s a pretty horrific video …
After abrogation of Communion in the hand, would the elimination of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (except in very rare instances) be far behind? We can only hope and pray.
Actually, I think discontinuing Communion in the hand would be easier than it’s going to be to implement the new translations.
Hardly a weekend goes by without me chasing at least one would-be communicant down the aisle because s/he walked away with the Host. I’m becoming (in)famous for the procedure. I also fault pastors; every one I have ever had has been resistant to the giving of live catechesis on how to receive Holy Communion.
A modest step by the current pope would be a mandate that communion hosts be received on the tongue with a three hour fast, with the eventual restoration of kneeling communicants and ordained ministers as the sole distributors.
But I must say it is nice to see this pope practices what he preaches (unlike, sad to say, John Paull II). The fact that one can only receive communion from the pope if kneeling, on the tongue, with an acolyte putting a paten under your chin is a big deal.
The challenge is having the pope apply this rule to more than 15 people per week.
I just puked in the back of my mouth.
Had this been a “traditional” church with the “traditional” host, this never would have happened. The hosts we use at my OF church are much thicker and last longer in the mouth. The hosts that I’ve had when I was a kid (we used the altar rail and the paten) and the ones I’ve had at St. Francis de Sales in St. Louis are much different and start to dissolve as soon as they hit your tongue.
But, what a disgusting scene on that video!
How utterly horrifying! Is she having a chat with Father before receiving?? Did the videographer know she would do this and therefore focused on her actions? Her insouciance is astonishing.
I hope someone in the Congregation for Divine Worship sees this disgusting clip – and shows it to the Holy Father.
This video is pretty diturbing. It appears almost set-up. Why is the camera specifically focused on this one woman? Was it all pre-arranged?
Whatever the case, prayers of reparation are in order.
Wanda: The camera is likely following her because she is the Costa Rican President’s girlfriend, a celebrity.
Terrible and bizarre. What was she thinking? Why is she seemingly carrying on a conversation with the priest before receiving the host? And why put it in her boyfriend’s pocket? Couldn’t he receive Communion on his own? So weird and so awful . . . as she walked away from the priest the haughty, flippant look on her face is so chilling. What the heck is going on with this woman?
Thank you, Melody. This is horrible.
(Pardon my mis-spelling of the word disturbing – I’m too disturbed to even spell correctly.)
Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.
UGH. I wish the Vatican would just clear all of this up. I have started receiving on the tongue- it is a good practice methinks. Still, Papa Bene just needs to lay the Papal smackdown on the punks. Just come out and say “No more communion in the hand!”
Communion in the hand did not cause this particular atrocity, but decades of communion in the hand allowed it to happen.
After so many comments written and read in so many threads about communion in the hand, I have nothing new to say. But for a really different presentation, take a look at the two 10-minute videos that frequent WDTPRS contributor southern orders has posted at his blog:
http://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2010/02/just-who-does-this-lay-person-think-he.html
I wonder whether the communion problem could be solved by showing these videos to every Catholic youth group in the country. (The second on kneeling is the funnier one.) Not that the older folks of a certain generation don’t need it even more.
Even for receiving in the hand, she didn’t even approach in the proper way– i.e. hands cupped together, creating an altar– rather it resembled the one hand scoop that I see often at my church by parents holding small kids.
The bishops have no reason to do anything. They know that the “good Catholics” demanding that commmunion in the hand end…won’t leave or do anything if it isn’t ended, whereas the liberals MIGHT throw a fit if it is. The balance of consequences in changing the status quo just isn’t worth it for the bishops.
“Good Catholics” need to start adjusting the incentives in our favor. WE should start throwing a fit. There should start to be some organized effort to protest somehow. Someone should go on a hunger strike. A letter writing campaign. “End Communion In the Hand” prayer vigils/picketting outside cathedrals.
