Communion On The Hand

[Resurrexi]

...

[Hirsap]

Just added my vote. No, yes, yes.

Now just a few notes: there is nothing IN PRINCIPLE wrong with the reception of communion in the hand. Nonetheless, it is imprudent in age awash with already existing liturgical abuse, not to mention little emphasis on the sacred amongst society in general. Moreover, the Church in her wisdom stopped this practice a long time ago, and communion on the tongue has been the norm for around 1000 yrs probably. So the question is: why change? Is it necessary to change an age-old practice? I think the answer to this can be yes, if there's a weighty reason, that will reflect/'enhance' Catholic doctrine. For instance, Pope St. Pius X's encouragement to receive daily communion. enhances the Catholic view that the Body and Blood of Our Lord is not a reward for virtue (as insinuated the Jansenists and those with such tendencies) but an aid towards growing in grace. Communion in the hand does little to emphasise the sacredness of the Eucharist. Communion on the tongue does. It is all the more necessary now in light of poor catechesis on this teaching of Christ's Presence. It would help foster an attitude of shying away those who should not be receiving.

[brendan1104]

The Truth About Communion in the Hand
"Out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches It but what is Consecrated" ... Saint Thomas Aquinas
by John Vennari

Throughout the centuries, our fathers have told us about our Faith and about the Blessed Sacrament. Our fathers have told us that the Holy Eucharist is truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The Fathers of the Council of Trent defined the Blessed Sacrament with precision and care. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught us that out of reverence toward this Sacrament, the touching and administering of this Sacrament belong only to the priest. Our Catholic fathers at home, as well as our teaching Sisters in school, told us that it was sacrilegious for anyone but the priest to touch the Sacred Host.

Throughout the centuries, the Popes, bishops and priests taught us this same thing, not so much by words, but by example — and especially by the celebration of the Old Latin Mass, where profound reverence for the Blessed Sacrament as the true Body of Christ was in every move the priest made. Our fathers told us these things not just for the sake of handing down a venerable but groundless tradition, they have told us these things through word and example to show fidelity to the Catholic Faith and reverence toward the Blessed Sacrament. Our fathers told us this because it was the truth.

But the introduction of Communion in the hand and lay ministers of the Eucharist shows an arrogant disregard for what our fathers taught us. And though these practices have been introduced under the guise of being an "authentic" liturgical development mandated by Vatican II, the truth is Communion in the hand is not an authentic liturgical development, was not mandated by the Second Vatican Council, and shows complete defiance and contempt for centuries of Catholic teaching and practice before us.

Communion in the hand was introduced under a false ecumenism, allowed to grow due to weakness in authority, approved through compromise and a false sense of toleration, and has led to profound irreverence and indifference toward the Blessed Sacrament as the commonplace liturgical abuse and the disgrace of our age.

Nowhere Mentioned in Vatican II

In all sixteen documents of Vatican II, there is no mention of Communion in the hand, nor was it mentioned during any of the debates during the Council.

Before the Second Vatican Council, there is no historic record of bishops, priests or laity petitioning anyone for the introduction of Communion in the hand. Quite to the contrary, anyone who was raised in the pre-Vatican II Church will distinctly remember being taught that it was sacrilegious for anyone but the priest to touch the Sacred Host.

The teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his great Summa Theologica bears this out. He explains:

"The dispensing of Christ’s Body belongs to the priest for three reasons.

"First, because he consecrates in the person of Christ. But as Christ consecrated His Body at the (Last) Supper, so also He gave It to others to be partaken of by them. Accordingly, as the consecration of Christ’s Body belongs to the priest, so likewise does the dispensing belong to him.

"Second, because the priest is the appointed intermediary between God and the people, hence as it belongs to him to offer the people’s gifts to God, so it belongs to him to deliver the consecrated gifts to the people.

"Third, because out of reverence for 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. Hence, it is not lawful for anyone else to touch It, except from necessity, for instance, if It were to fall upon the ground or else in some other case of urgency." (ST, III, Q.82, Art. 13)

Saint Thomas, who is the prince of theologians in the Catholic Church, who towers above all the rest, whose Summa Theologica was placed on the altar next to the Scriptures during the Council of Trent, and whose teaching Saint Pius X said was the remedy for Modernism ... Saint Thomas clearly teaches that it belongs to the priest and only to the priest to touch and administer the Sacred Host, that "only that which is consecrated" (the hands of the priest) "should touch the Consecrated" (the Sacred Host).

