Can I be forced to receive the Eucharist on the tongue?

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pilgrim1008 said:
Right. My question is as to whether or not they can rightfully set a restriction on a church teaching that has two valid options (receiving on the tongue or in the hand).
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My guess would be no – IF you did not have a signed contract. Having signed the contract, you accepted their rules.

(full disclosure - I’m not a lawyer. But I do deal with contract compliance a lot in my job)
 
If you are that against it, after signing the contract, simply don’t receive when you attend Mass at the school.

We are not required to receive every time we attend Mass.🤷

And next time read contracts BEFORE you sign them. 👍
 
Cinette said:
*I receive Communion on the tongue because I feel that my hands touch all sorts of things: the steering wheel, tissues, shaking hands with other people (I hate to do so in winter especially with all the sneezing going on etc). The Eucharist is so very precious that I just cannot bear to receive it in the hand. That is just me. I do not criticize anyone for doing so. I also would not object to receiving on the tongue if it were a requirement - it is just my preference. *
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Tongues touch phlegm, catarrh, food, alcohol, bacteria from our teeth and gums, saliva…

But this is not a thread about preferences or bodily hygiene.
 
ermcma said:
So, my question back to you is, why don’t you want to receive communion on the tongue? Have you explored your reasoning? I can’t tell if you just don’t want to be told what to do by your boss, or if you have a specific opposition to the reception of our Lord on the tongue.
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That’s not important is it? His reason is valid since both forms are valid.
 
1ke said:
Then you should bring this situation to the attention of the Office of Catholic Schools in your diocese.
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I would encourage you to follow 1ke’s advice here. Your diocesan Office of Catholic Schools (or whatever your diocese calls it) would be in the best position to address this for your situation.

A diocesan school is different from a parish school (which is different from a central school). A diocesan Catholic school is one that is actually run by the diocese. A parish school belongs to a particular parish. A central school “belongs” to a cluster of several parishes. But the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools still should have something to say about any Catholic school operating within the diocese (unless it is run by a religious order). In any case, a phone call to them would be in order.
 
maryjk said:
If you are that against it, after signing the contract, simply don’t receive when you attend Mass at the school.

We are not required to receive every time we attend Mass.🤷

And next time read contracts BEFORE you sign them. 👍
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This. ^

The OP signed the contract. Either he wanted the job so bad that he didn’t want to rock the boat before signing it (in which case he signed a contract while fully intending to fight its provisions later), or he didn’t read it.

It’s hard to imagine how someone could have a moral objection to treating the Eucharist with more respect, so it’s just a question of personal preference.

My employer requires me to do lots of things that are against my personal preference. That’s why they have to give me money. 🙂

I have no idea what the OP’s legal standing is, but I think it would be highly immoral to take civil legal action against a Catholic school for requiring an increased reverence for the Eucharist. Contacting the Diocese is fine.

–Jen
 
pilgrim1008 said:
I teach at a conservative, non-diocesan Catholic school.part of my contract was that I “show proper respect for the Eucharist by receiving on the tongue.” likewise, I am expected to genuflect before receiving the Eucharist.
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You certainly cannot be forced to sign such a contract. I am assuming this is a condition of employment. You should only sign if you are willing to live by it and have the respect for the Holy Eucharist that is implied by it.

If you do not have such respect for The Blessed Sacrament, why would you want to work there?
 
I agree that by signing the contract, I have legally bound myself to the conditions of the employer. I have no problem accepting the fact. However, since accepting this job and running into many parents and administrators who are sometimes fixated on minute interpretation of church law and teaching, I have become increasingly interested in the day-to-day aspects of Catholic law and their application. For instance, before accepting the job, I didn’t know that there were alternatives to bowing before the Eucharist… and I’ve been Catholic all my life!

