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No wonder New Zealand has no new home-grown priests. At the ordination at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit Palmerston North of Vietnamese Trung Nguyen tomorrow, Communion will still be denied to anyone wishing to receive on the tongue.
"Oh, that's the way you want it," faithful Catholics are told. But Communion on the tongue is not just the way they want it; it's the way the Church wants it. Communion on the tongue is the norm of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Communion in the hand is permitted only by indult, and was introduced by disobedient Dutch bishops during the Second Vatican Council, as an accompaniment - an appropriate accompaniment - to the disastrous Novus Ordo.
If the NZ Conference of Bishops cannot recognise Communion in the hand for the sacrilege that it is, we must assume the reason is either they're not very bright (not their fault, but amply demonstrated), and/or "The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined" (1 Cor 2:14).
And if the bishops can't understand that verse even, its meaning is that the sensual man in this context is he who measureth divine mysteries by natural reason, sense, and human wisdom only. Now such a man has little of no notion of the things of God. Whereas the spiritual man is he who, in the mysteries of religion, takes not human sense for his guide: but submits his judgment to the decisions of the church, which he is commanded to hear and obey.
For Christ has promised to remain to the end of the world with his church, and to direct her in all things by the Spirit of truth (Douay Rheims).
And today is a 'First Friday', when "The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus . . . which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins."
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is of great antiquity in the Church. It was St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, however, who made this devotion widespread.
In 1675, within the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi, our Lord appeared to her and said: "Behold this heart which, not withstanding the burning love for men with which it is consumed and exhausted, meets with no other return from most Christians than sacrilege, contempt, indifference and ingratitude, even in the sacrament of my love [the Eucharist]. But what pierces my heart most deeply is that I am subjected to these insults by persons especially consecrated to my service."3
To those who show him love and who make reparation for sins, however, our Lord made a great pledge: "I promise you in the unfathomable mercy of my heart that my omnipotent love will procure the grace of final penitence for all those who receive communion on nine successive first Fridays of the month; they will not die in my disfavor, or without having received the sacraments, since my divine heart will be their sure refuge in the last moments of their life."Too bad, isn't it, for people who hadn't completed the nine First Fridays of receiving Holy Communion when the NZ Bishops, at the behest of a pagan Government, impudently denied them that right. One can only hope and pray that Government and bishops will relent before those faithful Catholics die, perhaps without Our Lord's Sacred Heart as their sure and final refuge.
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To add insult to injury, today is the First Friday in the month of June, which is dedicated to that Sacred Heart. And - insult upon insult - tomorrow, the day of Deacon Trung's ordination, is a First Saturday, for which on the completion of five consecutive monthly Communions, Our Lady made similar promises, at Fatima.
"I think that during (Christ's) suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, He foresaw these incredible and horrendous sacrileges against His Eucharistic Presence. I think ... the most horrible sacrileges are perpetrated by priests, who are His 'friends' ... When the Communists and the pagans profaned the Eucharist, Christ did not suffer so much as when He is profaned by His own children, by His priests and bishops.
"This has been happening now on a large scale, over the period of the past fifty years. There has never been a time in history when inside the Church, our Eucharistic Lord has been treated in such a horrific manner and been so profaned and outraged by His own faithful and priests, as in our times.
This situation is mainly caused by Communion in the hand. There is a myth which liberal clerics are spreading, and perhaps intentionally, which says that in the first centuries there was also Communion in the hand, and so we need to get back to the early practice of the CHurch.
"This is a lie, this is a myth, this is propaganda in disguise. Why? The intent to return to a particular and not fully developed ancient liturgical practice is called 'liturgical antiquarianism'. Pope Pius XII condemned this mentality in Mediator Dei as being contrary to the perennial sense of the Church.
"Liturgical archaeologism is one of the basic errors of the Modernists in the Church and of Protestants.... an expression of radicasl rupture ... Rupture and revolution contradict the essence of the Church ... because the Church is an organism and lives in organic growth. One cannot simply cut out a considerable segment of history and jump back in time.
..."There is an error even in the myth ... because the practice had a different form in ancient times. ... The Eucharist was received on the palm of the right hand and the faithful were not allowed to touch the Holy Host with their fingers, but they had to bow down their head to the palm of the hand and take the Sacrament directly with their mouth, thus in a position of a profound bow and not standing upright.
This is something which, symbolically, the Church Fathers would find horrific - how can the Holy of Holies be taken with the left hand?
Today the faithful take and touch the Host directly with their fingers and then put the Host in the mouth: this gesture has never been known in the entire history of the Catholic Church but was invented by Calvin - not even by Martin Luther.