Controversy surrounds the claim that Communion in the hand was practiced in the early Church. There are some that claim that it was practiced up until the 6th Century and even cite a passage of St. Cyril to substantiate this assertion. Others maintain that it was never a Catholic custom, but if Communion in the hand was practiced in some limited way in the early Church, it was institutionalized and made widespread by the Arians as a sign of their disbelief in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. This same school of thought also maintains that the quotation of Saint Cyril is of unsound Arian apocryphal origins. Whatever the case, it is clear that Communion on the tongue is of Apostolic origins (that is, taught by Christ Himself), Communion in the hand was condemned as an abuse at the Synod of Rouen in 650 A.D., and the practice of Communion in the hand is never reflected in the artwork of any period whether it be in the East or West ... that is, up until after the Second Vatican Council.

Reverence Toward Eucharist Incorporated into the Old Mass

The teaching that only the priests may touch the Sacred Host, that the priest’s hands are consecrated for this purpose, and that no precaution was too great to safeguard reverence and prevent desecration had been incorporated into the Liturgy of the Church; that is, the Old Latin Mass.

Priests were trained in the Old Latin Mass to celebrate Mass with precise rubrics that safeguarded the reverence the Blessed Sacrament deserves. These meticulous rubrics were carved in stone and were not optional. Each and every priest in the Roman Rite had to follow them with unyielding precision. In the pre-Vatican II Church, when the Latin Tridentine Mass was the norm, men training to be priests were not only taught, but drilled in these rubrics.

Some of the rubrics in the Old Latin Mass are as follows:

From the moment that the words of consecration over the Sacred Host are uttered by the priest, he keeps his forefinger and thumb together, and whether he elevates the chalice, turns the pages of the Missal or opens the tabernacle, his thumb and forefinger touch nothing but the Sacred Host. It is also worth noting that there was no leaving the Sacred Host upon the altar to walk up and down the aisles (especially before his fingers have been purified), shaking peoples´ hands in an awkward display of forced friendliness.
At the end of Mass, the priest scrapes the corporal with the paten, and cleans it into the chalice so that if the slightest Particle was left, It would be collected and reverently consumed.

The priest’s hands are washed over the chalice after Communion time with water and wine which is reverently consumed, to insure that the slightest Particle is not susceptible to desecration.

These are only some of the rubrics incorporated into the Old Mass. They were not just silly scruples, but showed the Church believed with certainty that at Mass, the bread and wine truly become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and that no pains were too great to make sure that Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was treated with all the reverence and homage that His Majesty deserves.

Now, when it comes to showing reverence, is it possible for these rubrics to be improved upon? A true Catholic renewal would either leave these gestures of reverence intact, or enhance them. But obliterating these without apology and without convincing argument, as has been the case over the last 30 years with the introduction of the New Mass, is not the mark of genuine Catholic renewal, but resembles the New Paganism warned of by Belloc, and its arrogant contempt for tradition.

And to add insult to injury, the introduction of Communion in the hand makes all these crucial pre-Vatican II rubrics look like superstitious sentimentalism with no foundation in reality — again, contempt for what our fathers taught us and obvious contempt for the Blessed Sacrament Itself.

How Did Today’s Communion in the Hand Come About?

400 years ago, Communion in the hand was introduced into "Christian" worship by men whose motives were rooted in defiance of Catholicism. The 16th Century Protestant revolutionaries (more politely but undeservedly called Protestant "reformers") re-established Communion in the hand as a means of showing two things:

1) That they believed there was no such thing as "transubstantiation" and that the bread used at Communion time was just ordinary bread. In other words, the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is just a "Papist superstition", and that the bread is just bread and anybody can handle it.

2) Their belief that the minister of Communion is no different in any fundamental from laymen. Now, it is Catholic teaching that the Sacrament of Holy Orders gives a man a spiritual, sacramental power, it imprints an indelible mark on his soul and makes him fundamentally different from laymen. The Protestant Minister, however, is just an ordinary man who leads the hymns, reads the lessons and gives sermons to stir up the convictions of the believers. He can’t change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Our Lord, he can’t bless, he can’t forgive sins. He can’t do anything a normal layman can’t do.

The Protestants’ establishment of Communion in the hand was their way of showing their rejection of belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, rejection of the Sacramental Priesthood — in short, to show their rejection of Catholicism altogether.

From that point on, Communion in the hand received a distinctly anti-Catholic significance. It was a recognizably anti-Catholic practice rooted in disbelief in the real Presence of Christ and the priesthood. So, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is not unfair to ask why are our modern churchmen imitating self-proclaimed infidels who reject core sacramental teaching of Catholicism? This is a question that those Churchmen intoxicated by the liberal spirit of Vatican II have yet to answer satisfactorily.

