STAND UP FOR COMMUNION IN THE HAND

A lengthy two-part response to a lengthy email making the rounds on the Internet.

As usual, when someone writes a lengthy email to make a point, and a bunch more forward it around the world, there is some truth and a lot of error in the message.  The second installment of the response will talk about why we stand for communion.  So, here we go. 

Let’s read the email, first.

Pope Benedict to Catholics: Kneel and Receive on the Tongue Only

Pope Benedict XVI does not want the faithful receiving Communion in their hand nor does he want them standing to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. According to Vatican liturgist, Monsignor Guido Marini, the pope is trying to set the stage for the whole church as to the proper norm for receiving Communion for which reason communicants at his papal Masses are now asked to kneel and receive on the tongue.

The Holy Father's reasoning is simple: "We Christians kneel before the Blessed Sacrament because, therein, we know and believe to be the presence of the One True God." (May 22, 2008)

According to the pope the entire Church should kneel in adoration before God in the Eucharist. "Kneeling in adoration before the Eucharist is the most valid and radical remedy against the idolatries of yesterday and today." (May 22, 2008)

The pope's action is in accord with the Church's 2000 year tradition and is being done in order to foster a renewed love and respect for the Eucharist which presently is being mocked and treated with contempt. The various trends and innovations of our time (guitar liturgy, altar girls, lay ministers, Communion in the hand) have worked together to destroy our regard for the Eucharist, thus advancing the spiritual death of the church. After all, the Eucharist is the very life and heartbeat of the Mystical Body around which the entire Church must revolve.

Kneeling also coincides with the Church's centuries old ordinance that only the consecrated hands of a priest touch the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. "To priests alone has been given power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist." (Council of Trent) This teaching is beautifully expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica: "Because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands, for touching this sacrament."

It is for reason that Pope Paul VI in his May 1969 pastoral letter to the world's bishops reaffirmed the Church's teaching on the reception of Communion, stating that: "This method on the tongue must be retained." (Memoriale Domini) This came in response to the bishops of Holland who started Communion in the hand in defiance of the centuries old decree from the Council of Rouen (650 A.D.) where this practice was condemned as sacrilegious. "Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layperson, but only in their mouths." To date this prohibition has never been overturned legally.

Today Communion in the hand is carried on illegally and has become a major tool of the enemy to destory the Faith throughout the world. For this practice serves no other purpose than to warp our conception of Jesus Christ and nourish a contempt for the sacred mysteries. It's no wonder St. Basil referred to Communion in the hand as "a grave fault."

That is to say, Communion in the hand is not tied with Catholic tradition. This practice was first introduced to the Church by the heretical Arians of the 4th century as a means of expressing their belief that Christ was not divine. Unfortunately, it has served to express the same in our time and has been at the very heart of the present heresy and desecration that is rampant throughout the universal Church. If we have 'abuse' problems today it is because we're abusing the Sacrament - it's backfiring on us!

Thanks to Communion in the hand, members of satanic cults are now given easy access to come into the Church and take the Host so that they bring it back to their covens where it is abused and brutalized in the ritualistic Black Mass to Satan. They crush the Host under their shoes as a mockery to the living God, and we assist it with our casual practice? Amongst themselves the satanists declare that Communion in the hand is the greatest thing that ever happened to them, and we do nothing to stop it?

Hence, the Holy Father is doing his part to try to purge the Church of abuse and we as members of Christ are called upon to assist him. For your encouragement we include the following quotation from Cardinal Llovera, the new prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments speaking to Life Site News on July 22, 2009: "It is the mission of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments to work to promote Pope Benedict's emphasis on the traditional practices of liturgy, such as reception of Communion on the tongue while kneeling."

Also worth considering is the recent decree from Cardinal Caffarra, the Archbishop of Bologna Italy, forbidding the practice of Communion in the hand: "Many cases of profanation of the Eucharist have occurred, profiting by the possibility to receive the consecrated Bread on one’s palm of the hand... Considering the frequency in which cases of irreverent behavior in the act of receiving the Eucharist have been reported, we dispose that starting from today in the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter, in the Basilica of St. Petronius and in the Shrine of the Holy Virgin of St. Luke in Bologna the faithful are to receive the consecrated Bread only from the hands of the Minister directly on the tongue." (from his decree on the reception of the Eucharist, issued April 27, 2009)

Technically all bishops and clergy are bound to follow the Holy Father's directive on this issue, but in the meantime the faithful are not obliged to wait for the approval of their bishop in order to kneel for God. The directives of the Holy Father are not subject to the veto or scrutiny of the bishops and therefore all pastors and laity have a right and duty to put these directives into practice for the edification of their communities.

