VATICAN STATE OF TERMINAL BEWILDERMENT

To comment please open your gmail account or use FaceBook Messenger or Twitter. Scroll down to see other comments.

The massive lightning bolt that struck the dome of St Peter's the night of Pope Benedict's resignation seems in hindsight to have fractured the Vatican, splitting the heart of the Church in two. And not only in two - traditional and modern - but a splintering process then ensued, reducing the hierarchy by now to what seems like a state of terminal bewilderment.

Take the latest from the Congregation for Divine Workship: their rejection of a petition against a US bishop's temporary ban on Communion on the tongue. The Secretary of the Congregation quoted the Prefect of same, Robert Cardinal Sarah: “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.”

Pardon me? A Church Militant story in May quoted Cardinal Sarah as saying in a recent interview: "There is already a rule in the Church and this must be respected: the faithful are free to receive Communion in the mouth or hand."

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/strickland-adds-his-support-to

The rule of thumb with regard to a bishop's authority is that he should not forbid what the universal law permits, nor permit what the universal law forbids.

To this we could add a corollary that he may not legally introduce liturgical novelties. Not introducing novelties means just that — no bishop has the authority to introduce any new liturgical practice. The above-mentioned response of the U.S. bishops comments: "With the exception of these and other modifications of the law explicitly assigned to the Diocesan Bishop, no additional changes to liturgical law may be introduced to Diocesan liturgical practice without the specific prior approval of the Holy See."

The question of blessing children in the Communion line is more difficult because here we are dealing with a novelty.

It's a novelty and a side-show, as is inviting the "children to come forward for a blessing" straight after Communion, when communicants are or should be making their thanksgiving, not being totally distracted by the adorable infants being paraded by proud parents to the priest.

Blessing children in the Communion line in these days of COVID hysteria is more than a novelty and a side-show, it's preposterous. Here we are, debating whether it's more dangerous to receive on the tongue than in the hand, when Father places the sacred Host o the tongue or in the hand with fingers that have just patted some kid's head.

Several sources indicate that the Holy See is less than favorable. Bishops' conferences and individual bishops, however, give mixed signals.

From the legislative point of view, I would say that, being a novelty, a bishop would be within his authority to forbid the practice. If so convinced, he would be able to recommend it as a pastorally useful custom, unless the Holy See eventually decrees otherwise. He could not, however, legally impose the practice on his priests as this would be to attempt to introduce a novelty.

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/bishops-interpretations-of-liturgical-laws-4678

When the swine flu panicdemic was on, the same Congregation for Divine Worship responded to the same issue (of Communion in the hand) by quoting the 2004 instruction Redemptionis sacramentum which “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 (that is, not in a state of serious sin).

And then there's the US bishop who in May announced officially that  “Holy Communion on the tongue is discontinued until health conditions improve” - and later the same day on his diocese’s Facebook Page beat his breast, said he'd acted out of an “abundance of caution”. He'd been rapped over the knuckles, obviously, for being out of line with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose stated policy is that "Every Catholic has a right to receive Holy Communion in the most reverent way they deem, in the hand or on the tongue.”

The USCCB’s instructions say, “Those who receive Communion may receive either in the hand or on the tongue, and the decision should be that of the individual receiving, not the person distributing Communion.”

In March, the Archdiocese of Portland Oregon consulted experts on this issue and concluded that the risk of transmitting infection when receiving on the tongue or hand is “more or less equal.” Thank God for a bit of sanity.

Please God, could you persuade Cardinal CallMeJohn Dew to rescind his preposterous ban on Communion on the tongue in the Land of Mordor.

And speaking of the hierarchy being reduced to a state of terminal bewilderment, Cardinal George Pell is now speaking of some in the Vatican being reduced to a state of terminus, period.

Vatican figures framed me: Pell

George Pell says everyone who tried to reform Vatican finances has been subjected to reputational attacks and even murder.

By the way - the dome of St Peter's Basilica was struck by a massive lightning bolt also on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in 2016.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.