Universal Sacrilege on the Horizon

David Martin | The Daily Knight

Pope Francis confers the priestly privilege of administering Communion on 10 lay people in St. Peter’s Basilica on January 22.

The word is spreading that Pope Francis in conjunction with CDW prefect Archbishop Arthur Roche are paving the way for a universal mandate that would require Catholics to receive Communion in the hand. This news is supported by the fact that Catholics attending Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica are now denied Communion if they attempt to receive on the tongue. Mandating Communion in the hand in Rome is an insidious way of setting the stage for the Church at large before coming in with a universal mandate.

Needless to say, the imposition of Communion in the hand is illicit. In his Redemptionis Sacramentum (March 25, 2004) Pope St. John Paul II makes it clear:

“Each of the faithful always has the right to receive Communion on the tongue” (n. 92). As such ‘it is illicit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful who are not impeded by law from receiving the Holy Eucharist’ (cf. n. 91).

Universally mandating Communion in the hand are grounds for universally clamoring for an episcopal committee to investigate the election of Pope Francis since such a mandate would fuel the fire of heresy more than has ever been seen in Church history. Yea, it would bring about universal sacrilege.

Communion in the Hand Undermines the Faith

It was the heretical Arians of the third century that first introduced Communion in the hand as a means of expressing their belief that Christ was not divine. Unfortunately, it has served to express the same in our time and has contributed mightily to the undermining of the Faith. If we have “abuse” problems today it is because the Blessed Sacrament is being abused—it’s backfiring on us!

While Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI reluctantly allowed Communion in the hand it was never so much as encouraged by them, let alone mandated. No pope of history has ever encouraged Communion in the hand just as no pope has ever denied the miracle of the loaves or said that ‘unrepentant souls who die “disappear” without being eternally punished.’ Francis has become his own little “god of surprises” by springing lunacy upon lunacy upon the Church.

Lay Eucharistic Ministers Peddled from the Chair of Peter

Just this past Sunday Pope Francis personally conferred the priestly duty of administering Holy Communion on ten lay people including six women in St. Peter’s Basilica, which contravenes Church law and teaching. The Council of Trent teaches:

“To priests alone has been given power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist.”

Pope John Paul II, lenient as he was, made it clear that the Sacred Host is not something that lay persons may touch or distribute at Mass. “To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege [only] of the ordained.” (Dominicae Cenae, Feb. 1980)

Moreover, in his Redemptionis Sacramentum the Holy Father states:

“If there is usually present a sufficient number of sacred ministers [priests] for the distribution of Holy Communion, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion may not be appointed. Indeed, in such circumstances, those who may have already been appointed to this ministry should not exercise it. The practice of those Priests is reprobated who, even though present at the celebration, abstain from distributing Communion and hand this function over to laypersons” (157).

Why then do we have multi-priest parishes today where lay Eucharistic ministers overrun the altar at Mass while the priest is sitting down? This farcical practice not only misleads the congregation into thinking that receiving Communion in the hand is fine but it opens the door for Satanists to come into the Church and steal the Host so that they can bring it back to their covens where it is brutalized in the Black Mass to Satan. Can our bishops not understand that Communion in the hand is born of evil?

Illicit and Sacrilegious

The illegitimacy of receiving Communion in the hands stems from the fact that the hands of the laity are not anointed to touch the Eucharist, unlike the hands of a priest. St. Thomas Aquinas beautifully articulates this teaching in his Summa Theologica.

“Because out of reverence towards this Sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this Sacrament.”

The hands of lay people are not consecrated to touch this Sacrament as in the priesthood, and allowing them to do so not only desecrates the Body of Christ but warps our conception of Christ. If Catholics today no longer believe that the Eucharist is the Creator Himself in Person it is because of this diabolical practice that has cheapened their religion and nurtured this apostate mentality. Allowing Communion in the hand indeed is deplorable so how much more deplorable is it for bishops to mandate this practice?

Ironclad Clericalism

Bishop Athanasius Schneider deplores how in response to COVID-19 "Many dioceses around the world [have] mandated Communion in the hand, and in those places the clergy, in an often-humiliating manner, deny the faithful the possibility to receive the Lord kneeling and on the tongue, thus demonstrating a deplorable clericalism and exhibiting the behavior of rigid neo-Pelagians.”

Former CDW prefect Cardinal Robert Sarah has likewise warned against such clericalism, saying, “May no priest dare to impose his authority in this matter by refusing or mistreating those who wish to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue.”

Bishop Schneider reminds us that imposing Communion in the hand is an abuse of authority. “Nobody can force us to receive the Body of Christ in a way that constitutes a risk of the loss of the fragments, and a decrease in reverence, as is the way of receiving Communion in the hand.”

Suffice it to say, Communion in the hand is an errant and sacrilegious practice that undermines the Faith. May the faithful always be on their guard against approaching the Blessed Sacrament in a casual or nonchalant manner, lest the verdict in Holy Scripture be reserved for them:

“Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord... For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 11:27, 28)