Thanks to Ecumenism ...

Though Communion in the hand was not mandated by the Second Vatican Council, what was "canonized" by Vatican II was "Ecumenism" — this false spirit of counterfeit unity that had been previously condemned by the Church, particularly by Pope Pius XI in his 1928 encyclical Mortalium Animos — this movement of Catholics becoming more buddy-buddy and huggy-huggy with other religions, and especially with Protestants.

This movement supposedly plays up those things we have in common with other creeds, and hush-hushes those things that divide us; to celebrate our shared "values". ("Values" is a subjective term you won’t find in pre-Vatican II theology manuals).

No longer do we try to convert non-Catholics. Instead, we engage in useless and endless "dialogue" in which Catholicism always comes out the loser because such dialogue gives the unmistakable impression that Catholicism no longer believes it is the sole possessor of theological truth.

Though Ecumenism will not be treated within this article (see "The Problem with Modern Ecumenism", Catholic Family News — March 1995 Issue), suffice it to say that this novel ecumenical spirit which Deitrich von Hildebrand called "ECUMANIA" became rampant during and after Vatican II. The ecumenical spirit became the primary formative principle in the whole range of the new liturgical forms established since the Council. This is why the new liturgy so closely resembles a Protestant service.

The Ecumenical Monkey-See, Monkey-Do

After Vatican II, some ecumenically-minded priests in Holland started giving Communion in the hand, in a monkey-see, monkey-do imitation of Protestant practice. But the bishops, rather than do their duty and condemn the abuse, tolerated it.

Because Church leaders allowed the abuse to go unchecked, the practice then spread to Germany, Belgium and France. But if the bishops seemed indifferent to this scandal, the laity were outraged. It was the indignation of large numbers of the Faithful which prompted Pope Paul VI to take some action. He polled the bishops of the world on this issue, and they voted overwhelmingly to retain the traditional practice of receiving Holy Communion only on the tongue. And it must be noted that at this time, the abuse was limited to a few European countries. It had not yet started in the United States.

"Memoriale Domine"

The Pope then promulgated the May 28, 1969 Instruction Memoriale Domine. In summary, the document states:

1) The bishops of the world were overwhelmingly against Communion in the hand.

2) "This manner of distributing Holy Communion (that is, the priest placing the Host on the tongue of the communicants) must be observed."

3) Communion on the tongue in no way detracts from the dignity of the communicant.

4) There was a warning that "any innovation could lead to irreverence and profanation of the Eucharist, as well as gradual erosion of correct doctrine."

The document further says "the Supreme Pontiff judged that the long received manner of ministering Holy Communion to the Faithful should not be changed. The Apostolic See therefore strongly urges bishops, priests and people to observe zealously this law."

A Simultaneous Red Light and Green Light

It must be asked, then, if this Instruction is on the books, why is Communion in the hand so prevalent? An illustration can be given by the story of the Canadian bishops´ response to Humanae Vitae. Humanae Vitae rightly reaffirmed the Church’s teaching against contraception. But when Humanae Vitae was issued, there was a tidal wave of scandalous opposition from Catholic priests and Ph.D.s. The Canadian bishops wrote a pastoral letter supposedly in support of Humanae Vitae, but within that document the bishops used the curious phrase "norms for licit dissent".

This phrase gives the impression that there could be room for Catholics to legitimately reject Humanae Vitae. So, whether they realized it or not, the bishops sabotaged their own pastoral letter, by giving a simultaneous red light and green light to rejection of the Papal Encyclical. When vast numbers of Catholics, then, rejected Humanae Vitae based on the Canadian bishops’ compromise, it was hardly surprising. Even the most ordinary parents are smart enough not to give their children the option to accept or reject parental commands. To do so would be a clear sign of weak and vacillating leadership. But unfortunately, this is precisely what happened with the supposedly anti-Communion in the hand document of 1969.

Now, this was the age of compromise, and the document contained the seed of its own destruction, because the Instruction went on to say that where the abuse had already become firmly established, it could be legalized by a two-thirds majority in a secret ballot of the national bishops conference (providing the Holy See confirmed their decision). This played right into the liberals’ hands. And it must be noticed, the Instruction said "where the abuse had already become firmly established". So, countries in which the practice had not developed were, obviously, excluded from the concession — and all English-speaking countries, including the United States, fell into this category.

