In The Archdiocese Of Colombo, Communion In The Hand Is Not Permitted.

[Nihil Obstat]

I had no idea, but I just chanced across this via some Wikipedia links.

Apparently in 2011, in his Archdiocese of Colombo (Sri Lanka) Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith removed permission to distribute Communion in the hand, and directed that Communion is to be received kneeling. He also mandated that altar rails be present in every parish, and that priests wear proper vestments during Mass.

I had no idea that something like this happened. I wonder why it was not talked about more. Did I just miss it?

 

Anyway, I think Cardinal Ranjith suddenly became my favourite Cardinal. :hehe:

 

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2011/06/cardinal-ranjths-reforms-in-his.html

http://www.archdioceseofcolombo.com/inner.php?news_id=37

 

 

[Autumn Dusk]

This isn't a good thing.  Cardinals can't just make rules becuase they feel like it.  Way out of line regardless if you "like" it.

[Nihil Obstat]

This isn't a good thing.  Cardinals can't just make rules becuase they feel like it.  Way out of line regardless if you "like" it.

It is well within his rights as Metropolitan Archbishop, actually. 

 

 

Also, I may be mistaken about the timing. This may have been the case as early as 2009, shortly after he received the pallium.

[Ash Wednesday]

I'm not going to wade into the 10823402348278349078th hand communion debate here but I will say this, there are a lot of good, reverent Catholics that take communion in the hand. But lack of reverence and a lot of people taking communion in the hand improperly also ruin it for everyone else. People that tighten regulations aren't doing this because they "feel like it" or to be some mean old traddie. They have their reasons.

 

Edited February 12, 2013 by Ash Wednesday

[Nihil Obstat]

As reported by Offerimus Tibi Domine:
 

 
In his address to the Conference he spoke of the lack of faith in many parts of the Church itself, a lack of faith in the objective presence of the Lord in the Holy Eucharist. He thought there was often a lack of wonder and reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, quoting St Augustine saying, "We would sin if we did not adore Him before receiving Him."

 

The Cardinal spoke of the meaningless and tasteless (in many senses) experience of the Eucharist in many parishes because of a noisy and frenetic atmosphere that was no longer devout, adoring and contemplative. These aspects are not of choice but essential to a celebration of the Mass - an experience much more usual in the "Tridentine" Mass.

 

Of the priest facing the people instead of the Lord, he said that it promoted an attitude of showmanship, a silent body language of entertainment inevitably enters into the Mass. It is an innovation never advocated by the Second Vatican Council and is not respectful of the awesome mystery of the Holy Eucharist.(There was here an extended interruption for as applause echoedaround the auditorium.)

 

He re-iterated the view that active participation does not mean outward activity but interior adoration, which takes a great deal of effort and spiritual activity.

 

Later over dinner he was also telling us of some of the changes he has made in his own diocese:

Each and every church has altar rails once again for the reception of Holy Communion, which is to be received kneeling.

The allowance to deviate from the universal norm of Holy Communionon the tongue has been withdrawn. So Communion is always on the tongue.

Priests must dress in the proper vestments for Mass.

Priests are forbidden to bring elements or styles of worship from other religions into the sacred liturgy.
 

 

And relayed by Rorate Caeli.

I'm not going to wade into the 10823402348278349078th hand communion debate here but I will say this, there are a lot of good, reverent Catholics that take communion in the hand. But lack of reverence and a lot of people taking communion in the hand improperly have also ruined it for everyone else. People that tighten regulations aren't doing this because they "feel like it" or to be some mean old traddie. They have their reasons.

 

In a perfect world, those receiving Communion standing, and in the hand would, universally, be precisely as reverent as those who receive kneeling, and on the tongue. Unfortunately, as you noted, this is often not the case.

That aside, there is a good case to be made for Communion kneeling and on the tongue based on the weight of many centuries of regular practice in the Church. But in reality that point, and the point you made, are fairly separate issues.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Nihil Obstat

[Aloysius]

Autumn, since these things are indults, they are absolutely within the local bishop's authority, whether one likes it or not.  A bishop couldn't add other ways of receiving, and he couldn't forbid the universal way (kneeling and on the tongue), as that would be contrary to the universal Church's rubrics, but he can simply not make use of the indult.  I believe that there are some places where reception in the hand has never actually been permitted at all (not sure if that's true, but it's possible), none of these things have every been mandated by the Vatican, the Vatican has simply permitted bishops to allow it if they wish (same thing with Altar girls)

 

if you live in a diocese where it is permitted, and it is significant to you, then I don't begrudge you of it.  I wouldn't mind a dispassioned discussion about its pro's and con's in which I'd come down in favor of kneeling/on the tongue, but if you make use of the indult that's your prerogative and I wouldn't presume to say anything about your personal devotion... but just keep in mind that the indult is not the universal norm, and it is well within a bishop's prerogative to remove it, at least as things currently stand.

[Apotheoun]

It is well within his rights as Metropolitan Archbishop, actually. 

