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Note to the denied family: Send a complaint/correction to the Bishop and copy the nuncio. Then, after you are ignored by the Bishop, follow up with the nuncio and exercise your rights under canon law. Fr. Z has a perennial post for how to address the hierarchy. Gen AI can be a help here for tasks like identifying relevant email addresses and editing.
I remember about 40-50 years years ago my father musing “I wonder how many of these bishops don’t believe in God.”
With guys like Martin there’s always a correspondence between their lack of faith and lack of charity.
This is evil.
Would Our Lord do this?
I pray the Holy Father is aware of this and acts.
Particularly egregious at a Confirmation Mass — which canonically is one of those very rare occasions when even a Protestant parent of someone being Confirmed into the Catholic Church can exceptionally receive Communion, if all other conditions have been filled and especially valid Confession, on the basis of having raised the Confirmand towards proper Christian Faith.
To deny Communion to Catholic parents in that circumstance is scandalous.
I was there.
The bishop sat with his eyes closed during communion, the other priests distributed communion.
I know the other priests wanted to use the rail, but their hands are tied.
I wondered why he was closing his eyes the whole time during communion. Now I know why.
Fr.Coleman the pastor of OLG (a good holy priest) begged for the TLM not to be taken from them. Bp.Martin ignored him and his brother priests. I truly feel for Fr.Coleman and all the holy priests in Charlotte diocese who are under this bishops thumb. Fr.Coleman even gave a very nice gift with explanation to the bishop at the end of this mass, and instead of a thank you, the bishop gave a snarky “that was the long way to say etc etc”.
After mass there was a dinner/reception. The bishop was gone within minutes after it began.
The disdain this bishop has for the priests who wrote to Rome and advocated for their flock is palpable.
I don’t understand this mentality at all… and I regularly attend Novus Ordo Masses. Why this hatred for the kneeling posture? Thankfully I’ve never encountered this in real life.
At our cathedral here in Vancouver, all kneel at the altar rail at ALL Masses – 6 Masses on Sunday, and 3 daily. And all but two of those weekly Masses are Novus Ordo.
The bishop’s defense, as if he needs one, is simple:
1. The family wasn’t denied Holy Communion
2. The line to receive was 10 feet to their left
3. They chose not to get in line like everyone else who received
Apparently someone didn’t read Redemptionis Sacramentum 91 and, wrongly, thinks that this was defensible.
Honestly, shame on the rest of the congregation. Everyone should have knelt with them until the bishop was forced to acknowledge and communicate them.
I reiterate a comment on Charlotte that I made on another post:
When the Pharisees complained about the people cheering for Jesus as He entered Jerusalem in Luke Chapter 19, Jesus replied, “I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.” A quote attributed to Victor Hugo is “No power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come.”
The Bishop of Charlotte is fighting a losing battle. The powers that be may win a battle or two and may seem to have the upper hand, but they will in the end lose this war.
We must pray for the Suffering Church and ask God to shorten their suffering in this case.
A couple years after covid was over my daughter attended Mass at a parish she wasn’t a member of and the priest refused to give her communion on the tongue. When she spoke to him afterwards he laughed at her.
It’s been a long time since I commented here, but I wanted to say that this event has caused me to research online Magisterium documents and canon law carefully. Years ago, I looked into this particular topic.
The closest canon law I found regarding this topic is 912:
BOOK IV. FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH (Cann. 834 – 848)/Part I. The Sacraments/Title III. The Most Holy Eucharist/Art. 2 Participation in the Most Holy Eucharist:
Can. 912 Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy communion.
Fr. Zuhlsdorf, perhaps you can clarify because I’m unsure if this is correct, but the Redemptionis Sacramentum does not seem to be formal canonical code, yet from my research, it is still treated seriously as binding disciplinary/liturgical law, and disobedience can have real canonical consequences. The exact penalty depends on the specific act (and on whether there is a specific penalty attached in canon law).
At any rate, as you pointed out, denial of Holy Communion to laity preferring to receive Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while kneeling is not what a loving, good shepherd does.
Message from the pastor, i have no doubt made under pressure. If not fear. These Priests in Charlotte are walking on eggshells.
Dear Our Lady of Grace community,
I want to address false posts on social media suggesting the denial of Holy Communion to a family kneeling at our altar rail during a Confirmation Mass on Tuesday. The assertion that Bishop Martin refused them Communion is fabricated, as the bishop did not even participate in the distribution of Holy Communion. In fact, Bishop Martin was gracious enough to join us to celebrate and confirm 34 young people in their faith. I (as pastor) and three other priests handled the distribution of Communion to more than 300 people who attended, some of whom knelt at any one of our Communion stations. None were denied. One family walked past our Communion stations and knelt at the altar rail. We do not distribute Communion at the altar rail. Sadly, certain agenda-driven bloggers posted about this matter without checking the facts. I encourage our parishioners and anybody visiting our church to be unified at this special moment of Communion and to follow the norms of the Church. God bless.
Father Coleman
Pastor
[The bishop didn’t distribute: thus avoiding anything negative. It was obvious that that family was there for Communion. Otherwise… what? They were just hanging out? Bottom line: They were there for Communion and you didn’t give them Communion.]
I regularly celebrate at a Portuguese mass. There are always about 10-15 at several masses who prefer to kneel down and receive on the tongue. They feel most welcome and at home in this parish, and I am as honored to nourish them with the body of Christ as I am for the others approaching the sacrament.
@dustman
I find Fr. Coleman’s excuses on behalf of Bishop Martin quite undignified and embarrassing for both Bishop Martin and Fr. Coleman. Yes, it’s all the fault of “agenda-driven bloggers” – what an absolutely asinine thing to say. What an embarrassment for the Church at large. Surely it was the “agenda-driven bloggers” that ordered altar rails illegal. Fr. Coleman ought to be ashamed of himself. It’s one thing to be stuck under the thumb of a ruthless and disgusting tyrant like Bishop Martin, but it’s another to toady for him in public and make his excuses.
The bishop is a disgrace- a shepherd whose voice I do not know or recognize.
Just asking…what if a priest disobeys his bishop? Does the Sanish Inquisition show up to beat and torture him? Is disobedience always wrong. Analogy: as a soldier I am required to disobey an unlawful order. Same in the Church?
A possible defense I remember: an act of protest disqualifies one from communion (or it did 25 years ago when I was Catholic). I remember a group participating in the Mass as normal, but wearing a sash of rainbow colors to indicate their displeasure with certain moral teachings. They were denied communion. Not sure that this could be considered analogous, but if the celebrant somehow knew more than that this was simply a family presenting themselves for communion, perhaps he adjudicated it as a protest?
[No. Not analogous.]
Thank you. I thought it might be a very different situation. Is it not analogous because this cannot be discerned to be a protest; because there’s no outward sign of protest like the sash I mentioned; some other reason?
Sincere question. I appreciate the pain here and agree the bishop could behave more pastorally even if he doesn’t want these people to kneel. For instance, he could approach them and explain his desires (please join the line) or he could offer a dialogue (please see me after service, I realize that we have differing views), or he could impart a blessing or or or any number of pastoral and kind actions that showed concern here. He sat with his eyes closed pretending he didn’t see people who were hurt.