The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, chaired by Cardinal Arthur Roche, has published on its website a summary of the meeting held on October 21 with the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Panama, during their ad limina visit, in which it warns of the “danger of extremism in the liturgical sphere and the instrumentalization of the Eucharistic celebration”. According to the text, this danger comes from certain groups of the faithful who raise issues such as receiving Communion on the knees or in the hand, or the use of the veil by women. “Such groups tend to cause division and confusion”, the note states, in words translated from Italian by this editorial team, as follows.
In response to these attitudes, the summary reaffirms that “the Eucharist is the sacrament of unity and cannot become an object of opposition”. The text, published in Italian and English, attributes the warning to the dialogue between the bishops and the dicastery, without specifying who raised the issue. It also does not identify the groups it refers to nor explain what the instrumentalization it denounces consists of.
The note includes other concerns from the meeting. The Panamanian bishops reported some incorrect practices in Eucharistic adoration, which turn it into a form of worship that is too individual and disconnected from the celebration of Mass, and a tendency to prolong celebrations with added gestures, prayers, and responses that, according to the text, “compromise the sobriety proper to the Roman rite”. Regarding liturgical singing, the summary calls for it to respond to the criteria of sacred music, to avoid individualism, mere emotion, or local folklore, and for its lyrics to be doctrinally correct.
In terms of formation, the text points to the difficulty posed by “parallel information circulating through blogs and opinions of various kinds” and highlights the value of the liturgical-pastoral directory for ensuring uniform celebrations. There was also discussion of Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest and the so-called Delegates of the Word, preparation for marriage, which must be protected from commercial logic, and confession, threatened by individualism and psychologism. The dicastery finally explained the procedure that the episcopal conference must follow if it wishes to adopt translations of the Missal already approved by other episcopates.
The summary does not mention the current norms on the manner of receiving Communion. The instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, published in 2004 by the then Congregation for Divine Worship, establishes in number 90 that the faithful receive Communion kneeling or standing, as determined by the episcopal conference, and in number 91 that Communion may not be denied to a faithful person solely because they wish to receive it kneeling or standing. Number 92 states that “every faithful person always has the right to choose whether to receive Holy Communion on the tongue”, and that, where the episcopal conference has permitted it with the confirmation of the Holy See, it may also be received in the hand.
The U.S. portal LifeSiteNews, which reported on the note on Wednesday the 28th, has replied that the manner of receiving Communion is a question of reverence that deserves to be debated and has recalled the long tradition of receiving Communion on the tongue and kneeling. The warning comes amid ongoing controversy with the traditionalist world. Roche has received public criticism in recent days from the auxiliary bishop of ’s-Hertogenbosch, Rob Mutsaerts, for his treatment of the ancient Roman rite, and the Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage was unable to enter in procession at St. Peter’s last Saturday the 24th.
The dicastery that regulates the liturgy includes among the risks of “extremism” raising issues such as kneeling Communion, a manner of receiving Communion that its own 2004 instruction protects.
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