Naturally, liberal clergy in other countries (including ours) concluded that if this rebellion could be legalized in Holland, it could be legalized anywhere. They figured that if they ignored Memoriale Domine and defied the liturgical law of the Church, this rebellion would not only be tolerated, but eventually legalized. This is exactly what happened, and this is why we have Communion in the hand today.

Started in Defiance, Perpetuated by Deception

Not only was Communion in the hand started in disobedience, it was perpetuated by deceit. Space doesn’t allow all the details, but the propaganda in the 1970s that was used to sell Communion in the hand to a trusting, vulnerable people was a campaign of calculated half-truths that didn’t tell the whole story. A quick example will be found in the writings of Monsignor Champlin. His writings:

give the reader the false impression that Vatican II provided a mandate for the abuse when, in fact, it is not hinted at in any Council documents.

do not tell the reader that the practice was started by clergymen in defiance of established liturgical law but make it sound as if it were a request from the laity.

do not make clear to the reader that the world’s bishops, when polled, voted overwhelmingly against Communion in the hand.

do not mention that permission was only to be a toleration of the abuse where it had already been established by 1969. It was not a green light for it to spread to other countries, like the United States.

Not "Optional" for the Clergy!

Now we are at the point where Communion in the hand is viewed as a superior way of receiving the Eucharist and the vast majority of our little children are being misinstructed to receive First Communion in the hand. The Faithful are told that it is an optional practice, and if they don’t like it, they can receive it on the tongue.

The tragedy of it all is, if it is optional for the laity, in practice it is not optional for the clergy.

Priests are falsely instructed that they must administer Communion in the hand, whether they like it or not, to anyone who requests it, thereby throwing many good priests into an agonizing crisis of conscience.

After the Second Vatican Council, a very wise Archbishop shrewdly observed that the masterstroke of satan was to sow disobedience to Catholic tradition through obedience.

It is obvious that no priest can be lawfully forced to administer Communion in the hand, and we must pray that more priests will have the courage to safeguard the reverence due to this Sacrament, and not be trapped into a false obedience that causes them to cooperate in the degradation of Christ in the Eucharist. They must find the courage for opposing this novel practice by remembering that even Pope Paul VI, despite his weaknesses, correctly predicted that Communion in the hand would lead to irreverence and profanation of the Eucharist, and a gradual erosion of correct doctrine — and we have seen this prophecy come to pass. And, if the priests’ opposition to Communion in the hand should be fierce and firm, their opposition to "Extraordinary Ministers" should be even more adamant.

"Extraordinary Ministers"

In his best-selling book, The Last Roman Catholic?, James W. Demers said, "Of those responsible for the lack of beauty in the Church, no one is more culpable than today’s lay ministers. The mindless behavior of this superficially trained laity brings to the sanctuary a pomposity that is both embarrassing and saddening to watch."

Lay people giving out Holy Communion during Mass was rightly considered an unthinkable act of sacrilege and irreverence only 35 years ago, and for centuries preceding. But now, lay people administering the Blessed Sacrament is an ordinary sight in the average Novus Ordo parish church, and most Catholics think nothing of it — proving that men can become desensitized to desecration.

It seems like they came from nowhere. All of a sudden, there they were! And where they were, they were for keeps! But if you think about it, there were some necessary steps that we sat in the pew and watched develop that laid the foundation for this plague of unconsecrated hands, commissioned by pastors to degrade the Eucharist, usurp the duty of those in Holy Orders, undermine the priesthood, and rob the altar of God of its sacred rights.

Bishop Sheen once wrote that both men and women are slaves to fashion, but with this difference ... he said if women are slaves to fashions of clothing, men are slaves to fashions of thought. And the fad and fashion that was the pride and joy of many post-Vatican II Churchmen, in the name of making the Church more "relevant", was the idea of lay-involvement in the liturgy.

Lay people started reading the Epistle, and the new responsorial psalms. They conducted the tedious "Let us pray to the Lord — Lord hear our prayer" "Prayers of the Faithful", and even greeted us over the microphone before Mass — wishing us "good morning", telling us what hymns we’ll be singing and what Eucharistic Prayer Father fancies today.

The sanctuary became a stage, and a weekly one-man-monologue would no longer do. The bigger the cast, the better, and the gripping drama of the Mass became an amateur show. The priest, a man who had been called by God and who had been specifically trained in the study and dispensing of the sacred mysteries had to step aside, either willingly or reluctantly, to allow unqualified, out-of-place, part-time dabblers to trespass and profane His sacred domain of sanctuary and altar.

