I never wrote that. Those are your words, not mine.
Personally, I would have laughed, turned around and walked away. Thatās all.
-Tim-
Iām fine with people being rude out on the street but not in a house of God and not when they decided to volunteer to hold a particular position that requires them to interact with the faithful during the mass. Anymore it seems as if people are treating their parishes like the local coffee shop and behaving as the please without regards to the sacredness of the space or the liturgy.
My fear is that due to attitudes such ad this one, the disabled are probably not feeling welcomed in the parishes and may not be availing themselves of the sacraments because itās just too much of a hassle to do so-this is unfortunate.
I do realize that I DONāT HAVE to receive the precious blood since Father had given me the body. But with all due respect, neither do any of you have to receive from the chalice if you have received the eucharist but Iām betting a lot of you receive both as well. It is a choice that we are free to make if our parishes permit it. Furthermore, the excuse that an e. m. might spill the precious blood and that is why they wonāt walk the two feet to the pew to give it is absurd considering the e.m.'s have to descend 4 steps down from the alter at my parish with FULL chalices in order to give the precious blood to the faithful. They could slip and fall because of poor balance or high heels, slick floors from a sprinkling rite, etc. I once saw an e.m. with shaky hands spill a whole bowl of hosts and she was standing still!
There are some persons who canāt receive the eucharist due to allergy and have to take from the chalice. Now does that mean that if they are disabled and have no one to assist them that they should NEVER receive? This isnāt about ME so much as itās about my concern for the disabled who may have to put up with this type of attitude and may have just given up on going to mass altogether.
I respectfully ask everyone to put themselves in the shoes of the disabled in our parish communities. As advances in medicine result in more people living with disability than had in the past (where instead they would have died) we will be confronted with a population thatās living longer, living disabled and will be in need of the sacraments more than ever before.
I could get into confessionals not being accessible and parishes having steps but no ramps at all and so on but you get the point.
Unless our holy father wants to declare all disabled no longer in need of the sacraments, there will have to be tolerance shown and accommodations made so that the disabled can faithfully meet the obligations in the same way as the able bodied.
You, know itās bad enough that groups outside of religion are doing what they can to get others to bend to their will in regards to choices they make but when people of faith are shown that their obligation to exercise that faith is worth less than that shows that the priorities in this country are all wrong and that the priorities in regards to meeting the needs of the faithful in our parishes are even more wrong.
I contacted the diocese to verify first if our bishop had a general policy in place-he does not. I contacted the parish and spoke to the secretary who said she would take this to the pastor. She said she would get back to me.
