Well, let's "read the signs of the times" as the Second Vatican Council says.
Last year, His Holiness’s Secretary in the Cong. for Divine Worship, Archbp. Malcolm Ranjith, wrote a preface to a book, Dominus Est: riflessioni di un vescovo dell’Asia Centrale sulla Santa Comunione, printed by the Vatican press which argues for a return to Communion kneeling and on the tongue. The book is by Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
On April 17, 2008, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Perua, banned the reception of the Eucharist in the hand.
On the Feast of Corpus Christi this year (2008), the Holy Father's master of ceremonies had a kneeler brought out at communion and everyone who received from the Pope did so on their knees and on the tongue.
Then Pope Benedict did it again at the public papal Mass in Leuca.
And again the next day in Brindisi.
On June 25, 2008, the master of liturgy for Pope Benedict XVI indicated that, from now on, everyone who receives Eucharist from the Pope will receive on the tongue and kneeling.
Today, Cardinal Pell indicates that the participants at World Youth Day in Australia who receive from the Pope will do so on their knees and on the tongue.
The post for the head of the Congregation of Divine Worship is expected to open as Cardinal Arinze resigns. Cardinal Arinze was not a huge fan of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. However, he definitely saw kneeling as the normal posture for reception of the Eucharist: "Those who removed kneelers ... or altar rails... have done grave damage to the Church."
I think it is safe to say that the indult which allows reception in the hand will be going away in the next ten years.
It would be very unusual for a congregation secretary to be elevated to the head of a congregation, but if Cardinal Ranjith does get elevated to that post, I think it is also safe to say that reception in the hand will be gone within three years.
Bring back the altar rails, gentlemen.
We'll be wanting those pretty soon.
Praise God!
3 comments:
+JMJ+
Ten to three years? I sincerely wish it!
I would have given it two to three generations. It was easy enough to rip the altar rails out of the churches, but the generation which still remembers them and what they meant is a tiny, dying minority. We're mostly dealing with Catholics who may have received in the hand their entire lives, think that they've "turned out okay in spite of it," and will disobey an order from Rome out of a forty-year-old habit. The culture of Communion in the hand has insidious roots.
This reminds me of when the Holy See recommended retention "...as far as possible the custom of having only boys as servers" back in 2004. I still see, almost exclusively, female alter servers in every parish church I attend. Unless if the rules are specifically changed to deny its use, old habits and ways of doing things won't change.
It is not correct to say that “On April 17, 2008, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru, banned the reception of the Eucharist in the hand.”
Cardenal Arzobispo de Lima desmiente que haya alguna prohibición de recibir la comunión en la mano en su Arquidiócesis.
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