I’m not suggesting that I’m going to “rock the boat” or start fighting their wishes. I’m just interested in the legal/ethical implications of that clause in my contract. I’m sorry if I offended anyone, especially the angry poster who compared me to the type of person who comes to this country and tries to change it. It’s a good thing that the missionaries who preached to the Native Americans didn’t try to change the things they found. :doh2:
 
Qwestions said:
Hello, pilgrim. The crux of your issue is that the criteria of the school, to which you now object, . . .ARE . . .the . . . critieria . . . of . . . the . . . SCHOOL ! Read that again. The criteria of the school are the criteria of the SCHOOL! This school has developed guidelines that the parents support and want for their children. If they didn’t care about the manner of distribution of communion, and if they didn’t prefer genuflection over bowing, they wouldn’t make it a part of their contract. This was so important to them that they didn’t just verbally tell you about it and hope you were a kindred spirit; they put it into writing, including it as a requirement for your hiring. THAT’s how important those issues are to them.

You sought a job there. That job had certain requirements and expectations–some delineated by the state, and, some, by the individuals who have reigned supreme at THEIR school. That’s the way THEY want it, and it is THEIR right, not yours, to call the shots. You apparently agreed to those conditions, since you refer to “parts of my contract.”

My personal belief is that you are honor-bound to abide by the traditions and expectations of the people who emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially support the school, and that you are legally bound to deliver or depart. To even ask if your rights are being trampled strikes me as disgusting, immature, and petulant. You apparently agreed to those conditions, without coercion. If you had reservations at the time, but signed a contract anyway, shame on you! Resign! For you to even think about making an issue of it is repulsive to me and to all parents–and teachers–who have put their hearts, souls, and pocketbooks on the line to develop and maintain such schools, even while diocesan schools have folded.

If you were okay with the expectation at the time of your contract signing, but have since decided that your rights are being trampled, then, at the very least, summon some tiny vestige of honor and resign.

There is no difference between your behavior and the behavior of people who come to this country with their primary goal being to change it, not to become a part of it. The answer for such charlatons, and for you, is to love it or leave it. To make an issue of ways that are not your own, when you are the newcomer–or intruder–reeks, and if those ways, in fact, are not your own, then you never should have signed that contract.

No! Absolutely not! Your rights have not been violated, but YOU have violated the good faith of the school; YOU have violated the rights of the school. I will pray that you learn to understand your duplicity and have a change of heart.
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The school has no legitimate authority on dictating how one receives communion.
 
Ignatius said:
You certainly cannot be forced to sign such a contract. I am assuming this is a condition of employment. You should only sign if you are willing to live by it and have the respect for the Holy Eucharist that is implied by it.

If you do not have such respect for The Blessed Sacrament, why would you want to work there?
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I have an incredible respect for the Holy Eucharist, and because I am doing nothing against Church teaching by receiving communion in the hand, I wish that I didn’t have people suggesting that I don’t respect the Blessed Sacrament. The church wouldn’t allow us to receive Communion in the hand if that in some way degraded the sanctity of the sacrament.

My parents are faithful, loving Catholics and I can remember my mother teaching my the correct way to hold my hands for receiving communion before my first time receiving the sacrament. While I will obviously continue to uphold the terms of my contract, I’m beginning to have reservations about the morality of the fact that the valid, Magesterial traditions that I learned from MY parents are being not only superseded but also derided by my employers and parents at my school, who have also seen me receive in the hand at non-school masses and have made “comments” about my choice to do so. This has made me start thinking about where the authority rests regarding this matter, since both practices are approved and sanctioned by the Church.

Finally, to those of you who find me a charlatan, or duplicitous, or revolting, or reeking of sacrilege– I chose to move 3,000 miles to take an underpaid job because I BELIEVED THAT THE MISSON OF THE SCHOOL WAS JUST! I could have worked at a number of public schools but I decided that Christ was calling me to teach here. I’m not trying to undermine the school, nor am I trying to disrespect the parents, nor am I disrespecting the Eucharist. The Blessed Sacrament has saved my soul and I truly value it as the only perfect thing on earth, but I am starting to feel like people, both on this forum and at my place of work, judge the way that I receive the Eucharist when they should not be paying attention to it AT ALL! For a parent to witness me receiving Eucharist in the hand at a non-school mass, they would have to be WATCHING me during Communion. I do not go to Mass to have other people watch me. I go to Mass to be united with Christ. Maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion, but it just incenses me that a PERFECTLY VALID form of receiving the Eucharist and a keen interest in the procedures and rights of both an employer and a member of the faithful in the context of a Catholic school.
 