And yet…most “good Catholics” don’t seem bold enough to do something like that. Worried they’ll “get in trouble” or something like that…
Ugh. Just…ugh. I wish I had something more clever to add here, but everything about this…the way she treats Our Lord like a cracker, her swagger, her nose in the air, stuffing Him in someone else’s pocket….Ugh.
I can’t help wondering if the woman to her right is saying to her neighbor, “Did I really see what I thought I just saw?”
I posted this video on my blog last week before rorate caeli and you know who! I preached about it briefly this weekend. I also told them about similar occurances in our Church almost every Sunday! Once again I catehized on how to receive in the hand and once again many who should know better and are otherwise pious, came to Holy Communion with one hand out, both hand cupped and snatch and grab! All this just after a very clear cathechesis! Only the Holy Father can legislate outlawing this method that is so frought with the very actual and frequent occurances of abuse. It happens everywhere.
I’m disgusted seeing this! However, we know these desecrations happen often. A friend in a nearby parish did not know what to do when every Sunday, people would find hosts stuck inside the missalettes. We need decisive action from the CDF. While the Holy Father’s example is laudable, his example alone will not solve this grave issue. We priests are unable to do anything without a directive from above.
In the past three years that I have been a priest, I now know that the pastor can make a huge difference in how his parishoners revere the Blessed Sacrament. If the priest reverently handles the Blessed Sacrament and dosen’t rush to distribute communion it makes all the difference in the world. When I first became a pastor people were in the habit of moving so fast through the communion line that many times I thought they were going to bite my fingers off. But all has changed. One thing that I’m currently experimenting with, is on special occasions distributing communion using the first pew as a communion rail. I cannot take away their right to receive communion on the hand or on the tounge at their descretion, but I can make it possible for them to receive kneeling if they choose according to the norm that is vaild for the universal church. More and more are finding the courage to kneel and receive on the tounge. Brick by brick.
Catechesis, catechesis, catechesis! THAT is what is needed!
I wonder that what happens to this smirking woman in the video won’t be any different than to the millions who desecrate every year in a similar way in parishes all over the world. They just aren’t ‘caught on tape’. I’m beaten down and discouraged by the apathy about and promotion, yes promotion, of scandal and desecration in our churches.
Just like the vernacular, allowing such practices has not increased our reverence or understanding of the sacred. With 40 years of brainwashing about the power of the laity and the irrelevance of the priest and Jesus, why wouldn’t these abuses occur? The ignorance of most Catholics contributes to this abominable behavior. Who is going to tell them otherwise? [Our good priests are exhausted trying no doubt]
I can’t express how much I dislike Communion in the Hand. Every time I receive from a ‘eucharistic minister’ with unconsecrated hands, i wonder if this is no different than receiving a Host thrown on the ground. Or if I touched the Host with my own hands first. The laity has no power to change this practice and usually, in order to receive, must put up with it. The Host is still consecrated, but unnecessarily irreverenced.
Couldn’t pastors who see desecration, such as in this video, be allowed to decree in their parish an immediate halt to Communion in the Hand, using examples? How refreshing it would be to hear a pastor from the pulpit say, “Because of the recent desecration, we will halt Communion in the Hand as of today”. Our local parishes here in the wonderful Arlington Diocese find Hosts commonly in the pews.
“I can’t express how much I dislike Communion in the Hand. Every time I receive from a ‘eucharistic minister’ with unconsecrated hands, i wonder if this is no different than receiving a Host thrown on the ground. Or if I touched the Host with my own hands first”
Tina, I can’t help but feel this is superstition. When was your tongue, esophagus or stomach consacrated to touch the Blessed Sacrament? When, for that matter, was your priest’s? If you need to be anointed with oil and ordained to touch the Sacrament with your hands, then how can we touch it with any other part of our bodies?
I’m all for orthodoxy, but this kind of hyper-sacramental clericalism goes way beyond the remit of Catholic Faith. It’s pure nonsense.
Augustine, the priest’s hand ARE consecrated at ordination. This is one of the many differences between laity and clergy.
