Pope Benedict and CITH

[ConstantineTG]

Right, today one is not disobedient. At least we agree the practice was born of disobedience. That is all I’m saying. Some don’t know that and I think it should be known if one is going to discuss it.

If we follow strict rubrics all the time, where does organic development come from? Does it not come from some form of disobedience somewhere?

 

[markomalley]

An interesting quote from ‘Light of the World’, the book-length interview published this week, and highlighted in The Tablet (www.thetablet.co.uk)

His Holiness said,

'I am not opposed in principle to Communion in the hand; I have both administered and received Communion this way myself…

The idea behind my current practice of having people kneel and receive Communion on the tongue was to send a signal and to underscore the Real Presence with an exclamation point. One very important reason is that there is a great danger of superficiality precisely in the kinds of mass events we hold in St. Peter’s. …I have heard of people who, after receiving Communion, stick the host in their wallet to take home as a kind of souvenir’.’.

The Tablet also reported that Queen Sophia of Spain did not kneel when it was her turn to receive from him during his recent visit to Spain, and that she also stretched out her hands. The Pope gave her CITH without comment (although the cleric standing by nearly had a fit).

The Pope saying he was ‘not opposed in principle to Communion in the hand’ will come as a surprise to some, I think.

Hearing The Tablet report something like that gives very little credence to it…no moreso than reading something in America or National Catholic Reporter in this country.

Bottom line is that once you’ve read the comment, in context, in the book, I would take any extracts with a very large grain of salt.

 

[paperwight66]

Hearing The Tablet report something like that gives very little credence to it…no moreso than reading something in America or National Catholic Reporter in this country.

Bottom line is that once you’ve read the comment, in context, in the book, I would take any extracts with a very large grain of salt.

I take your point, but the quote ‘I am not opposed in principle to Communion in the hand’ sounds pretty unequivocal to me.

The Tablet is a highly respected Catholic journal, by the way. It frequently has articles by Bishops and is on sale in most parishes. There is no reason to suppose that any reporter was telling an untruth.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

Until the indult, it was a novelty introduced from the bottom rung of the ladder. Not quite how it usually works.

Actually that is how things usually work in the Church.

 

[KarenElissa]

Hearing The Tablet report something like that gives very little credence to it…no moreso than reading something in America or National Catholic Reporter in this country.

Bottom line is that once you’ve read the comment, in context, in the book, I would take any extracts with a very large grain of salt.

I just read this part of the book last night and I don’t see any difference between what The Tablet said and what it says in the book.

The Holy Father simply said that the reason he distributes COTT and kneeling at big papal masses is because of their inclination of becoming a big event and not a religious Mass. He hopes that distributing communion in this way makes people take notice that something special is going on here, we aren’t all just going forward to receive a souvenir.