But lay-readers within the New Mass was not the only necessary step. Lay ministers of the Blessed Sacrament would not have been possible without the revolution in rubrics that preceded it: the practice and widespread acceptance of lay-people receiving the Holy Eucharist in their palms. The office of Eucharistic minister is therefore the illegitimate offspring from the union of the New Liturgy’s "lay involvement" and Communion in the hand living together in the modern Church. It is a love-child of the 1960s revolution.

Everybody’s in on the Act!

You can be sure there were many Catholics willing to become part of this "lay-elite" who distribute Holy Communion, but there were also Catholics whose good Catholic sense was initially opposed to this practice, but who eventually allowed themselves to be talked into it by persuasive clergymen. The biggest ploy used by modern clergy was to resort to flattery ... to approach good Catholic men and women saying, "You’re a good parish member, an exemplary Christian, a good father or mother, so we want to bestow upon you the ‘honor’ of being a Eucharistic minister."

So what have they done? They’ve taken the distribution of Christ’s Body, something so sacred that it belongs to the priest alone, and turned it into a childish reward for good behavior: like a merit badge that would be given to a cub scout for swimming a mile or building a wigwam, or like a star that would be placed on the forehead of a third-grade girl because she’s the only one in class who could correctly spell "Czechoslovakia".

It’s been disguised as a reward that the good and humble in the parish accept reluctantly, and then get used to. Or it’s a position that the proud and pompous in the parish lust after, thereby showing themselves incapable of recognizing a false and petty prestige.

"Extraordinary Minister" or "Eucharistic Minister"?

The terms "lay minister" and "Eucharistic minister" have been used rather loosely up until this point, because this is the terminology often found in parish bulletins. In actuality, there is no such terminology as "Eucharistic minister", the proper term is "Extraordinary minister".

When it comes to the sacraments, "extraordinary minister" is classic terminology. For example, the "ordinary minister" of Confirmation in the Roman Rite is the bishop, and the "extraordinary minister" is the priest, specifically delegated by the bishop in extraordinary circumstances. So, if words mean anything, as Michael Davies pointed out, an extraordinary minister should be an extraordinary sight. Not only should we rarely see one, but there should be many Catholics who go through their entire life without once seeing an extraordinary minister. But today, there’s nothing extraordinary about extraordinary ministers. They are as ordinary and part’n’parcel of the modern Church as missalettes and collection baskets. This is clearly a calculated abuse of classic Catholic terminology used to introduce a novelty into the New Mass that has no foundation in Church History or Catholic practice.

On January 29, 1973, an Instruction, called Immensae Caritatis, was issued by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship that authorized the introduction of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist. This document does not grant some revolutionary indult for any and every parish to permit lay-people to administer Communion; it authorizes the use of extraordinary ministers in "cases of genuine necessity" , which are listed as:

When there is no priest, deacon or acolyte.

When these are prevented from administering Holy Communion because of another pastoral ministry or because of ill health or advanced age.

When the number of the Faithful requesting Holy Communion is such that the celebration of the Mass or the distribution of the Eucharist outside Mass would be unduly prolonged.

The Instruction stipulates that:

"Since these faculties are granted only for the spiritual good of the Faithful and for cases of genuine necessity, priests are to remember that they are not thereby excused from the task of distributing the Eucharist to the Faithful who legitimately request it, and especially from taking and giving it to the sick."

First of all, it is not an act of disloyalty or disobedience to question the wisdom of the document in the first place, particularly when this permission is a revolution against all the pre-Vatican II rubrics that existed for centuries — rubrics that existed for reasons of reverence, to safeguard against desecration and that were a matter of Catholic common sense. But even taking this document at face value, it is difficult to envisage circumstances that would justify the use of Extraordinary Ministers outside of mission lands. Today’s "Eucharistic Ministers" actually operate in defiance of existing Vatican norms.

The Age of Ambiguity

The term "taken at face value" was used because, as some astute readers will have already noticed, the document just quoted from was loosely worded. The document had that ambiguity, imprecision and elasticity that has characterized many of the Vatican II and post-Vatican II documents.

Though there is no hard proof that the loose wording of Immensae Caritatis was done on purpose, there is ample proof that the ambiguity in the Vatican II documents was deliberate. Father Edward Schillebeeckx, an influential liberal theologian at Vatican II, admitted that placing deliberate ambiguity in the Council documents was a key strategy of the progressives. He said, "We have used ambiguous phrases during the Council and we (the liberal theologians) know how we shall interpret them after."

