doddering seniors attempting to kneel to receive the Eucharist where there is no altar railMy Marie received First Holy Communion this past Sunday.
The pastor placed a Prie Dieu (Prayer Kneeler) up front, and distributed communion, by intinction, on the tongue, with the First Comunicants kneeling at the Prie Dieu.
I've seen more than one Prie Dieu gathering dust in corners of almost every Catholic church I have ever entered.
The Prie-Dieu Proposal:
Now that the Vatican has made it crystal clear that kneeling to re-ceive Holy Communion remains an inviolable right of Catholics, de-spite the adoption (with Rome's approval) that standing will be the normfor the Church in the U.S., parishes must seriously consider how to ac-commodate those who wish to kneel.
No doubt that those who kneel in a line of standing communicantscan be disruptive, as well as very difficult for those of us who are phys-ically challenged. But, as the letter from Jorge Cardinal Medina Es-tevez clearly stipulates, kneeling for Communion is a right that cannotbe tampered with.
Our liturgical innovators created this situation (perhaps deliberately)by the wholesale removal of Communion rails in thousands of church-es. Now they are obliged to find a remedy to protect the rights of kneel-ing Catholics.
There is a very simple solution to the problem. For those churches who still have Communion rails, a section of the rail should be desig-nated for communicants who wish to kneel to receive. A separate linefor kneeling communicants would form behind this section.
In the case of a church having no Communion rail, a simple prie-dieu (French - pray God) or kneeler should be placed at the front of a Communion station. A line of those wishing to kneel would form be-hind the prie-dieu to await their turn.
In either case, if there is but one priest to distribute Holy Commun-ion, the kneeling communicants would simply wait for the priest to fin-ish with the standing communicants. After Mass, the prie-dieu wouldbe returned to its normal location.
Problem solved.
Seriously, no one except an unregenerate liturgical nazi can object to this simple and most pastoral solution to what otherwise could be-come an ugly and divisive situation.
We would urge our readers to distribute this modest proposal to asmany bishops, priests, parishes, and parishioners as they are able.
A. J. Matt Jr.
Editor, The Wanderer
Seriously, no one except an unregenerate liturgical nazi can object to this simple and most pastoral solution to what otherwise could be-come an ugly and divisive situation. Only the Wanderer, and Al Matt, would think to use the word "nazi" in connection with those who observe the Novus Ordo rubrics.
In parishes where there is a strong wish on the part of some Catholics to receive kneeling, then, by all means, stick a pre-dieu at one of the stations served by a Eucharistic Minister.
Problem solved!
Doesn't the Wanderer have a good handle on the Kumbaya crowd? Unregenerate liturgical nazis! That covers the waterfront.
Imagine how the Kumbaya will rage at the restoration of actual kneeling in recognition of God's presence in the Eucharist! What a setback for them! Will they ever recover? Fortunately not. Time to:
1. Purge the AmChurch leftist anti-Catholic Bishops.
2. Sell their space stations in recognition of the meaning of "sacred space" and use the proceeds as down payments on churches for the poor deprived suburban space-station parishes.
3. Establish missions in spiritually deprived areas of our country to evangelize those who wrongfully imagine themselves Catholic.
4. Expect massive defections among the Kumbayas. The defections have already occurred. The apostasy will merely be formalized. The Church will benefit from being leaner and meaner and FAR more Catholic.
5. Superficial ecclesiastical conservatism is not enough. Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn has a generally conservative track record as to what he says. He is even the Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus (normally a very nice qualification). He has been quite publicly pro-life. However, there is another side. He has (probably by advancing age) avoided suffering quite justifiable consequences of his administrative misbehavior in Boston in shuffling the most notorious child abusers Geoghan and Slattery around the chess board. Some may say he was only following orders of his archbishop there. This week, as ordinary of the Brooklyn Diocese, he lifted the justified ban on the openly heretical and notorious Voice of the "Faithful" organization whose leadership includes heretics, apostates, agnostics and other enemies of the Church galore. He wants to welcome termites into our house. Purge widely and deeply.