Up until about 40 years ago, this prohibition was the norm in the Latin rite Church. Eastern rite Catholics still observe this limitation of consecrated hands only touching the Sacrament.
This reverence used to be understood by everyone. I think back on that story of the 12-yr old Chinese girl secretly entering a church descerated by the Communists. The Communists had wrecked the Sanctuary and scattered the consecrated Hosts all over the floor. She went in daily, bending over and using her tongue to reverently consume one Host a day until they were all gone. The day she got the last Host, she was discovered and murdered.
It seems very clear that the young woman (and presidential candidate…and those nearby) haven’t a thimble worth of appreciation for what the Eucharist is.
Much of the blame goes back to the collapse in catechesis and liberalization of the 1960s onward.
Many, many Catholics believe Communion is very important. However, they also see it as a sociological rite of passage or ritual; what it really is is often ignored, dismissed, or eschewed. We can see this by the vitriolic reactions by those in mortal sin denied Communion.
I mean, this almost a mass psychosis: ‘Don’t you DARE deny me from demonstrating by utter deference to Christ as I live to reject just about everything He is!’
How in the world could a person strut around smirking whist nibbling on Christ? What is even more troubling is that the priest did not seem to prevent her from consuming right away (at my parish you will be alerted and told to consume.)
It appears that this is one of those side effects of ‘ecumenism’ (as opposed to ecumenism) wherein Catholics become more, well, non-Catholic.
The priest in question is the archbishop. I really don’t think he understood her bizarre request.My blog has a commentary below the video and then a written news story. I posted this feb. 14!
http://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2010/02/unfortunately-acts-of-this-kind-are-not.html
According to Father Allan “Southern Orders” McDonald’s blog (the post above mine) the host was returned to the priest and was consumed.
If kneeling, receiving on the tongue is the norm and example being now reset, the indult or allowance for Communion in the hand should be suppressed or abolished. The abuses don’t end but get worse by even those who should be most aware. This video is scandalous to every Catholic.
Example from Rome is great, but the day will come when rules must be changed and then we shall see who is willing to obey.
See… If we just let the Dominicans do their job, a LOT of stuff might get fixed.
I started an online petition to stop communion in the hand. Click the link below to sign up
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stophandcommunion
We hope to send this to the Holy Father along with other video as evidence to convince His Holiness to put a stop to the sacrilege being committed against the Lord.
Sign up!
“Eastern rite Catholics still observe this limitation of consecrated hands only touching the Sacrament.”
No he doesn’t. Neither is a deacon’s hands smeared with oil. Do you refuse to receive Holy Communion from a Deacon also?
If you ever read stories about the desecration of the Eucharist in the past, all of them occured before Communion in the Hand. People receive on the tongue but desecrated the Eucharist anyway.
The priest’s hands are anointed to call the Holy Spirit down upon the bread and wine, to consecrate suchn to anointn absolve and in some circumstances to Confirm. He also blesses, but so can a deacon whose hands are not anointed. Distributing Holy Communion can come from anointrd or non anointed hands.
The strangest thing is that she appears to be explaining and/or obtaining permission from the priest. “Hi, I’m an EM, can I take communion to my boyfriend who is detained? Oh, I forgot my pyx?” I’m grasping I know. And there’s still so much wrong. But still … there must have been some confusion.
I agree with a previous comment that there does seem to be a sense of clerical anxiety about how long it takes to distribute communion. And yet even at very crowded Masses I’ve never had the sense that the congregation was antsy about it. Please feel free to take your time. I can also share that of the EMs I know, nearly all have told me privately that they hate distributing on the tongue. It looks difficult to do. Every Mass I see people who are standing and receiving on the tongue: open-mouthed trying to hurl themselves at the EM’s hand. You know you’ve seen it too.
MikieC – Re-read my original post. I never mentioned refusing Communion from anyone.