The main ambiguity which probably gave rise to today’s proliferation of Extraordinary Ministers was the justification of their use if Mass would be (what was called) "unduly prolonged". Now, does this mean 5 minutes or 45 minutes "unduly prolonged"? It depends on who interprets it. And in instructions of this nature, lack of precision gives rise to wide interpretation, and wide interpretation gives rise to the establishment of an abuse under the appearance of fidelity to Church regulations. And once a fad like "Extraordinary Ministers" becomes widespread, and everybody’s doing it simply because everybody’s doing it, then who even pays attention to existing guidelines anyway? It is a pattern we see over and over again in the modern Church: "Let’s violate the law, and in the end we’ll have the violation established as local custom."

Unsuccessful Papal Intervention

This unlawful abuse is so well established as local custom that even Pope John Paul II, who made at least a paper attempt to curb the abuse, was completely unsuccessful. In his letter Domincae Cenae of February 24, 1980, the Pope restated the Church’s teaching that "to touch the sacred species and to administer them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained." But, for whatever reason, this 1980 document contained no threat of penalty to any layman, priest or bishop who ignored the Pope’s plea. A law without a penalty is not a law, it’s a suggestion. And this 23-year-old letter of Pope John Paul II has been taken as an unwelcome and unheeded suggestion by the hierarchy and clergy of Western countries.

On September 21, 1987, a letter was sent from the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of the Sacraments through the proper channels to a number of Episcopal Conferences, including the American Bishops, on the subject of Extraordinary Ministers. In summary, the letters (which can be found in Michael Davies’ Privilege of the Ordained) stated that Rome has received many complaints of abuses regarding Extraordinary Ministers. As a result, the Pontifical Commission officially ruled that "when Ordinary Ministers (bishops, priests) are present at the Eucharist, whether celebrating or not, and are in sufficient number and are not prevented from doing so by other ministries, the Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist are not allowed to distribute Communion either to themselves or to the Faithful."

This ruling too, has been completely ignored, as will be all rulings providing a concession for this abuse is somewhere on the books. We can only pray that our Church leaders will finally come to the realization that when it comes to the Blessed Sacrament, you don’t reform an abuse, you annihilate it. And in order not to continually play into the manipulating hands of the New Paganism of Modernism, then a complete, formal, unambiguous condemnation of Communion in the hand and Extraordinary Ministers is our leaders’ only true Catholic option.

The Sense of the Sacred

The Sacraments are the most precious gems the Church possesses, and the Holy Eucharist is the greatest of all the Sacraments. Because in all the other sacraments we receive sacramental grace, but in the Holy Eucharist, we receive Christ Himself. So, since it is obvious that the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest treasure the Church possesses, then It must be treated with all the reverence and homage It deserves. And all those pre-Vatican II barriers that prevented desecration are indispensable to the life of the Church and the holiness of the Faithful.

How often have we heard even our Church leaders lament that "we have lost the sense of the sacred." This is one of the most astounding statements a Churchman can utter ... as if it were some sort of mystery. Because the sense of the sacred is not lost, we know exactly where it is, and it could be recovered in every single parish church on earth tomorrow. The "sense of the sacred" is found wherever safeguarding the reverence for the Blessed Sacrament is put into practice of paramount importance. But the "sense of the sacred" has not been lost, it has been deliberately thrown away, run out of town on a rail, by the arrogant agents of the New Paganism of Modernism masquerading as Catholic reformers, who have introduced novel practices into the Church that demean the Eucharist, show contempt for tradition and for what our fathers taught us, and have led to a worldwide crisis of Faith of unprecedented proportions.

But for us, through the grace of God, it is no puzzle. We know exactly where "the sense of the sacred" is found, and we cling to it with a fierce tenacity. It is found in the celebration of the Old Latin Tridentine Mass where profound reverence for the Blessed Sacrament is deeply ingrained into every moment of the Liturgy, and where Communion in the hand and "Eucharistic Ministers" are still looked upon in horror with Catholic eyes, and are clearly recognized as the out-of-place, sacrilegious, non-Catholic practices that they are.

[brendan1104]

Confession of a Eucharistic Minister
by Charles St. George

A former Eucharistic Minister, by the grace of God, repents of his participation in the sacrilegious act of giving Communion in the hand. He gives us here a first-hand report to prove his point and that of The Fatima Center that the act of giving Communion in the hand is sacrilegious and total disrespect for God the Son. The writer requests forgiveness of his sin and the lifting of excommunication. We print here excerpts of his research and findings.

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Letter to His Holiness,
Pope John Paul II

I, Charles Andre St. George, accuse myself of committing and participating in grievous and numerous outrages against the Most Blessed Sacrament from about 1980 to 1991. Please hear my plea and grant my requests.

