From CNA: Communion in hand should be revised, Vatican official says
Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Cult and Discipline of the Sacraments has said that the policy of giving Communion in the hand should be revised.
Receiving Holy Communion in the hand “produces a growing weakening of a devout attitude toward the Most Holy Sacrament,” wrote Archbishop Ranjith in the preface of a book from the Auxiliary Bishop of Kazakhstan, Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
The book’s title, printed by the Vatican Editing house, is —Dominus Est: Meditations of a Bishop from Central Asia on the Sacred Eucharist.”
Archbishop Ranjith says in the preface that the Eucharist should be received “with reverence and an attitude of devout adoration,” and claims that the practice of receiving Communion in the hand “was introduced in some places in an abusive and hurried manner.”
The Archbishop also highlights that the Second Vatican Council never promoted or legitimated such practice.
—I believe it is time to evaluate and reconsider such a practice, and if necessary, abandon it all together,” Ranjith concludes.
That and the whole idea of “Extraordinary ‘Ministers'” should be done away with
I know of what I speak because in my R.C. days, back in Buffalo, I was one. Our parish had 3-4 priests at any one time and 20+ “Extraordinary ‘Ministers.'” The priests sat back and let the EM’s do the work – and there were no huge crowds at any one Mass. Beyond that, whenever I attend a R.C. Church (family funerals, other occasions) I sit back and am amazed at what I see during the distribution of the Holy Eucharist.
The most recent example was a woman with a walker. She could not possibly let go of the walker with both hands so as to follow protocol.
As I recall the protocol
As she could not do that, she let go of the walker with the right hand. The ‘minister’ placed the Eucharist there. Then she brought her hand up to her mouth and literally ‘hoovered’ the Eucharist into her mouth. I almost fell over.
In the U.S. the extraordinary is the ordinary. It is merely a subterfuge for, as Catholic Church Conservation would call, stealth priestesses and other abuses. The Young Fogey has mentioned that clown masses are a thing of the distant past – and perhaps so. What they’ve been replaced with makes those look absolutely Tridentine (check out the photos at CathCon and marvel at the inventiveness of it all).
If people have to “wait” and few extra seconds for the Eucharist – so what. Seek forgiveness, approach with joy and expectation, and most of all build up the desire within yourself. After all, you are approaching God.