Sure, there is a history of descecration throughout history. There is more opportunity with Communion in the Hand. The early Church practiced Communion in the Hand and stopped the abuse because of the more prevalent desecration.
southern orders – interesting. In all my years attending Byzantine Masses, I’ve only had the opportunity to receive from a priest, never witnessed a Deacon distribute.
When I was first trained to be an EMHC (called EM’s in my diocese) the priest told us we had to make sure people consumed the host. And he gave the example himself by pursing someone down the aisle who did not. When I moved to another parish which was clustered with the first one, I started to encounter people doing this on a regular basis. One was a boy of 14 or so; I watched and made sure he consumed the host at his seat. After mass I went to speak to him. His father said to me, “I think we should just be glad they come to church and not discourage them by criticizing them about picky little stuff.” Another woman I spoke to was very offended and said she had a swallowing problem. She was going back to her seat and breaking the host into little bits and eating them one by one. I suggested she speak to the priest and ask him to give her only a tiny piece. She said, ” I really don’t have a problem doing it this way.” Another woman said she had new dentures and didn’t want to open her mouth up there in front of everyone, and she and her husband got up and left before the end of mass. Another EM told me that I didn’t have the right to criticize how people receive communion, and that would really be up to Father if he had a problem with it. However this Father really didn’t have a problem with anything that happened. Soon after that I saw an EM who was scheduled as “host minister” snatch the ciborium out from under the hand of a priest who was reaching for it; he was “extra” because he had been giving a talk about his home country at each mass, and naturally got up to help with communion, but she wasn’t going to be cheated out of her rights!
At that point I was soured on the whole business. Soon after that I found the Eastern rite…communion from the priest-or deacon-on a golden spoon, in the mouth, no more problem, no more “EM”s.
But I have to say that the Episcopalian way of receiving in the hand but at the altar rail…at least the old Episcopalian way before all this self intinction that I see them do now….could be very reverent, and if one is kneeling one can’t go running up the aisle very easily. If you put in altar rails, you could still let people receive in the hand as is their right right now, but you would get rid of the cafeteria line aspect of the whole thing, and it would be much easier to watch them.
This video is truly disturbing and brought up for me again all the upset I felt trying to be responsible for the Blessed Sacrament and being made to feel like an unloving critical person for it.
Susan Peterson
Besides abolishing Communion in the hand, here’s what else needs to happen:
1. Restore the tabernacle to the altar, front and center. Shoving the tabernacle off to the side contributes to the idea that the Eucharist is no big deal.
2. Restore Communion rails. Not kneeling to receive Holy Communion contributes to the idea that the Eucharist is no big deal. (Those who cannot physically kneel will not be expected to; they never were back when kneeling was required.)
3. Abolish, or at least drastically curb EMHCs. When I was a kid, all the priests in the parish came out of the woodwork to distribute Communion at Mass. Armies of laity trooping into the sanctuary to get Hosts and chalices to distribute contributes to the idea that the Eucharist is no big deal. (It certainly did to my grandfather, who joined the Mormons and had not attended Mass for years, until the day he went with me back last June. He also took everybody drinking from the chalice as a sign that Catholic belief in the Real Presence had…progressed. I’d be very surprised if he’s been back since.)
4. Restore the use of the paten. Not having the paten sends the message that it doesn’t matter if the Eucharist falls on the ground, and contributes to the idea that the Eucharist is no big deal.
5. Get rid of RCIA instructors and Catholic school teachers who teach that the Eucharist is a mere symbol. They’re out there.
6. Priests and deacons: consider how you look when you retrieve Hosts from the tabernacle for Communion. When you grab great handfuls of them from the ciborium, it looks like you’re dipping into a bowl of chips. That gives people the impression that the Eucharist is no big deal.
Can’t bishops put the kibosh on Communion in the hand?
I’m too scared to watch this video…
Quote: “See… If we just let the Dominicans do their job, a LOT of stuff might get fixed.”
Would love to see this girl, her name is Deborah Formal, girl friend of Otto Guevara, by the way. In front of the Grand Inquisitor
“Tomas de Torquemada OP”.