First, I have only recently learned according to The Roman Catechism, page 233 “that in this Sacrament are contained not only the true Body of Christ and all the constituents of a true body, such as bones and sinews, but also Christ, whole and entire” and further that, page 239 “the Body of Our Lord is contained whole and entire under the least particle of the bread.”

Second, I have only recently learned that according to The Catholic Concise Encyclopedia, page 153 “Excommunication is imposed according to the reservation as follows:

(a) Acts reserved to the Holy See in a very special manner are: throwing away, taking or retaining for evil purposes the consecrated species.”

I confess that I have thrown away or caused to be thrown away approximately 60,000 consecrated Hosts from 1980 to 1991 and that I caused many of these Hosts to be repeatedly trampled under foot or otherwise desecrated. These grave sins were not motivated by formal hatred of God, but from a motive more banal — I did not care. This is what I did: I was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist and I sometimes received Our Lord in the hand instead of on the tongue, as well. As most communicants wanted to receive in the hand, I would gently place the Host in their palm. As proven in my attached scientific analysis conducted with the aid of my teenage son, Joseph ...

When one receives Communion in the hand there are, on average, about four visible Particles detaching from that same Host.

For this trial, I bought from Catholic Supply of St. Louis, Missouri hosts advertised as: “We are pleased to offer by far the best altar bread. All of our breads have a carefully molded sealed edge which prevents crumbs.” We used the “best” and the test result was an average of 3.68 crumbs per Communion.

I believe I may have distributed perhaps 15,000 Hosts to communicants. It is reasonable to assume that this generated about 60,000 visible, though tiny Particles. When I would receive Communion in the hand, I would check my palm and sometimes find one or two or even more fragments of the Sacred Species. While I tried to immediately consume these by attracting them with the tip of my right index finger, I am confident that not all Particles were always safely consumed. As Eucharistic Minister, of many thousands of Hosts placed in palms, I never once observed anyone else examining their palm or fingertips to see if there were any Particles remaining.

So, what happened to these 60,000 Particles containing our Lord and God of which I bear responsibility? Quite simply, they would eventually detach from the palms and fingertips of these communicants as they changed position to folded hands and the Particles would drop to the floor, or be brushed against their clothing and detach, or find their way to destinations unknown. Most should be assumed to have dropped to the floor while still in the church. The above doctrine states that these Particles were the fullness of Jesus our God just as surely as the large host which the priest consecrates for his own consumption!

Like myself, any Catholics who have gone to Mass at a church where there has been Communion in the hand encounter a veritable minefield where they have mindlessly, repeatedly set their heels against the Holy Face of Jesus Christ Himself!

The thought of this HORRIFIES me now. Some, myself included, simply did not care to know what they were doing. Still, does not Our Lord withdraw Himself in anguish from such as do these things and care not? What must the Holy Virgin think of this treatment of Her crucified Son?

Not for me, but for the love you bear the Virgin Mother of God, I beg from Your Holiness two things: Please lift this very specially reserved excommunication and forgive these most grievous sins, committed without even caring, against Our Lord’s very Person.

Particle Study April 17, 2002
Feast of St. Anicetus

My teenaged son, Joseph, was my aide in this study, acting the part of the communicant while I acted the part of the Eucharistic Minister. For the purposes of this trial, I purchased from Catholic Supply of St. Louis, Missouri a box of 1000 1-1/8" diameter white altar breads, item #57212, advertised on their web-site [url="http://www.catholicsupply.com/churchs/wine.html"]http://www.catholicsupply.com/churchs/wine.html[/url] as follows:

“We are pleased to offer by far the best altar bread. All of our breads have a carefully molded sealed edge which prevent crumbs.” — The questioned truthfulness of that critical conclusion, naively believed by many, is one reason this trial was decided upon.

For this trial, Joseph and I prepared by carefully washing our hands and fingers and drying same with lintless towels. We then examined our fingertips and Joseph’s left palm which would each contact the host to be assured they contained no foreign matter which could be mistaken for a bread particle. I determined we would look for particles after each and every individual “communion” in three areas — my fingertips, Joseph’s palm and Joseph’s fingertips. I further determined that we would count the results from 25 “communions” and record how many particles were found and where. We would only count “naked-eye visible” particles we could both see.

