Ban on Calvinist Hand Communion -- South American Diocese Publishes Decree

Ban on Hand Communion by the Bishop of Oruro

Edit: just one more brief intrusion.  Adalante de Fe was an initiative begun in part by the scorned, faithful and long-suffering of Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este, whose meritorious  work for the salvation  of souls will continue. 

(La Paz) On August 16, 2015  Bishop Krzysztof (Cristobal) Bialasik SVD of Oruro in Bolivia, gave published the prohibition of hand communion in his diocese. Only communion on the tongue is permitted.   Bishop Bialasik is responding to incidents where consecrated Hosts were received in hand Communion, and then taken away. It was "unbearable", said the Bishop,  that one does not know what happened to the body of Christ.

On January 6, 2016, Bishop Bialasik has now signed the appropriate canonical decree by which the prohibition Communion in the hand was formalized. Adelante la Fe published the "Decree for the Reception of Holy Communion on the Tongue."

The bishop  refers in this to the current ecclesiastical rules.  It nowhere provides that Communion in the hand is the proper manner of the reception of Holy Communion. According to teaching and canon law, oral Communion is the only proper form with which to receive the body of Christ. Hand Communion is something the bishop allowed "only as an indult" which can be granted on a case by case basis in an Episcopal Conference if it wishes. The responsibility lies solely with the competent diocesan bishop. Bishop Bialasik refers to the instruction Redemptoris Sacramentum of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship of 1999, which expressly bans hand Communion identifying issues present, "when the danger of profanation."

 Worthy reception, awareness of the real presence of Christ, prevent profanation

Decree: oral Communion instead Hand Communion

The Bishop of Oruro offered three reasons in the decree  pronounced by him banning Communion in the hand on August 16th: "to promote the worthy reception of the Eucharist", "to strengthen the faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ" and "avoid the profanation of the body of Christ."

The crucial point of the decree reads:

"We reaffirm for the Diocese of Oruro the obligation to abide by the universal law of the Church to receive Communion in the mouth, as the indult, to receive communion in the hand, does not apply."

The decree was published in the February issue of the Official Journal of the diocese.

Bishop Cristobal (Krzysztof) Bialasik was born in Zbąszynek (Neu-Bentschen) in 1958 and is a Divine Word Missionary (Steyler Missionar). In 1985 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Henryk Cardinal Gulbinowicz from Wroclaw. Pope Benedict XVI. appointed him in 2005 as Bishop of Oruro. In 2014 the highest statue in the world was inaugurated (without base) in his diocese. It is based on the miraculous image of Our Lady of Candelaria del Socavón of Oruro.

The Diocese of Oruro was established in 1924 by Pope Pius XI.  and is suffragan of the Archdiocese of Cochabamba.  It is 53,000 kilometers, larger than Lower Saxony [a little smaller in size than New York State], and has about 440,000 Catholics, 42 priests and 42 parishes.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 

Image: Adelante la Fe

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Bishop of de Oruro Prohibits Communion in the Hand in His Diocese

Edit: here's a google translation with some editing.  Adalantela Fe is the website which the late Bishop Livieres continued his important work after being thrown out of his diocese for no substantial reason.

[Adalantela Fe] Recently the Bishop of the Diocese of Oruro, Bolivia, Monsignor Cristobal Bialasik, in his usual Sunday celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass this Sunday August 16, has said that in the diocesan Church entrusted to him, he will not continue to give the consecrated Host -- Body of the Lord -- in the hands of the faithful (i.e., those who are not priests).

The prelate rightly undermines the administration of the Eucharist in this way, as he himself said, it has been noticed lately that some people do not consume the Host upon receipt, and want to carry it out of the church for purposes unknown.

The jealous priests of old wanted to be sure that those who received the Host were known parishioners, to avoid profanity, as there were Jews and members of other groups and ideologies who attended Masses to profane the Body of Jesus, throwing Him to the floor, spitting and trampling on Him.

As we are reminded by Msgr. Athanasius Schneider, the practice we now know of Communion in the hand was born in the seventeenth century among the Calvinists, who did not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. "Not even Luther would have done it," said the bishop, "In fact, until relatively recently, Lutherans were kneeling communicants and on the tongue, and even today some do this still in Scandinavia".

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his great Summa Theologica, confirms and explains:

"The administration of the Body of Christ is for the priest for three reasons.

"First, because he consecrates in the person of Christ. But as Christ consecrated His Body at the (Last) Supper, so also He gave it to others to be shared with them. Accordingly, as the consecration of the Body of Christ is for the priest, also its distribution corresponds to him.

"Second, because the priest is the appointed intermediary between God and the people, therefore it corresponds to him to offer the people's gifts to God. Thus it is for the people he distributes the consecrated gifts.

"Third, because of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches it but what is consecrated as the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands touch this sacrament. Therefore, it is not lawful for anyone else to touch it except from necessity, for instance if it had fallen on the ground or also some other emergency." 1

Because of the loss of the sense of sin, warned by Pope Pius XII, today many faithful have lost faith in the Eucharist, in which Jesus is present with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity as well, as communicants receive Holy Communion and attend Mass, it is clear what degree of faith there is in the Real Presence.

The most serious desecrations are accomplished by the administration or reception of the sacraments, or in the case of the Holy Eucharist, by debasing it in celebration, that is in mortal sin, hence a deliberate and remarkable irreverence towards the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is the worst sacrilege.

I well remember one Sunday in Chile, where a pastoral worker was visiting a rural parish. Once in town, we attended Mass. The pastor -- a good and holy priest -- had a visible disability that certainly not let him move. At the time of communion, the nun who was acting minister of communion held the chalice in one hand, while in the other she began to administer them. In approach to receive the Body of the Lord, it seemed, he started the Hosts, and in doing so not so small fragments fell to the floor, which the religious seemed not to notice. After the Mass, two outsiders, without asking permission, quickly went to kneel before the many visible pieces scattered, and moistening their fingers consumed them.

Similar events are often repeated and in many countries there have been groups of lay people whose sole responsibility is to collect fragments of the consecrated Hosts that have fallen after giving communion in the hand. 2

Too numerous to mention are all the desecrations against Jesus in the Eucharist, but let us note the following:

Receive Communion with serious sins on the soul, without having confessed before a priest.

Eucharist is received in a posture of sitting and standing.

After Holy Communion few remain in intimate worship of Jesus and almost all leave immediately after Mass.

During Communion and after they then they sit, and are often talking.

The songs, manner of dress, talk and general behavior of the people, does not differ much from what happens in other meetings.

Chants and instruments used, clapping hands, give the Mass a sense of carnival more than a religious function.

The forgetfulness of Jesus present in the Tabernacle by the faithful and even many consecrated persons, is almost complete.

The Prince of Theology states: "Both the wicked and the good eat this celestial food, but with ends how opposite. Here is life and there is death the same yet issuing to each in difference infinite." 3

Germán Mazuelo-Leytón

1 AQUINO, TOMÁS, Summa Teológica, III, Q. 82, Art. 13.

2 MAZUELO-LEYTÓN, GERMÁN, El diablo no tiene rodillas, http://infocatolica.com/blog/contracorr.php/1304080215-el-diablo-no-tiene-rodillas

3 AQUINO, TOMÁS, Secuencia de la fiesta de Corpus Christi.

From Adelante de Fe with some revision of a google translation.