Question: I was away from the Church for 28 years, but when I came back and they were receiving on the hand, at what point did they change to receiving on the hand, and why? What was the thought behind doing that?
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes, this issue, this change from the traditional manner of reverence to standing and receiving in the hand, came from the Netherlands during the Second Vatican Council. It was introduced without the permission of the Church. The bishops and clerics in the Netherlands introduced this new manner illicitly, and it spread throughout Northern European countries, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria. It spread like a cancer.
Then Pope Paul the Sixth had forbidden this in 1967, but the bishops of these countries continued to press the Pope. The Holy Father then asked all the bishops of the world for their opinion on this new manner of receiving Holy Communion. The qualitative majority of the bishops all over the world rejected receiving in the hand because of the danger of loss of fragments and the decrease of faith and devotion.
Even so, one year later, in 1969, the Pope gave permission to these bishops. Even then, the Pope was not content with this. This is a fact you can read about. There are books published with all the documentation on this.
Interviewer: I certainly remember when I first saw it introduced, when it was still illicit. The ideology was that we are adults and not children, so we should receive the Eucharist the way adults receive food and feed themselves. So that was also part of the ideology, at least in some areas here in the United States.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes, but our Lord Jesus Christ said, unless you become a child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord did not say, unless you become an adult. This practice did not come as a sign of increasing devotion and adoration, but rather to reduce all signs of adoration. This is a fact. We have to consider this.
This is our crisis, and this is a problem. We have to be honest in the Church and acknowledge it. This is a crisis in the Church. One hundred years after our death, they will say this was a problem, a crisis. Why were they silenced? And so I am speaking.