pilgrim1008 said:
I teach at a conservative, non-diocesan Catholic school.part of my contract was that I “show proper respect for the Eucharist by receiving on the tongue.” likewise, I am expected to genuflect before receiving the Eucharist. After doing some research, I was wondering if it is canonically valid for a school run by the laity to make these rules. If the bishops of the US have recommended bowing before the Eucharist and have stated that it is the right of the communicant to choose how they receive the sacred species, so long s they do so reverently, am I having my rights violated?
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If you are attending the OF then your rights as a Catholic are violated. Someone forcing you to receive COTT is violating the Code of Canon Law and is committing grave matter, they should be corrected and reported to the Bishop if they insist on doing that. If you do a search on CAF you will find a post by JReducation that refers to that very specific case. I will post the link if I can find it, it is a couple of months old. A contract of that kind is an explicit violation of the CCL.
 
We occasionally have Latin Mass in the EF (once a quarter), and of course we all receive Communion on the tongue and kneeling. I have no problem with that, since that is the prescribed method and the only one permitted.
 
pilgrim1008 said:
We occasionally have Latin Mass in the EF (once a quarter), and of course we all receive Communion on the tongue and kneeling. I have no problem with that, since that is the prescribed method and the only one permitted.
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This is the thread tha I was referring to:

Is it lawful for a parent to dictate to a child how to receive Holy Communion?

This is another comment by JReducation:

One cannot forbid what the Church allows, unless a) one is a religious community, b) the restriction is approved by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, c) there is a danger to the community’s charism.
 
Also, perhaps the title of my post was a bit strong or misleading. I apologize for that.
 
it wasn’t misleading at all,if one has to make a choice between feeding their family and their job ,that is being forced.and the school has no right to deny what the Church allows.
 
Hey, if you signed the contract knowing its contents, then so be it. Either honor the contract or quit the job.
 
corsair said:
Hey, if you signed the contract knowing its contents, then so be it. Either honor the contract or quit the job.
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I do not think that that is an appropriate suggestion, we are not dealing with a business organization, here we are talking about a Catholic unit. That still would not solve the problem that the contract is illegal from the point of view of the Code of Canon Law. While she might be fired for not sticking to the contract the school might loose their “Catholic” chapter for doing that. I think that bringing fraternal correction to them would be the appropriate thing to do, and if the issue is not resolved then it should be brought up to the Church. Probably she should talk to the canon lawyer of the diocese to understand her rights and duties as a Catholic.
 
corsair said:
Hey, if you signed the contract knowing its contents, then so be it. Either honor the contract or quit the job.
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So a contract that violates what the Church says must be honored? I think not.
 
corsair said:
Hey, if you signed the contract knowing its contents, then so be it. Either honor the contract or quit the job.
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Again, nowhere did I say that I’m not honoring the contract. *Every time *we have Mass at school, I genuflect before the Eucharist and receive on the tongue. This isn’t a question of “do I honor the contract or not?” My only inquiry here is “Can a lay organization prescribe a limitation on Church law?” The fact that I signed the contract makes it valid in a legal sense, but, in an ecclesiastical sense, is it that clause valid?

I didn’t understand the intensity of the COTT/CITH debate when I signed the contract (six months ago, I could have NEVER told you what those acronyms meant). I also thought that individual parishes, and by extension, other approved Catholic organizations such as schools, could make rulings regarding the procedure for receiving. Quite accidentally, I read a post on these forums about the debate and it got me thinking about my own situation. I’m not trying to defame the Eucharist, nor am I attempting to dishonor me school (by the way, we don’t have school today-- end of quarter, other wise I wouldn’t be posting at this time). I’m just trying to understand my right as a member of the faithful.
 
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