Now, it's my turn. 

The first error is in the headline: “Pope Benedict to Catholics: Kneel and Receive on the Tongue Only”  The pope actually said that when he is presiding at the Mass, he wants those participating in the Holy Mass to receive communion this way.

 It is true that the Pope is working to get this practice universally adopted.  The pope’s liturgist was correctly quoted as saying,  “The pope is trying to set the stage for the whole church as to the proper norm for receiving Communion for which reason communicants at his papal Masses are now asked to kneel and receive on the tongue. “  Because that is true, it does not mean that all the rest of the statements in the email are equally true.  Just because the pope has this way of thinking doesn't mean that all of the other  “abuses” mentioned in this email are factually and morally wrong and are going to have to change  by going back to the Church behaviors of the past..

To be honest to the line of thinking of this email, that is, "so many things are wrong that we have to follow the pope back to what we had before",  the Church would have to go back to Latin, all male servers, altar rails, communion under one species only, no more extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist for the good of the homebound and hospitalized, enclosed confessionals, restoration of minor orders, after midnight fast before communion, return to the full Lenten fast and the seasonal ember days not to mention the meatless Friday.  This is also the kind of thinking that, if followed to its logical conclusion, would go back to the banning of archeological investigations to support Biblical studies and the deepening of our knowledge of the ancient languages.  It would also go against the teachings all the popes since Leo XIII.  

The deep problem with this kind of thinking is that it defies the pedagogy of God.  It defies the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church.  Instead of keeping our minds open and going forward deeper onto the mysteries of faith, as Pope Pius XII teaches us to do in Divino Afflante Spiritu, we run back to the comfort of the behavior that we regret leaving.  This is true of the present pope as well as other human beings.  It is always possible in the Church to find arguments, many of them compelling, to support both sides of any discussion.  It is also always possible in the Church to make assertions that appear to be compelling, but that are in fact, outside the bounds of logic and defy the truly essential activity of the Holy Magisterium.  In this email, for instance, there is a reference to the council of Rouen...an important see in France of old (7^th century).  This was not an ecumenical council, but a local one.  To make a decision of a local council a definitive article of universal church discipline nearly 1,500 years later is to negate all the doctrine that was built on the promulgation of Rouen during the ensuing centuries.  The Church doesn’t follow that process, why did the author of this email do it?  That is not good process.  It would be easy to go back and invoke the power of law and faith into the Old Testament and insist that it be practiced as the Sacred Scripture defines it.  We don't do that because we know that God, through the Holy Spirit continues to enlighten us in our practice of discipleship.  It would be good for you all to read the argument that St. Paul had with the Church leaders of the first century regarding the need for circumcision for converts.  What was illegal then does not always rule with the same force now.  Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, the decisions of the past have the virtue of helping us to understand why we have deepened our understanding of the doctrines of our faith.

What permits the author of this email to say, "Today Communion in the hand is carried on illegally...?"  That is a totally false statement and it cannot be logically deduced from the decree that came out of Rouen.  It is false because today we have the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, approved by the powers that be in Vatican City,  that describes the behavior that we follow in our liturgy. That behavior includes the posture that we assume at communion time.

It is intensely doubtful that the statement "The pope's action is in accord with the Church's 2000 year tradition..." is correct. In the very first place, the liturgy of the Eucharist in its present form is not 2,000 years old. The history of unleavened wafers serving as altar bread is not even 1,100 years old.  When people write and make doctrinaire statements, they should at least take the precaution to be factually correct.

Here’s another daring statement, erroneous, of course: “Technically all bishops and clergy are bound to follow the Holy Father's directive on this issue, but in the meantime the faithful are not obliged to wait for the approval of their bishop in order to kneel for God. The directives of the Holy Father are not subject to the veto or scrutiny of the bishops and therefore all pastors and laity have a right and duty to put these directives into practice for the edification of their communities.