 

 

Also, I may be mistaken about the timing. This may have been the case as early as 2009, shortly after he received the pallium.

This is a good first step in mollifying Eastern Orthodox concerns about the degenerated nature of Roman Catholic worship, but it is only a first step.  As long as videos continue to surface like the one at the Orthodox blog linked below, which show strange liturgies in the Roman Church in major cities, ecumenical outreach will be hindered and the cause of unity in Christ will be undermined.

 

Lenten Liturgy: Compare and Contrast

Edited February 12, 2013 by Apotheoun

[Nihil Obstat]

This is a good first step in mollifying Eastern Orthodox concerns about the degenerated nature of Roman Catholic worship, but it is only a first step.  As long as videos continue to surface like the one at the Orthodox blog linked below, which show strange liturgies in the Roman Church in major cities, ecumenical outreach will be hindered and the cause of unity in Christ will be undermined.

 

Lenten Liturgy: Compare and Contrast

Frankly, such Masses as the one in that video are among the purest examples of scandal, IMO.

[KnightofChrist]

Cardinal Ranjith for Pope!

[Nihil Obstat]

If Ranjith became pope, I bet he would at least consider making the same instructions worldwide.

[Autumn Dusk]

This is a good first step in mollifying Eastern Orthodox concerns about the degenerated nature of Roman Catholic worship, but it is only a first step.  As long as videos continue to surface like the one at the Orthodox blog linked below, which show strange liturgies in the Roman Church in major cities, ecumenical outreach will be hindered and the cause of unity in Christ will be undermined.

 

Lenten Liturgy: Compare and Contrast

 

The idea that the outliers get to make the rules can work both ways.

 

When everyone is doing something that's when you get in trouble.  There were PLENTY of abuses at Mass before the 1960's.  People didn't pay attention, either...thats why all the old ladies all pray rosaries, because without them Mass would bore you stiff.  In the scheme of thing is praying a roasary better than playing with a cell phone?  Sure...but it still dosn't change the fact that one is absorbed in a non-Mass behavior.

[Apotheoun]

The idea that the outliers get to make the rules can work both ways.

 

When everyone is doing something that's when you get in trouble.  There were PLENTY of abuses at Mass before the 1960's.  People didn't pay attention, either...thats why all the old ladies all pray rosaries, because without them Mass would bore you stiff.  In the scheme of thing is praying a roasary better than playing with a cell phone?  Sure...but it still dosn't change the fact that one is absorbed in a non-Mass behavior.

And so it goes.  The abuses in the Roman Church will continue because the average Joe Catholic is easily bored and needs to be entertained.  That said, we should just admit now that the Roman Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches will never enter into communion with each other.  Why would any Eastern Orthodox Christian in his right mind want his Church to unite with a Church that does not even understand the nature of the liturgy?

 

Postscript:  As many of my Eastern Orthodox friends like to tell me . . . it is more likely that Roman Catholics will unite with Protestants because the two groups really are two sides of the same coin.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Apotheoun

[Evangetholic]

Two of the three Protestant churches I fellowship with receive communion kneeling. (I was semi-offended by the general lack of "discerning the body" I saw at my grandmother's Catholic parish Sunday.)

 

Apotheoun, I find you confusing. Are you Catholic or Orthodox?

[Apotheoun]

Two of the three Protestant churches I fellowship with receive communion kneeling. (I was semi-offended by the general lack of "discerning the body" I saw at my grandmother's Catholic parish Sunday.)

 

Apotheoun, I find you confusing. Are you Catholic or Orthodox?

Yes, I am an Orthodox Catholic, which is a statement that any good Melkite Catholic will affirm.   :smile3:

 

More precisely, the Melkite Catholic Patriarch and Holy Synod issued the profession of faith below back in the mid 1990s, and it remains the official position of the Melkite Catholic Church to this day:

 

 

1.  I believe everything which Eastern Orthodoxy teaches.

2.  I am in communion with the Bishop of Rome as the first among the bishops, according to the limits recognized by the Holy Fathers of the East during the first millennium, before the separation.

. . . 

 

Apotheoun, I find you confusing. Are you Catholic or Orthodox?

I should also add that it is a special mission of Eastern Catholics (and not merely Melkite Catholics) to work for the restoration of communion with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, a mission that is made especially hard by many of the strange things (particularly liturgical things) that occur in the Roman Catholic Church. But hey . . . life is not always easy.

[GeorgiiMichael]

Two of the three Protestant churches I fellowship with receive communion kneeling. (I was semi-offended by the general lack of "discerning the body" I saw at my grandmother's Catholic parish Sunday.)

 

Apotheoun, I find you confusing. Are you Catholic or Orthodox?

 

I grew up Lutheran before I converted to Catholicism and at my parish, we received while kneeling (in the hand, not on the tongue). That's why I find it so awkward to process up and wait in line. I'd been to some Lutheran liturgies where communion was distributed in the same way as is common practice now in the US, but kneeling still always felt right. I do hope we, as the American Catholic Church, can start to move back in that direction.