I have long been of the opinion, and practice, of only receiving Our Lord whilst kneeling and on the tongue whilst studiously ignoring looks from both laity and occasionally clergy who "roll their eyes up" when presented by communicants such as myself. No I will not tell you what I think about EMHCs - but you are permitted to guess.
Recently I read a quite stunning article from a well known Scottish blogger and contributor to liturgical magazines such as The Remnant, and, having received his very kind permission, I append his article in full below. Do enjoy.
Reviewing Communion in the hand
By Martin Blackshaw
“Why, for God’s sake, should Communion in the
hand be introduced into our churches when it is evidently detrimental from a
pastoral viewpoint, when it certainly does not increase our reverence, and when
it exposes the Eucharist to the most terrible diabolical abuses? There are
really no serious arguments for Communion in the hand. But there are the most
gravely serious kinds of arguments against it.”
These words of Dietrich von Hildebrand were
published in a November 18, 1973 article entitled ‘Communion in the hand should
be Rejected.’
To demonstrate the stature of the one who wrote
the article it suffices to recall the tribute of Pius XII, who called von
Hildebrand a “20th century doctor of the Church.” Popes Paul
VI and John Paul II later paid their own compliments to this German Catholic
philosopher and theologian.
In the years since von Hildebrand’s article was
published, reports of the Blessed Sacrament having being found under church pews
or lying in the street have become commonplace in many countries, as have
reliable observations of a general loss of Eucharistic faith among priests and
faithful.
One U.S. gallop poll in recent years recorded
just 30% of U.S. Catholics now believing in Our Lord’s True Presence. The other
70% had either various shades of Protestant belief or no belief at all.
These findings would appear to confirm what the
‘Servant of God’ Fr. John Hardon S.J., had already bluntly asserted: “Behind
Communion in the hand—I wish to repeat and make as plain as I can—is a
weakening, a conscious, deliberate weakening of faith in the Real
Presence.”
Pope John Paul II was already lamenting the trend
in his April 1980 ‘Instruction’ Inaestamabile Donum, when
he wrote of “…frequent abuses being reported from different parts of the
Catholic world…an increasing loss of the sense of the sacred…lack of
reverence and respect for the Blessed Sacrament.”
The Pontiff was to write of these abuses again in
Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003) and Redemptionis
Sacramentum (2004), deploring their multiplication and asking: “How
can we not express profound grief at all this?”
In 2005, Cardinal Francis Arinze also spoke out
noting that the practice of Communion in the hand had even facilitated easy
access to the Blessed Sacrament for blasphemers, who subsequently abused the
consecrated host in satanic rituals and displayed all manner of sacrileges
against it on the Internet.
A few years later, Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis
Cipriani Thorne and Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra banned Communion in the hand
from their respective dioceses of Lima and Bologna, citing overwhelming evidence
of irreverence, profanation and sacrilege against the Blessed Sacrament as their
reason for acting.
Then, in 2008, the truth about this practice
began to emerge. Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, at that time Secretary of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote:
“It is now time to evaluate carefully the practice of Communion in the hand
and if necessary to abandon what was never actually called for in the Vatican II
document, Sacrosanctum Consilium.”
The Archbishop wrote these words in his Preface
to Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s book Dominus Est, which scholarly
work, by an expert in Patristics (Fathers of the Church), challenges the
authenticity of this modern practice.
It is Bishop Schneider’s contention that what has
been sold to the Catholic faithful as a return to the Eucharistic discipline of
the early Christians is historically untenable.
The discipline of the early Christian Church,
insists Mgr. Schneider, forbade both the placing of the Blessed Sacrament in the
left hand and the touching of it by the faithful with their fingers. Rather, the
faithful were obliged to bow reverently and consume the sacred host directly
from the palm of the right hand, taking care to repeat the action to ensure that
no consecrated particle remained. Additionally, women were required to cover the
right hand with a white cloth.
Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise of San Luis, Argentina,
in his book ‘Communion in the hand – Documents and history,’
concurs with the findings of Bishop Schneider, declaring: “It would be to
deceive the faithful to make them think that receiving Communion in the hand
would identify them more with the spirit of the primitive Church.”