Can’t bishops put the kibosh on Communion in the hand?
Theoretically, they could. Realistically … not likely, not any time soon. Geoffrey is right: catechesis is the answer. The problem is taking catechesis away from the sandalistas. In this respect, time is on our side; Bill Donohue points out that religious conservatives are out-breeding liberals by 20 to 40% (Secular Sabotage, p. 222). Plus, the products of the milk-and-water catechectical efforts they’ve produced are more likely to leave the Church, which when combined with the influx of more conservative Catholics from other countries means the eventual growth of orthodoxy as a percentage of the remaining faithful … the exact opposite of what the “spirit of Vatican II” crowd intended. But time is still needed, not only to bring more bishops sympathetic to conservatives onboard, but also to replace the priests and DREs responsible for the current poor formation of Catholics. Therefore pray God that Pope Benedict has a long reign and a compatible successor!
Yes, let us put an end to Communion in the Hand…
Anita, yes, I think there are a few diocese that have banned Communion in the Hand, I’m thinking Lima, Peru, and San Luis, Argentina off the top of my head.
It might come down to a very simple fact/solution: we need priests who wear boxers rather than panties….
“It might come down to a very simple fact/solution: we need priests who wear boxers rather than panties….”
I must stick up for my brother priests, although I am sure there are some that do nothing. You can teach until your blue in the face and people still do what they want. I FREQUENTLY talk about reverence and the Real Presence, and silence in church, and …. But it falls on deaf ears. Yes, there are some who listen, but others will not change, even if we were to put them in the corner with a dunce cap. Most of us are discourage by what we see and the response we get from constant and faithful teaching.
True reform takes, teaching, example and action!
Mentioned in this thread is the need for solid catechesis and good DREs [Directors of Religious Education]. Not wanting to hijack this discussion, I ask for a thread on catechetical programs Father Z.
Previously, education was handled by dedicated nuns and brothers. The laity has now taken over. Laity does not have the time, resources or training [classroom or Faith] that the old religious orders did. The laity is underpaid, under-appreciated, over-worked, over-committed. Typically, those with ambitions and desire to teach, haven’t the background to do so. All the while, clergy places unachievable burdens on the laity to do the job.
The good priests in the diocese are too over-worked to involve themselves with programs that they think are being handled. Unfortunately, good priests are needed to direct souls, but priests are already spread too thin. How do we resolved such a dilemma? There are not consistent rules in our diocese, as are in the schools, for catechetical programs.
Religious education obviously contributes to the situation demonstrated in the video. We’ve lost the sense of reverence for the Sacrament – how do we get it back? Education? Self-sacrifice? Firstly, nothing is achieved without bringing people back to prayer.
You can teach until your blue in the face and people still do what they want.
Exactly – catechesis isn’t always the answer. Sometimes people really do need to be told what to do.
You can teach until your blue in the face and people still do what they want.
Exactly – catechesis isn’t always the answer. Sometimes people really do need to be told what to do.
Comment by dcs
I probably don’t agree. When the move to CitH was legitimized in the US, I noticed that almost all the Catholic grade school students were would take Communion that way. The reason is that, despite what the bishops conference said, students were encouraged to take CitH.
I realize that students were encouraged to receive Communion in the hand. I also know that older folks were encouraged to “switch” as well. I think the problem is too entrenched to be solved with catechesis.
As I understand it, a country requires permission from Rome to depart from the universal norm of communion on the tongue. And that the USCCB has requested and received that permission, thus allowing communion in the hand in the U.S.
If so, then a single sentence withdrawing that permission would do more good than any amount of catechesis, teaching by example or homiletics or otherwise till blue in the face, whistling in the dark, etc.
I want to add that how Mass is celebrated by the priest is very important.
Under the impression that there was a Low Mass this morning, I went to hear the richness of the Sacrifice as done for centuries. In fact, the entire Mass was rushed (and in the Ordinary Form).
