Posted on 03/05/2006 2:30:21 PM PST by NYer
Fresh from presiding over the funeral liturgy of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix (ordained in an arena) is freshly embroiled in a new controversy: denying the Eucharist to a ten year-old autistic boy who can't swallow the host.
Because of his condition, Matthew Moran cannot swallow foods with certain textures.But, wait, it gets weirder.
So Matthew, who received his First Communion nearly three years ago in Pennsylvania, participates in Communion in an unusual way. As his father watches, the boy takes the Communion wafer and places it in his mouth. His father, Nick Moran, then removes it and consumes the host himself.
Otherwise, Matthew would spit it out, his father says.
Moran, who takes only the one host for himself, says it remains in the boy's mouth for several seconds.
He says the bishop's letter has caused anger, anxiety and frustration in his home.
"We are out of our minds over this," said the father, who with his wife, Dr. Jean Weaver, has two other children, one of them also disabled.
Phoenix Diocese officials contend that Matthew has not been prohibited from Communion, only that the bishop is "not able to approve the present practice," according to his letter. He offered assistance, which has come in the form of various hosts for Matthew to try, educational material and other recommendations for the parents, including respite care, in which trained personnel would look after the children while the parents took time for themselves.
Matthew received his First Communion in May 2004 in Pittsburgh. His father says the Pittsburgh parish his family attended both recommended and approved the boy's method of receiving Communion. Phoenix officials say that is not true, based on their talks with Pittsburgh Diocese officials.Oh, Good Lord....
Pittsburgh officials declined to return phone calls. The Rev. Patrick Barkey, an assistant pastor at St. Bernard Church in Pittsburgh, where Matthew received First Communion, signed the boy's certificate but says he does not remember the family.
"This is a large parish, with 4,500 families," he said. "We have a large ministry to the disabled."
Moran said the Rev. Michael Deptula at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Havasu City, religious home to 2,500 families, was fine with the matter until recently.
It is another point of dispute. Moran says that his wife met with a church deacon and the pastor to discuss the question shortly after they arrived in town in June 2005 and that his son received Communion from Deptula many times before.
But diocese officials say the family never met with the pastor and had never approached him for Communion before Jan. 1, when Deptula told the parents that Matthew was not showing proper respect.
On that day, according to Moran, Matthew was not acting unusually. The family says it does not understand why the matter came to the bishop's attention. But Deptula contacted the diocese.
Deptula declined to return calls. Elaine Guitar, parish manager, said parish officials had no comment and referred calls to the diocese. Olmsted also declined to answer questions, assigning Rice from the disabilities office and Roz Gutierrez from the Office of Worship to work with Matthew and answer questions.
There's always the exception to the rule ... this one defies comprehension.
"Amen!"
'Problem' solved. If they (the boy's parents) want it to be solved. Sometimes causing a fuss and getting to be 'special' is more important to some people than actually finding a correct solution to their problems.
Oh this is nice! But I have actual knowledge of a similar barring of the disabled from communion in the Roman Catholic diocese I live in. As many of you know, I have been involved for many years with an organization which provides a broad range of services for people with mental retardation and/or autism. A few years back, under the regime of the previous bishop of this diocese, people with mental retardation were refused communion because a0 they are good so they don't "need" it and b) they are unable to understand the significance of the sacrament.
It took every ounce of my self control not to hurl the worst Greek curse I know right in that "bishop's" face. His heretical behavior lost a number of Catholic families in this diocese.
You should have! What's the worst he could do, excommunicate you? ;-)
" You should have! What's the worst he could do, excommunicate you? ;-)"
My parents brought me up to respect men of the cloth...in any case, my Irish Catholic father was still alive! :)
We have a boy in our parish with such severe allergies that he may not receive Our Lord in the form of a Host. He simply receives our Lord in His Most Precious Blood, which is not distributed at most Masses in our parish. He approaches the altar to receive before the lines form. This really shouldn't be a big deal.
That is what it is all about really, isn't it?
And, you have a problem with this?
Why not give Holy Communion to a three year old? or a 9 month old? Same difference in some cases. My niece is 23 and she is severely mentally and physically handicapped the the mental capacity of a 9 month old. She hasn't received the Blessed Sacrament. Will she go to heaven? I believe she will, there isn't an evil cell in her body and she has been baptized.
WWJD? - Let the boy have communion any way he can receive it.
When I lived in Valdez, I was a Eucharistic Minister. One of my duties was to carry the Holy Eucharist to about 6 of the residents of the residential care facility in the town. These disabled people were either autistic or Down Syndrome, but they were all able to comprehend the significance of the Sacrament.
This bishop is profoundly misinformed, or just haughty. Either way, he is cheating this young person of the joy of reception of the Holy Eucharist. How hard is it for the Bishop to allow a priest or special Minister to simply give the young man a sip of the Precious Blood?
"And, you have a problem with this?"
Your question speaks volumes about the Latin understanding of the sacraments.
"Why not give Holy Communion to a three year old? or a 9 month old? "
How about denying communion to a senile old person? Or the Anointing to an unconscious person? Do you Latins think that's the right thing to do because they dont "understand" either? How many of even your priests, let alone your laity could articulate the theology of grace, created, uncreated, sacramental or not? I'm Orthodox. We baptise, chrismate and give First Communion all at the same time and to infants...as do at least most of the Eastern Rite Catholics. You Latins stand alone in The Church with this practice and attitude. I have always had a serious problem with the Latin innovation of denying communion to babies.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't understanding of the significance of the sacrament a precondition to partaking of Communion in an Orthodox or Catholic church? Why therefore is it not a valid concern that the mentally disabled cannot recongize that they are taking the Blood and Body of Christ?
"So while your desire is for your son to receive Holy Communion, he is, in fact, only simulating doing so."
Put a drop of the blood of Christ on his tongue so he can 'receive.' Everything of the Body and the Blood is present in a crumb or a drop.
What the father wants to do is disrespecting the Eucharist, IMHO.
(And please do not read any bitterness in my assessment - I don't think Catholicism should do anything but deny me, as a Protestant, Communion. If Catholicism is right, than it'd be dangerous for me to partake, since I don't correctly understand the sacrament.)
ok
Can a baby discern the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist? How do you interpret this verse?
“For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself" (1 Cor. 11:29)
Well, there's the problem. He had his First Communion in a "megachurch."
" Can a baby discern the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist? How do you interpret this verse?
“For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself" (1 Cor. 11:29)"
The same way that The Church always and everywhere, except at Rome for the past 500 odd years, has believed, namely that, as the Fathers teach, reception of the Eucharist "in willful disregard of the presence of the Lord" can lead to illness or even death. The Church, save for the Roman Church, in accordance with Matthew 19:14 and Mark 10:14-16 and the consensus patrum, amply demonstrated for example by Pope+Leo the Great, +Cyprian and +Augustine, has always communed babies.
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