(LifeSiteNews) — An archbishop in Argentina has issued a letter telling First Communicants and catechumens of all ages that they are forbidden from receiving Holy Communion kneeling or on the tongue, in contradiction to Catholic teaching and tradition.
“In the celebrations of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, catechumens (of any age) will receive Holy Communion only standing and in hand,” wrote Archbishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano of San Juan de Cuyo in Argentina, InfoVaticana reported on Saturday.
Eucharistic ministers are also to “always” to receive the Eucharist — the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ — “standing and in hand,” said Archbishop Lozano.
As God Himself, the Eucharist deserves nothing less than a posture of profound reverence. The posture of kneeling is proper to worship of God Himself while standing is, on the other hand, a posture one uses when interacting with an equal.
Thus, reception of Holy Communion both standing and in the hands simultaneously lowers the level of reverence toward Christ in the Eucharist and dampens belief in His Real Presence, and increases the chance of Eucharistic desecration, as philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand pointed out in his book The Devastated Vineyard:
“Unfortunately, in many places Communion is distributed in the hand. To what extent is this supposed to be a renewal and a deepening of the reception of Holy Communion? Is the trembling reverence with which we receive this incomprehensible gift perhaps increased by re-receiving it in our unconsecrated hands, rather than from the consecrated hand of the priest? It is not difficult to see that the danger of parts of the consecrated Host falling to the ground is incomparably increased, and the danger of desecrating it or indeed of horrible blasphemy is very great. And what in the world is to be gained by all this? The claim that contact with the hand makes the host more real is certainly pure nonsense. For the theme here is not the reality of the matter of the Host, but rather the consciousness, which is only attainable by faith, that the Host in reality has become the Body of Christ. The reverent reception of the Body of Christ on our tongues, from the consecrated hand of the priest, is much more conducive to the strengthening of this consciousness than reception with our own unconsecrated hands.” (The Devastated Vineyard, pp. 67/8.)
Reception of Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue was the norm of the Church for several centuries before the late 20th century. Bishops and priests have no authority to deny Catholics the Blessed Sacrament simply because they wish to receive kneeling, according to Church teaching and canon law.
The Vatican document Redemptionis Sacramentum states, “it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing.”
InfoVaticana slammed Archbishop Lozano’s directive as an “abuse of power” that seeks to extinguish reverence for our Lord in the Eucharist.
“This protocol exhibits a sickly authoritarianism that aims to stifle any sign of reverence towards the Eucharist. Forcing children to receive the Lord standing and in the hand, depriving them of the freedom to do it in their mouths and on their knees, is not pastoralism: it is abuse of power and perversion of the sacred,” wrote the Catholic outlet.
“What exudes this protocol is not pastoral zeal, but a rejection of the sacred that stinks of satanic.”
In 2018, then-CDWDS prefect Cardinal Robert Sarah similarly criticized reception of Holy Communion in the hand and standing as part of a “diabolical attack” on faith in the Eucharist and praised receiving Communion on the tongue and kneeling.
Lozano is an extraordinarily influential bishop, InfoVaticana noted. He served as the general secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM), which unites all the bishops’ conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean and shapes their own trajectory.