Bishop Laise, now retired, also refused to permit
Communion in the hand in his diocese, as has his successor.
Also in 2008, Mgr. Guido Marini, Master of
Pontifical Ceremonies, in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, responding to
the question of whether the Pope intended to make Communion on the tongue while
kneeling mandatory at his Papal Masses, said:
“I really think
so. In this regard it is necessary not to forget
that the distribution of Communion in the hand remains, even
now, from the juridical standpoint, an indult from the
universal law, conceded by the Holy See to those Bishops’ Conferences which
requested it. The method adopted by Benedict XVI tends to underscore the force
of the norm valid for the whole Church.”
One year later, On July 22, 2009, Cardinal
Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the
Sacraments, speaking to Life Site News, said: “
It is the mission of this
Congregation to work to promote Pope Benedict’s emphasis on the traditional
practices of liturgy, such as reception of Communion on the tongue while
kneeling.”
These statements clarify three very essential
points for Catholics today:
Communion in the hand was not initiated by Vatican II or the Conciliar Popes.
Communion in the hand is “an indult” from the universal law of the Church, which remains that of kneeling to receive Holy Communion on the tongue.
Communion in the hand is not the traditional practice of the Church’s liturgy.
The truth is that Communion in the hand was
introduced illicitly into the Church in the mid 1960s. Pope Paul VI lamented
this fact in his May 1969 ‘Instruction’ Memoriale Domini, stating:
“in certain communities and in certain places this practice has been
introduced without prior approval having been requested of the Holy
See…”
In the same document the Pope upholds the
Traditional practice, declaring: “the Holy Father has decided not to change
the existing way of administering Holy Communion to the faithful… The Apostolic
See therefore emphatically urges bishops, priests and laity to obey carefully
the law which is still valid and which has again been confirmed.”
While it is true that Paul VI in Memoriale
Domini provided for an indult under strict conditions for those countries
were the “contrary usage” had then come to prevail, it is clear from the
wording of the document that this provision was restricted to those countries
alone. At the time, these were Germany, Holland, Belgium and France.
The intention of the Pontiff was evidently to
isolate the novelty of the “contrary usage,” which he prophetically
warned carries with it “… the danger of a loss of reverence for the august
sacrament of the altar, of profanation, of adulterating the true
doctrine.”
How the indult thereafter came to spread into
many other countries is best explained by Bishop Laise, who writes: “These
initiatives frequently could not be suppressed because they had spread too
widely. With his great kindness and prudence, the Holy Father has frequently
ceded, and many times he has done so against his will.”
He then adds: “If the legislation did not
change [that Communion on the tongue is the lawful practice], the obvious
conclusion is that the only reason for the extension of the rite [of the
practice of Communion in the hand] is that the Bishops did not listen to the
vehement exhortation of Paul VI to diligently submit to the law in force and
again confirmed.” [MD] (16).
That law of 1500 years has not been abrogated or
superseded. This is the message Pope Benedict XVI is sending to the Church
today. It is the message par excellence of St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote:
“out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches it but what is
consecrated.” (Summa, III, Q. 82. Art. 3).
In this Year of Faith, then, I hope every priest
will weigh seriously the matter of Communion in the hand, which today is sadly
more reminiscent of the practice introduced by the Protestant Reformers of the
16th century than that of the early Christians.
More importantly, I urge the Bishops to follow
the Holy Father’s example of humble love for Our Eucharistic Lord by
discouraging this “contrary usage” with its clear and proven dangers to faith
and reverence.
To these I beg urgent reflection on this closing
observation of Bishop Laise:
“With Communion in the hand, a miracle
would be required during each distribution of Communion to avoid some Particles
from falling to the ground or remaining in the hand of the faithful….Let
us speak clearly: whoever receives Communion in the mouth not only follows
exactly the tradition handed down but also the wish by the last Popes and thus
avoids placing himself in the occasion of committing a sin by negligently
dropping a fragment of the Body of Christ.”
© Martin Blackshaw
January 2012
