CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2020 / 03:19 pm (CNA).- The secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship wrote to a petitioner last month rejecting their appeal against the Bishop of Knoxville’s decision to ban temporarily reception of Communion on the tongue because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The congregation “received and attentively studied [the] petition making recourse against the decision of Bishop Richard F. Stika to suspend reception of Holy Communion on the tongue at public Masses throughout the Diocese of Knoxville for the duration of the public health emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” Archbishop Arthur Roche wrote Nov. 13 to the petitioner, whose name has been redacted from the publicly available copy of the letter.
Archbishop Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, cited a letter sent in August by the congregation’s prefect, Robert Cardinal Sarah, in which the cardinal wrote: “in times of difficulty (e.g. wars, pandemics), Bishops and Episcopal Conferences can give provisional norms which must be obeyed … These measures given by the Bishops and Episcopal Conferences expire when the situation returns to normal.”
Roche interpreted this letter as saying the provisional norms can be “even clearly, as in this case, to suspend for whatever time might be required, reception of Holy Communion on the tongue at the public celebration of the Holy Mass.”
“This Dicastery does hereby therefore act to confirm the decision of Bishop Stika and thereby rejects your petition seeking its modification,” Archbishop Roche wrote. The rejection of the petition suggests a change in policy or rationale by the congregation.
In July 2009, during the swine flu pandemic, the congregation responded to a similar inquiry regarding the right to receive Communion on the tongue, recalling that the 2004 instruction Redemptionis sacramentum “clearly stipulates” that each of the faithful always has the right to receive on the tongue, and that it is illicit to deny Communion to any of the faithful who are not impeded by law.
The 2004 instruction, issued on certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist, noted that “each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice.”
Bishop Stika lifted the restriction on reception of Communion on the tongue in late November. He had imposed it when he permitted the resumption of public Masses in the diocese at the end of May.
“The decision to suspend the distribution of Holy Communion on the tongue was difficult for me and I understand the concern some of our clergy and laity had regarding my actions,” Bishop Stika said Dec. 11. “However, we were in the early stages of this pandemic and dealing with much uncertainty. I felt I had the authority to make a conscientious decision for the safety of everyone—the laity and our clergy. “
In March, the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon concluded that the risk of transmitting infection when receiving on the tongue or hand is “more or less equal.”
Similarly, the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois said earlier this year that “Given the Church’s existing guidance on this point (see Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 92), and recognizing the differing judgments and sensibilities of the experts involved, we believe that, with the additional precautions listed here, it is possible to distribute on the tongue without unreasonable risk.”
The precautions recommended at this time by the Springfield diocese are: a separate station for distribution on the tongue or distribution on the tongue following in the hand, and that the minister sanitize his hands after each communicant.
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Lots of people are discussing the Congregation for Divine Worship’s support for Bp. Stika’s (earlier) policy of mandating communion in the hand. LifeSite asked me for my thoughts. Here’s what I told them:
“It undermines the universal norms and tradition of the Church, reiterated many times, concerning the most appropriate and reverent manner for receiving the Holy Eucharist. Since it is clear from all actual scientific evidence that we are not in a grave pandemic like the 1918 Spanish Flu, much less the Bubonic plague, the decision reflects and reinforces the panic-driven response of civil and ecclesiastical authorities.”
“In this way the CDF’s defense of Bishop Stika’s policy establishes a dangerous open-ended precedent that can be easily abused, given how often there are seasonal illnesses that threaten the lives of certain members of the faithful. Moreover, since many doctors and pastors recognize communion on the tongue as no less hygienic than communion in the hand (and indeed have argued that communion in the hand presents its own hygienic problems), the decision also betrays a lack of appreciation for the age-old wisdom of the Church as well as a lack of consultation with qualified experts.”
“Above all, the decision strengthens the worst plague of our time, namely, the utilitarian pragmatism that has made the Mass into a communion service, and communion into a mere token of our belonging, which we feed to ourselves like ordinary food. No emergency could ever justify compelling the faithful, in many cases against their consciences, to adopt a practice that conflicts with the spirit of humble adoration given to Our Lord in the host, whom the Church entrusts to the hands of ordained ministers. In that sense, this decision contributes to the counter-catechesis of bad liturgy that has created a worldwide crisis of sacrilege and apostasy.”
“The faithful cannot be obliged by anyone on earth to violate tradition, law, common sense, conscience, and medical evidence.”
(From this link: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-backs-us-bishop-in-banning-communion-on-tongue-during-covid-outbreak)
This is sad when the Vertical Dimension of the Cross is missing or even left out of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Due reverence and proper worship and ADORATION given to Almighty God alone, is eroded and also the miracles attributed to God is taken away by such an act.
We can say we believe in miracles but we need to put it into practice. God is NOT a Magician. Receiving Communion in the hand makes us think so. We forget that it is Christ who feeds us on the tongue and not on the hand!
Every knee shall bend and every tongue (not hands) shall swear that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father!