...We have to dismantle this myth and these insidious tactics, which started in the Catholic Church more than fifty years ago, and which like an avalanche have now rolled throughm crushing almost all Catholic churches in the entire world.
In the Early Church, women could not receive the holy Host directly on the palm of their hand; they had to use a white linen cloth. And men had to wash their hands before presenting themselves for Communion: it was impossible to receive the Holy of Holies with unwashed hands because people had touched doors and coins beforehand.
Today people go and receive the Holy of Holies even though they have touched doors and coins and money and who knows what else with unwashed hands - Christus Vincit, Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age by Bishop Athanasius Schneider in conversation with Diane Montagna.
And the New Zealand Bishops, at the behest of a pagan Government, have the effrontery to refuse Communion on the tongue, our right and the norm. We have to ask ourselves, why? Why do they maintain this illogical and disobedient stance?
"The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined."
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Sharon Crooks says:
ReplyDeleteCan resonate with article!
It will hardly escape the Lord’s notice that whilst Deacon Trung is being ordained, promising to administer the sacraments, there will be at least one parishioner present, rightly disposed, being refused the sacrament of Holy Communion on the grounds of keeping the elderly ‘safe’.
The Cardinal acknowledged virtually no cases of Covid in an email to me a couple of days ago so I can’t assume ignorance on his part for ongoing refusals. In the next sentence though he said “I also know how important it is to keep people safe during the pandemic. We must keep all our parishioners safe, and that requires a sacrifice from some like yourself. The virus can be deadly for older people and people with health issues.”
If there are virtually no cases though and he’s letting me be in proximity to the elderly at the Ordination of Trung, then he’s acting in a grossly negligent manner anyway - ALL those other transmissions around the world came from being in proximity to someone who was infected with this strain of influenza!
As long as I don’t receive Holy Communion ‘I’m safe’ and I keep others ‘safe’. I can only assume that what the Cardinal really means then is that I’m posing a very different type of ‘risk’ by being at Mass - a Catholic ‘risk’ - at risk of putting Christ Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament ABOVE myself because I receive on my knees. I bow down to Him. This is the ‘risk’ - the ‘thing’ that compromises ones sense of ‘safety’. For justification of his illogical actions he ignored the evidence that there is no greater ‘risk’ in communicating on the tongue (when done properly) and explicitly states in the same email “We consult regularly with the Ministry of Health about what we can do in our liturgical practice, and we need to respect their expertise as the medical professionals”.
Shouldn’t the Cardinal be the one THEY consult IF any consultation were needed? I mean it is the Cardinal who has at his disposal 2000 years worth of evidence and evidence from other dioceses that communion on the tongue is safe. When he’s talking about ‘risk’ and consulting the pagans for confirmation, you can be pretty sure he’s not risking anything that could bring us closer to our Lord; he’s not bothered about our spiritual ‘safety’, and he’s even prepared to ‘risk’ judgement of preventing ‘the children’ from coming to the Lord. Very ‘risky’ stuff I think.
Bob Gill says:
ReplyDeleteOur NZ bishops continue to insist on Communion in the hand only, supposedly because of the possibility of the minister’s fingers touching a recipient’s tongue or saliva – a rare occasion indeed, as everyone knows. A strategy I see planned overseas is that should that happen the minister will simply stop Communion distribution and wash his hands, thereafter carrying on the Communion process. That’s what I call being proactive.
Have our bishops made a note of how often their fingers touch a recipient’s hand during Communion distribution? I doubt it. Unlike how carefully we see the minister place the Host on a person’s tongue, I notice the Communion in the hand process is much faster, done almost without thinking from observation. I’ve never been a lay minister, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most ministers have scarcely given this matter any thought – even during the current Coronavirus issue.
Sharon Crooks says:
ReplyDeleteYesterday I noted to Cardinal Dew that “I have perhaps been fortunate in receiving Holy Communion on the tongue from a priest who is quite adept at this. He has never had the misfortune of touching my tongue and ensures communication is carried out hygienically.” I continued “I can well understand in this era though, how some priests could lack experience in offering Holy Communion this way, thus increase the risk, like you suggest. Given that the majority of people who receive this way, usually do so from a priest, avoiding Eucharistic ‘ministers’, it would seem appropriate to provide better instructions to the priest, so that you can inform the Ministry of Health as opposed to having the Ministry of Health informing how Liturgy ‘should’ be conducted. The Liturgy of the Holy Catholic Church is sacred and shouldn’t come under the scrutiny of a pagan establishment.”
