Bergoglian Cardinal Marto Flies Into Rage That Faithful Want Communion on the Tongue

Cardinal Marto on his first visit to Fatima since the re-introduction of public services. 

(Lisbon) After the beginning of the pilgrimage season due to the Corona, Masses were not allowed to take place. Pentecost Sunday also saw the faithful return to the churches in Portugal. For Cardinal Antonio Marto, this was an occasion for a hard scolding of the faith and reproach for those who still want Communion on the tongue.

The government had indicated the possibility of an early opening to allow the visit to the sanctuary, which is so important for the country. However, the Church declined, most notably Antonio Marto, Bishop of Leiria-Fatima and vice-chair of the Portuguese Bishops' Conference. Pope Francis had raised him to the rank of cardinal as the first pastor of this diocese.On the 12th / 13th In May, the traditional start of the pilgrimage season in the Shrine of St. Mary in Fatima could not take place . On the 103rd anniversary of the first appearance of Mary on May 13, 1917, the Marian Shrine was ghostly empty. Thus the morning mist enveloped the valley in gloom.

On May 31, Pentecost, public services were allowed again throughout Portugal. Cardinal Marto gave an interview to the Jesuit order on this occasion. In it he defended the directive by the episcopal conference, which he also implemented in his diocese, to allow only [sacrilegious] hand Communion. 

Calvinist Hand Communion as a Measure Against Communion on the Tongue

The Portuguese Bishops' Conference received permission from Rome on October 10, 1975  to dispense in the Novus Ordo of the traditional [Catholic] form of receiving Communion. Since then, believers in Portugal have been able [forced] to receive hand Communion. The introduction was made with the express reference:

"This form of Communion must not be imposed on believers because they have to choose how they want to receive the Eucharist."

Communion according to Catholic tradition is still widespread in the Atlantic country. Some Church groups bump into it and see it as a "backwardness" to be rejected. There is more to the form of receiving Communion, including the understanding of the Eucharist and the Church. In 2000, the Liturgical Office of the Bishops' Conference published a misleading note on the third edition of the Editio Typica des Missale Romanum. It corresponds to a progressive reading, but not the historical truth. It asserted that "the custom of communicating on the knees" and "exclusively in the mouth" was "absolutely alien to the Church" of the first nine centuries and could not be based on a divine, apostolic, or early Christian origin.

As recently confirmed by the well-known liturgist Don Nicola Bux, a personal friend of Benedict XVI, the exact opposite is true. Oral Communion goes back directly to the Last Supper and corresponds to the form in which Jesus Christ himself gave Communion to the apostles.

It is no coincidence that in 2000 the staff member of the Liturgical Office of the Portuguese Bishops' Conference described the new way of receiving Communion as a "real paradigm" that the Second Vatican Council wanted to "promote" through the liturgical reform. According to the words of John XXIII, the author said that the liturgy had to "return to the simple and very deep forms of the Church of the Apostles and Martyrs" and to take them up.

The unnamed author, who was identified as "an employee of the National Liturgical Service," spread the usual progressive narrative, which, however, which corresponds to the formation of legends in key points. This applies to the historical reference, the claim that hand Communion was the original form of receiving Communion of “the apostles and martyrs” and the liturgical reform was an implementation of the Second Vatican Council. In contrast, the statement of a "real paradigm" hits the mark.

"Jesus Didn't Say: Open Your Mouth"

Cardinal Marto follows this line when he is outraged in the interview that believers insist Communion on the tongue. He dismissed this attitude with the words:

“Jesus said, 'Take and eat'. He didn't say 'open your mouth'. ”

The interview was given by the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima on May 29 to the Ponto de Viragem podcast of the Jesuit Order. The cardinal's outrage was sparked by a petition sent by 500 Portuguese priests and faithful to the Episcopal Conference and the Holy See. In it, they request that the ban on Communion on the tongue be lifted. The compulsory hand Communion "seriously undermines the norms of the Catholic Church and the reverence for the Blessed Sacrament," the petition states. The signatories refer to epidemics in the 20th century and H1N1 in 2009/2010, some of which were many times more dramatic and deadly, but which in no way led to a change in the form of receiving Communion. In the course of the H1N1 epidemic, the so-called "swine flu", the responsible Roman Congregation confirmed on several inquiries from different parts of the world that oral Communion should not be denied to any believer.

Critics therefore see the ban on oral Communion of bishops' conferences worldwide as a concerted action that is exploiting the corona virus as an excuse to eliminate the actual form of receiving Communion and making the form of hand Communion, which has only been tolerated since 1969, compulsory.

Accordingly, the criticism of the Portuguese signatories is directed against the Corona measures of the bishops, which are criticized not only in Portugal as disproportionate and excessive.

Cardinal Marto downplayed the relevance of the petition in the interview. The number of signatories is "not very significant". At the same time, he expressed regret that there are so many believers who "question the faith of the bishops".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Santuário de Fátima (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG