Question 23 – Am I Disobeying When I Receive Holy Communion On My Tongue Anyway?

Transcript:

It's not disobedience. I congratulate you, dear Father, on your fervor. Thank you; you are defending our Lord. I repeat here the question of the Lord. Of course, this is formally a contradiction, which the congregation is unfortunately engaging in. The Bishop does not have the power to forbid people a gesture or an act of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, which gives profound reverence towards our Lord in the Holy Host, during Holy Communion. 

Receiving Holy Communion on the tongue has been a practice recommended by the Church for more than a thousand years—not just 40 or 50 years—but receiving Holy Communion on the tongue has been done in the Church for more than a thousand years. It is proven that almost all the saints we know practiced receiving Holy Communion on the tongue. So, in my opinion, this is approved, and it has been around for such a long time in the venerable tradition of communion on the tongue by so many saints. Almost all the saints that we know have been doing this. The church has no power to prohibit this. 

At the same time, the Church has no power to prohibit the Traditional Rite of the Mass, which has been in the Church for more than a thousand years. Thanks be to God, Pope Benedict XVI restored the traditional form of the Holy Mass. Because of this truth, the Church has no power to destroy such a long, proven tradition with so many spiritual fruits. In exceptional cases, like the plague in the Middle Ages, bishops made only temporary prescriptions on how to receive Holy Communion because of the danger of contagion. For example, there were paintings of people during the plague; this was even more dangerous than COVID-19. It is evident during the plague that they have a kind of special spoon where they put the Holy Host and give the spoon to the communicant, and the spoon is then purified with fire afterward. 

So, it goes to show that Holy Communion was not given to the hands. So, even if there is a contagion, it is preferable to suspend Holy Communion during the Holy Mass, as has been done numerous times throughout the Church's history. When people want to receive Communion, they can do so after Mass or outside of Mass, where you can apply more careful sanitary precautions, but always give on the tongue. You can guarantee the security of the Holy Host when it is received on the tongue rather than on the hand. This is evident, and you cannot deny this. 

Therefore, the Holy Eucharist is the greatest treasure of the Church, and she should take the greatest care to protect the Holy Eucharist even in the time of a pandemic or plague. However, simply giving the Holy Eucharist in one's hand is less reassuring, first because of contamination, and second because it diminishes our Blessed Lord's reverence and security in the Eucharist. As I repeat this, we cannot accept and appease in our good conscience the prohibitions made by the bishops, because it is the Lord who is at stake here and not the bishop.