     1.     The communities in the universal Church are not bound to follow the Holy Father’s directive

           on this issue, except when he is the one presiding at the Eucharist out of respect for his

           personal opinion.  

     2.   It has now been a long time since the directive to the universal church has been to respect

           the desire of the individual who indicates by his/her posture how he/she wants to receive 

           communion.

     3.   The bishops, pastors and laity don’t have the duty to put these directives into practice for

            the edification of their communities because the communities will not be edified by such a

            reactionary return to the past and a flaunting of the now in force General Instruction of the

            Roman Missal.

If this email was written to convince the readers to kneel at communion time, it is a failure.  Arguments based on a recital of negative, anecdotal, non-documented “facts” are not compelling.  Every age, believe it, every age, has a barrel-full of bad and irreverent church behavior.  If you want to read about some from back in the 40’s and 50’s, just ask and this writer will oblige with a rather lengthy list.  You might want to start with the 20 minute Sunday Mass, including three altar rails full of communicants.  Then, as now, there were people of bad faith, ordained and lay, who contributed then and who now contribute to the “abuses.”  Human behavior in the palaces, the rectories, on the altar and in the pews will not be made holy by an edict dictating that the Church should back up into the past.  Those who want to try it that way will perhaps try, but they are doomed to fail. 

Finally, there is an attitude present in the message of this email that shows that it is more guided by emotion than by systematic argumentation based on a simple fact, the pope has made it clear that when he presides at the Holy Mass the faithful should kneel to receive the Body of Christ on the tongue.  That’s it.  He has his reasons.  His personal reasons do not compel others to fall in line when he is not the presider at the Eucharist.  It also has to be said that the pope’s liturgist has no compelling authority to change universal Church behavior.  If the pope wants to make his personal opinion dictate universal church behavior, he must follow the official procedures to do so.  Until then, no one has any obligation to change anything, especially something that is present in the official documents presently in force.

I am not going to change my faith convictions in this matter because I believe in the Holy Spirit’s work through the Second Vatican Council.  I’m going to my grave filled with holy joy with this faith in my heart and soul, so don’t cry at my funeral.

Part two coming soon: Stand up at the foot of the Cross.

FROM ICU TO "HOC EST CORPUS MEUM"

October 15, 2010

Saint Frances Cabrini Church

Yucaipa, California

The young man in the middle, Father Alex Gamino, is smiling because he has just been ordained a Roman Catholic priest.  He stands there, strong and proud between his mother and father plus Bishop Gerald Barnes (left) and co-adjutor bishop Rutilio del Riego.  Everyone in attendance (well over 1,000) is smiling too.  Father Alex is a special person, not only to God but to thousands of people in Southern California, mostly in the areas in and around the great Mojave desert.  His is a story that few young men have, even those who enjoy the crowning of their call to the Vineyard of God.  I like to write about it because Father Alex is close to our family and because I have written so many things about death and dying over the last few months that it does me some good to write about a renewed life, a flowered call to mission.  

Some four or five months ago Father Alex missed his scheduled ordination.  He was not far away from having his hands anointed by God Himself.  He fell gravely ill just a few weeks before "O" Day and spent a goodly amount of time in ICU in the great state of Texas where he was attending the seminary.  It was not the news that family and friends were expecting.  But it did have the effect of galvanizing those who love this young man into action.  I know that God had His hands full with all the prayers that were flung at Him from all over Southern California, some parts of Mexico and most of us do not know where else. Well, far be it from me to accuse God of caving in, but the fact of the matter is, that we now have Father Alex Gamino, alive and well, whether or not God had to change His mind to match ours.  Let's just say, as good Catholics always do, "Our prayers were heard."

Tomorrow, Belle and I will kneel before Father Alex and he will bless us.  It will be special for us because we know that this will be a blessing soaking wet with holy tears of gratitude for life, for a vision of holy work pruning the Lord's vine, feeding His sheep, protecting His lambs and spreading His love all around the Southern California desert towns where Father Alex will walk firmly, gently, bravely and with a purposeful gait.   He knows that he has been blessed with renewed vigor for a reason that only God knows.  Father Alex will not let you down, Lord.  You'll be glad You kept him around.  He will be with You working so hard for so long that he will not have time to cry at my funeral.

