[markomalley]

Confusing, since I believe that according to Catholic teaching, there has to be Holy Communion distributed at the Mass or it's technically not a Mass. A liturgy without the liturgy of the Eucharist would just be a prayer service.

All the politicians were seated in one particular section.

There was communion. Just, as I said, communion would not be distributed to anybody in that section.

BTW, it is a valid Mass if the Eucharist is consecrated (and, obviously, the priest celebrant communicates). There are a couple of scenarios where there wouldn't be communion distributed to people:

• If the priest is celebrating a private Mass (by himself)
• In a large Catholic elementary school that had multiple school Masses divided by age group...if it was done so that K-2 were the only ones who went to a particular Mass, it very well could be that there were no kids who had made their first communion yet (particularly during the fall time).

[BillyBoy]

>> All the politicians were seated in one particular section. There was communion. Just, as I said, communion would not be distributed to anybody in that section. Apparently what I had heard beforehand was incorrect (if we are to believe Biden's press secretary) according to this thread. There are no pix of Biden receiving, so I cannot validate this one way or the other. <<

I have read five DIFFERENT accounts of what happened at the Pope's inaugural Mass on FR alone:

1) The Mass went by without incident, it was decided beforehand that Communion would NOT be served, so they wouldn't have to worry about who gets it and who doesn't.

2) The Mass went by without incident, Communion WAS served, but they made an announcement beforehand that it would ONLY be served to the deacons and priests present by the altar. The official reason given for this is they didn't have those in the pews come up in order to save time so the Mass didn't run over.

3) The Mass went by without incident, Communion WAS served, but all the politicians were seated in one particular section, and communion was not distributed to anybody in that section.

4) The Mass went by and all the liberal pro-abortion American Catholic politicians came up for Communion, and they DID receive it, because the Holy Father is not familiar with their record being in conflict with church teaching. They may be refused Holy Communion at a future date.

5) The Mass went by and EVERYONE present at the Mass received communion, even the visiting delegations from other churches that are not Catholic, such as the delegates from various Orthodox Churches.