The Liturgy of the Eucharist was done so quickly and in such a cavalier manner that I was stunned. Oh and 95% of the people stood during the consecration.
How the Eurcharist was distributed could only be compared to how one receives a ticket stub when going to the megaplex. Fast, haphazard, and banal.
I want to attribute it to one of the Fathers being ill (he did appear under the weather somewhat.) But even so, Mass could have been more delicately celebrated even if it had to be swift.
When on a business trip in California, a priest by the name of Fr. Jeffery Keyes celebrated Mass one morning during the week and was so focused, so reverential I will never forget the care brought to the altar. It was OF and beautifully offered. It turns out he is a proponent of chant (Father Z has written before that we often see a distinction between priests who can and do celebrate the EF and those who hate the Tridentine Mass just in the offering of OF Mass.)
If the Host is treated like a potato chip at the altar, what do we expect poorly catechized Catholics to do?
What Henry Edwards said!
“Do you refuse to receive Holy Communion from a Deacon also?”
If you want to get really traditional, the Deacon is technically the ordinary minister of the Chalice, but not the Host. He “ideally” isn’t supposed to touch the consecrated species directly, though he does touch the instruments.
Traditionally in the Eastern Churches deacons bring the host to the sick in a covered chalice and administer it with a golden spoon or tongs. They never would touch the species directly like a priest.
So, to answer, I might receive from the cup if a deacon was ministering it (though I usually don’t receive from the cup, period). But not the host, I’d switch lines to get to the priest, unless I was sick at home and had no other option and the deacon refused to use a golden spoon or tongs. Traditionally–>Priest: host, Deacon: chalice.
I’m all for Henry Edwards’ solution. The combox discussion brings out the advantages But just think of the additional pastoral benefits–it would distract Fr. McBrien and the NCReporter from continuing to whine about the new English translation.
In Christ,
As I understand it, a country requires permission from Rome to depart from the universal norm of communion on the tongue. And that the USCCB has requested and received that permission, thus allowing communion in the hand in the U.S.
If so, then a single sentence withdrawing that permission would do more good than any amount of catechesis, teaching by example or homiletics or otherwise till blue in the face, whistling in the dark, etc.
Comment by Henry Edwards
I doubt it. We’re talking about getting the toothpaste back in the tube.
Has anyone else noticed that the announcer first says she is the “girlfriend” of so and so the candidate, then almost in the same sentence says that she put the host in the pocket of “her husband.” Is this a mistake in reporting? Or is she someone’s wife and girlfriend at the same time? As my mother used to say, “Well, what do you expect? Just look at her.”
You don’t need a new document from Rome. The Priest has the right to deny communion in the hand IFF there is risk of Sacrilige…. Hello! Unless the communicant is examininh their hand after Communion and Unless a communion plate (as called for by Redemptiones Sacramentum) is used their is definitely sacrilige. Hello what do you want the Pope to do spell it out for you!?! He himself is doing it! Watch my video on communion in the hand
youtube.com/kolbe1019
This is just sad. You wont get your document… you don’t need it.
“If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful.”
This quotation is from paragraph 92 of Redemptionis Sacramentum, issued in 2004 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments with the approval of Pope John Paul II.
Therefore, I think that any pastor who becomes aware of repeated instances of desecration or profanation of the Host in his parish would be well within his rights to discontinue communion in the hand in his parish. He may even have an obligation to do so.
You can teach until your blue in the face and people still do what they want. I FREQUENTLY talk about reverence and the Real Presence, and silence in church, and …. But it falls on deaf ears. Yes, there are some who listen, but others will not change, even if we were to put them in the corner with a dunce cap. Most of us are discourage by what we see and the response we get from constant and faithful teaching.
This leads to yet another thing that needs to happen: an increase in prayer, especially the Rosary, for the conversion of hearts. Worked for St. Dominic!
kolbe1019: I watched your video on Communion in the Hand. Very cool and to the point, love that intro!