Let 'em eat dog food

By Paul Dion, STL

On one Sunday when we heard the story of the multiplication of the loaves according to John, (6; 1 – 15) and the feeding of the large crowd by the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 4:42-44), my parish priest, Fr. Romy, addressed world hunger and the ways that it touches all of us.

Early in his address to the congregation he said, “That horrible reality of hunger is a human tragedy. It is a sin against life.” (Italics mine) That means that it is a human tragedy not just for those who are hungry and dying, but for all of us who are implicated in their misery.

I am of the opinion that it is a sin against life that has “corporate” dimensions. We all participate in it. We all have a share in the death of the 40 to 60 million people who succumb to the ravages of hunger every year. Father Romy didn’t give any examples of how we participate in the corporate sin against life, but I am not shy, so I’m going to give it a try.

I know some people who brag about the fact that they never eat “leftovers.” So, they cook for four or five, even if they are but two in the house. The food that is left behind is carefully wrapped or placed in Tupperware containers and stored in the refrigerator until it either takes up too much space, becomes inedible or I and my wife “rescue” it and get to save $50.00
or more for the month.

Want to know what happens when we are not there to claim this food? It gets fed to the feral cats who roam the inner city neighborhood where these people live. Now, the last time I gave this any thought, I thought that feral cats who didn’t get to kill something for dinner, including one another, died of hunger.

People who feed them sin against human life because they spend too much for too much food that they have no intention of eating and they don’t think of the hungry people that they could help by being more frugal. And they sure don’t think of me. I can and will eat anything, including your leftovers. But then again, I’m not starving, so I guess I don’t count.

Yes, I do tell them that what they are doing is immoral. They think I'm crazy. I know I am, but I thank God that I am not insane.

I’m sure that I don’t have to mention the amount of food that is wasted in the restaurant industry. We all know the restaurants that give the most generous portions for the price. Two or three of us go there, get our money’s worth, so we say, and then send 35% to the disposal unit because our eyes were bigger than our stomach. My wife and I have discovered that any restaurant with a “king sized” portion policy will also serve that same portion with two plates so that none will go to waste. Think about it.

I also want to say that the amount of dog and cat food that we buy here in the United States could feed 40 to 60 million people a year. Not a person among them would complain. How many of these starving people can get a four ounce meal of tuna, corn meal, ground bone protein twice per day? How many of them can get a six ounce portion of beef, beef parts, meal, ground bone protein and other stuff twice per day?

None. If they could, they would not die, they would thrive. Yet, we feed that to our dogs and cats! If that is not a corporate sin against humanity, nothing is.

I don’t want to hear that these processed foods are not edible by humans. Oh!?! Do they contain chicken feet? Locusts? Beetles? Larvae? Pigs’ ears? Chicken combs? Bulls’ testicles? Blood? Not that I could see on the ingredient list. Yet, even if they are, these are all food items in many third world countries. I did see that they had a lot of fat content (good for silky fur), lots of salt (hmmm, gotta cut that, but that’s easy), animal parts (Fried intestines anybody? Go to El Rodeo Restaurant in La Mesa, Tijuana, Baja California). Have we forgotten that human beings are omnivorous?

One last comment. We humans, God’s greatest creation, are the only animals who can manage our food supply, no matter how complex we make it. We can even transport food across the planet to those who need it. Yet, we let our fellow human beings die because we do not have the conscience to keep them alive, no matter how many technological advances we have made
to process food so that it lasts for a long time.

What if we were cows? We would get fed, even just to fatten us up for future value. Do you know how much alfalfa it takes to make a 1,500 pound cow? How about the slop that it takes to make a 1,000 pound hog? I won’t bore you with the same question for sheep, goats, ostriches, horses, etc.

Somewhere toward the end of the book of Job, Yaweh asks Job, “did you ever ask yourself why the horse eats only grass and is swifter and stronger than you?”

That is a good question, but it doesn’t mean anything to us because God endowed us with a logical brain and freedom which the horse does not have.

The real question is, why don’t we use this endowment for our common good? My follow-up question is, why do we use this endowment to develop food to make dogs and cats fatter and prettier and “happier” while 40 to 60 million of our fellow human beings are dying of hunger?

Father Romy asked us to try to do something about the hunger problem. He mentioned that St. Christopher has a food bank to which we can contribute. I say, that’s the least we can do.