I also offered him my thoughts on the matter: “In my examination of the two forms of receiving Our Lord’s Body though, it appears less likely that the communicate could expel droplets onto any surface when kneeling and receiving on the tongue, because the head is tilted upward, the tongue is out, and gravity would ensure all droplets have returned to the tongue. However, when standing and receiving on the hand, if the communicant says ‘amen’ congruently whilst the priest is placing the Sacred species into the hand, proximity and gravity would mean the droplets they expel, could fall upon the priest’s hand and be transmitted to the next communicant, via the subsequent Host or by touching the communicant’s hand. Proper video analysis would bear this out. At face value, few would argue that communication in the hand sounds safer, but it may not actually be so and unless the Ministry of Health have studied this in detail, may be advising without sufficient investigation. If there is a second wave of Covid in NZ, would it be possible to commission a more thorough investigation into the matter, rather than making assumptions about it? Or, if a thorough study has already been conducted, would you be able to release the results?”
I say:
ReplyDeleteI believe one ground +Dew has for refusing Communion on the tongue is 'the potential' to spread the virus merely by opening one's mouth in front of the priest. Logically then, the person communicating in the hand should move off at speed with the Holy Host, rather than opening their mouth to consume the Host while still in front of the minister.
This would achieve what seems to be another of the clergy's desired objectives, i.e. speeding up the process of Holy Communion, just like cafes do everything possible to move customers through quickly in the interests of making more money.
It would also make it easy for the communicant to take the Holy Host away, to do with our Eucharistic Lord as they please. But it seems that horrible possibility hasn't have occurred to the NZ bishops
I know of at least three New Zealand men studying in Tridentine orders overseas including the Fraternity of St Peter. Mean-time I have read that Catholic Schools in Queensland are to ditch sexist hymns. Creator, sanctifier and Redeemer not Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ultimate aim is to change the liturgy altogether. Good catholics...flee this mess and find a Mass.
ReplyDeleteFlee this mess and find a Mass. At least three NZ men are studying overseas in Tridentine orders including the Society of St Peter. Queensland Catholic schools are to ditch the 'sexist' language of father, Son and Holy Spirit in favor of Creator, Redeemer and Sanstifier. The liturgy will be next. John Dew wants titles eliminated. Funny how Bps Browne and Cullinane never return their Queens Royal Honors. Then we would begin to get rid of clericalism.
ReplyDeleteBob Gill says:
ReplyDeleteCardinal Dew need only ensure enhancing his safety by using a mouthwash that is alcohol-based.
Sharon, I just got back from St Mary’s in Palmerston earlier today and I’ve got the answer to what one minister thinks about while giving Communion in the hand – zilch, for sure. Parishioners at this morning’s Mass remained standing in their pews awaiting the priest to distribute Communion in the hand only. The distribution was possibly twice as fast as I have been receiving on the tongue this past week at St Joseph’s by the lay minister appointed the task because of our priest’s physical problem. With the church being fairly full for a Saturday today, I would certainly be surprised if the priest’s fingers hadn’t touched more than one hand.
Re “At face value, few would argue that Communion in the hand sounds safer, but it may not actually be so and unless the Ministry of Health have studied this in detail, may be advising without sufficient investigation” It does make you wonder just how the Ministry arrived at Communion in the hand only and we would surely be entitled to ask. You would think, though, that the Communion process would have been closely studied before being applied, but I would challenge that in NZ because from what I saw this morning there is no way the priest could have avoided finger/hand contact at the process speed he was performing or Host particles being on the loose - but was he even attempting to avoid contact?
As mentioned in another post, hygiene can be maintained when a tongue is touched (rarely) while distributing Communion on the tongue simply by stopping Communion distribution immediately to wash one’s hands, then re-starting the Communion process. Thus, all members of a democratic society will be satisfied – not just one section.
Philippa O'Neill says:
ReplyDeleteOr keeping his mouth shut... while the communicant says "Amen"!
So do the priests drop Our Lord onto peoples hands? I mean, that is the only way not to touch peoples hands while distributing Holy Communion. The other way he has to touch each persons hand with his fingertips.
Bob Gill says:
Again at St Joseph's Dannevirke Sunday Mass was celebrated by Father McVerry who inspired me with some of his sermons at our daily Masses during last week. He has physical difficulty, so a lay minister has been needed to distribute Communion on his behalf at all of his Masses.
I say:
ReplyDeleteThat's a case of necessity, isn't it. And probably the lay minister was well trained and commissioned by Father Buenger.
Bob Gill says:
ReplyDeleteSorry, I didn't finish my post - don't know what happened. Anyway, the few of us who presented ourselves for Communion on the tongue were accepted.
I don't know what will happen when Father returns to Fiji and we have our parish priest back with us. I hope NZ is back to normal in the next month or so and that the NZ bishops have re-established things as before.