The contents of one packet of altar breads was carefully emptied into a small plastic cup. Recalling my training as a Eucharistic Minister (may God forgive me), I would gently take up a host between my right index finger and thumb and place this host in Joseph’s left palm with only sufficient firmness to assure it would be transferred. Joseph commented that Eucharistic Ministers at Masses he attended were less gentle in transferring the Host to his palm. He would then take the host between his right index finger and thumb and place it on his tongue without touching his fingers to his tongue. Joseph would then keep his right index finger against his thumb and hold his left palm upward while we both inspected: first, my right index finger, then my right thumb, then his left palm, then his right index finger, and finally his right thumb for any particles of bread fractured from the host and adhering to us as a result of this multiple manipulation and touching. We would carefully scrape away any particles found before the next “communion” with the blade of a sharp knife to be assured of not counting any particles twice.

What were our trial findings? Were there any particles of bread fractured from these 25 hosts taken one at a time from a cup and placed in Joseph’s palm and taken from his palm and transferred to his mouth? We were both disturbed at how many Particles:

From the 25 “Communions”, we found a grand total of 92 individual, naked-eye visible Particles which averages to 3.68 Particles per “Communion”.

As detailed in the statistical information (see below), we counted 27 particles from my fingertips, 47 particles from Joseph’s palm and another 18 particles from Joseph’s fingertips. It is hoped that this trial will work to the honor of Our Lord and aid those who still care for Him.

Particle Study

This day a brief scientific trial was undertaken to verifiably ascertain how many, if any, consecrated Particles of the Sacred Species are typically broken away from the Hosts, and subsequently thrown-away, desecrated and abused specifically as a consequence of the practice of Communion in the hand in the Catholic Church today.

YOU, the reader of this letter, are hereby called upon to do all in your power to put an end to this greater evil which presumes to treat God Himself in a most degrading manner. God will not embrace at the gates of Heaven those who throw away and trample His very Person. This warning is sent that you may have NO EXCUSE at the Judgment. The Japanese Emperor, when putting True Catholics to death some centuries ago, offered them a chance to renounce the Faith and save their skins. All they had to do to renounce their Faith and deny Christ was to step upon a wooden cross placed on the ground and they could go free. Not even this Emperor was so demonic and wicked as to tempt these martyrs to step upon a consecrated Host — Almighty God Himself; but most Catholic bishops are now de facto commanding us to do this very thing and that this be repeated every time one so much as enters one of these execrable churches.

Anyone who enters into a church where Communion-in-the-hand has been done without same being respectfully purified of these Particles of God, enters a veritable minefield of these “least Particles” strewn across the floors where they will, with moral certainty, be grinding their heels into the Holy Face of Jesus. That you do not now see Him on the floors of these churches is perfectly understandable — if your heart is not filled with an all consuming love of God and devotion to His Holy Mother as beautifully explained in True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort. Jesus sees Himself on these floors a thousand times over just as surely as He sees your sins committed at times you will to believe He sees you not! If you do not see Him there it is because you do not wish to see Him, and those who do not wish to see Him shall have that wish granted irrevocably and for all eternity. Amen. Amen.

May the Virgin Mother of God be ever merciful to those who fight against this outrage of Her crucified Son, but may Her heel crush the reprobates’ heads who laugh with satan as Her Divine Son is abused with contempt most foul.

[Maggyie]

[quote]the sacrilegious act of giving Communion in the hand.[/quote]

Obviously the author of that last piece, Mr. St. George, is incorrect about this. Communion in the hand is not [i]intrinsically [/i]sacreligious - it was practiced by the first Christians, after all! Of course it is theologically and pastorally problematic in our own day, for many reasons - but I think it's better to praise the worthiness of receiving on the tongue rather than critiquing reception in the hand. One wins more "converts" by pointing out beauty than by mere negation.

EDIT: I also have to say that Mr. St. George's waving around of excommunication is quite ridiculous. You have to deliberately and knowingly throw away a Host for the canonical punishment to be in place. Nobody is "accidentally" excommunicated, just as nobody "accidentally" commits a mortal sin. Mr. St. George seems to have a bad case of scrupulosity, and needs prayers.

What happens to the particles of the Host that detach from the hand of the priest? Is the priest "throwing away" particles of Our Lord when he handles the Eucharist with [i]his [/i]hands? Do all the altar boys trample Our Lord as they move around the altar after the Consecration? We are getting into OCDland, I fear. Are the sacerdotal hands equipped with a special sort of glue that keeps the particles form departing, as they certainly would if a laymen handled the Host? Obviously I am becoming sarcastic. But this is really not the best way to argue against communion-in-the-hand.

Edited November 15, 2007 by Maggie

[goldenchild17]

No
yes
yes.

bad idea.