I also say, send your dog or cat to the farm and buy food for the hungry people of Moreno Valley instead. To those of you who own Wall Street Stock, I say divest yourself of the companies who process pet food and buy something that is more in the interest of mankind. You don’t want to divest yourself of your Ralston Purina stock? Go to the next shareholders meeting and make a plea to get the company to process 20% of its canned food so that it will be healthful for people who need a quick, compact meal to keep themselves alive. Same basic ingredients, less chemicals.

So, you don’t want to get rid of your pet? I’ll bet you know someone, or a family who could use a nice meal once a week. Who knows how much life you could add to that person or that family by cooking something for them?

This is a hard question. It goes to the emotions of millions of people. Emotions or not, something has to be done about the problem of human hunger, and I think that what I have said above is a part of the solution.

Having said that, I now know that there will be a hoard of you who will cry for your dog's dying and will most certainly not cry at my funeral.


(Click here to view the many wonderful articles that await you in www.ParishWorld.net, America's Catholic Lifestyle Magazine. Be informed, be inspired, be blessed. )

JESUS HAD IT RIGHT (JOHN 21;18)

"I tell you most solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go."                      

Imagine being led around by these two fine specimens of human nature! In a previous post I described my bout with a ferocious attack of the gout and the consequences that it brought to my life.  By doing that, I left out the story of my two sons. They deserve more recognition than was present in the previous writing.

I have chosen the above photos because I have decided that they will lighten the tone of the matter. I have already told them that when a father finds himself being coddled by his children, there are no words in the language powerful enough to express the emotion of the moment. It is a moment captured well by the words that Jesus addressed to Peter just before leaving earth for heaven.
I was in that situation.  They put me in a car and drove me to the hospital.  There they sat, missing work, keeping watch over the shadow of the man they knew as their father.  In the very few semi-lucid moments that I had over the first three days of my confinement, we tried to communicate as usual, but it was impossible.  They even found it necessary to apologize to the hospital staff that had to endure my abuse.  Yes, they did that, and more, because they saw their father in a light that they never thought would ever present itself to them.  I still remember some of the words they used during those moments.  When I think of them, I smile and wonder how God could have blessed me so deeply and richly with two magnificent angels, blood of my blood, hearts of my heart, full of His Grace.


These guys are saints.  I thank God for showing me the precious depths of their souls before I die.  When I do die, remember what I have just said.  Know that I died in the presence of saints on earth, and do not dare to cry at my funeral.

THIS HALF-PINT HAT IS ALL MAN; ALL 80 YEARS OF HIM

RARE SIGHT

...And I thought I was old!
This is not a picture that I took, but I'll tell you why.  I saw a hat just like this in the pew in front of me just yesterday.  That's right, I said "pew."  I was participating in the holy sacrifice of the Mass yesterday morning and I had a hard time concentrating on the rite.  I couldn't stop wondering if the hat was a real symbol of the life history of the man kneeling off to my left, or if it was just another "souvenir."  After Mass, I approached the senior gentleman, obvious owner of the hat and I asked him if what it said was true in his case.  He said that it is.  As a reflex action he asked, "Do you want it"?  I was shocked, and moved.  I said in a shaking voice, "No thanks, I don't deserve it." He spent 27.5 years in the service of the United States of America.  I remember only the round number, but his answer to me was precise to the hour of the time he had spent in the service.  World War II, Navy; Korea, Air Force; Viet Nam, Air Force, two tours.  His hat had a Roman numeral II after the word Viet Nam.  His cap, unlike the one pictured is pure white...and clean. No problem wearing that to church.
He told me that he thanks God every day for the blessings that he has had over the many years of life given to him by God.  He participates in the Mass every chance that he gets,which is almost daily.  He is tall, big, stands straight up and has a clear, unwavering voice.  Our meeting was short, but moving.  I told him that I never expected to see such a rarity walking around strongly and healthily.  I told him that now that I "know" him that he can count on my prayers.
I made the mistake of not asking his name and not inquiring whether or not he lives in Moreno Valley.  All I know is that I enjoyed praying next to a creature who doesn't expect anyone to cry at his funeral...just stand there in awe at what God has accomplished through him and continues to show him off before His altar.
What a blessing this was!