Well, for starters, the killing curse is banned in the UK, along with pointy wands and any cores more dangerous than a troll whisker.
What infuriates me to no end is that you can head a Vatican dicastery and be completely ignorant of facts everyone in the circles relevant to your dicastery knows. Itβs at least intellectual negligence. If you donβt know what youβre talking about, donβt open your mouth.
This business about kneeling for Holy Communion was settled long ago. In fact, the USCCB was subtly corrected on the matter in the publication of the 2010 American translation of the 2000 edition of the Missale Romanum. Here's what happened...
In 2000, the third edition of the Missale Romanum was promulgated by St. John Paul II, which included a revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal (i.e., the GIRM). Every episcopal conference could then make adaptations proper to their own bishops' dioceses as long as the Holy See approved those modifications.
In 2002, therefore, this revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal was issued for the United States with the approved adaptations for the United States.
Paragraph 160 of that 2002 US GIRM said: "The norm for reception of Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United States is standing. Communicants should not be denied Holy Communion because they kneel. Rather, such instances should be addressed pastorally, by
providing the faithful with proper catechesis on the reasons for this norm."
Communicants couldn't be denied Holy Communion for kneeling, but they should be "addressed pastorally." Keep in mind, we were still using the 1972 translation of Mass found in what was called then the Sacramentary.
In 2004, the then-Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments at the Holy See issued an all-encompassing document addressing deficiencies and abuses regarding the Most Holy Sacrament called Redemptionis Sacramentum.
In paragraph 90 of that document, the Holy See affirmed: "'The faithful should receive Communion kneeling or standing, as the Conference of Bishops will have determined', with its acts having received the recognitio of the Apostolic See. 'However, if they receive Communion standing, it is recommended that they give due reverence before the reception of the Sacrament, as set forth in the same norms.'"
Note the Holy See's insistence here on the norm that any determination by an episcopal conference on these matters must have the approval (the recognitio) of Holy See.
The following paragraph (91) says this: "In distributing Holy Communion it is to be remembered that 'sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who seek them in a reasonable manner, are rightly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them'. Hence any baptized Catholic who is not prevented by law must be admitted to Holy Communion. Therefore, it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christβs faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing."
Fast forward to 2010 after the US Bishops approved an English translation for the 2000 Missale Romanum, it's sent to Rome to be approved, but NOT WITHOUT a change in the US GIRM at paragraph 160--a change that wasn't reported at the time as being requested by the USCCB. In other words, it's a change that the Holy See simply made on its own authority.
Unlike the 2002 US GIRM at 160, the 2010 and CURRENT US GIRM at 160 doesn't mention any pastoral issue needing to be addressed about the faithful kneeling to receive Holy Communion. Presumably, this is because the Holy See doesn't think it is a pastoral issue.
The 2010 US GIRM, approved by the Holy See and changed from the 2002 version by the authority and initiative of the Holy See, now says:
"It is not permitted for the faithful to take the consecrated Bread or the sacred chalice by themselves and, still less, to hand them on from one to another among themselves. The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling" (and cites Redemptionis Sacramentum, paragraph 91).
Thus, in 2010, the Holy See changed the US GIRM specifically to remove any sense of kneeling being a pastoral issue. Yes, standing is the norm in the United States, UNLESS a member of the faithful wishes to receive Holy Communion while kneeling.
Sources in the replies:
My wife just rolling her eyes and muttering to herself about how I never listen when she says to give up on you people.
Sorry, crazy radtrads, no. If Jesus prayed to have the cup pass from Him but that the Fatherβs will be done, itβs not a lack of faith or cowardice or a sign of being βnot really Catholicβ to avoid pregnancy for reasons of severe health issues or risk of stillbirth. You nutbars.
On a scale of 1 to Passover discount on bacon double cheeseburgers, how bad is unclean animal statuette menorah?
With all due respect, and realizing full well that my own persecutions, such as they may be, are as nothing: if persecutions come as a result of our preaching Christ, then let them come.
Thereβs a line between prudence in preaching and cowardice in it.
Replying to @lukei4655
In some places this sort of rhetoric is actually quite important, though totally offensive to pious Western ears, and perhaps best not done for an international audience.
I have learned this from my ongoing dealings with the Church in Pakistan.
They take 1 in 1,000 requests for baptism from Muslims. And it's entirely secret.
It's a security risk - a lot of troublemakers... people looking for a reason to burn down a neighborhood... and creating one if possible.
I don't know if that's the situation in Algiers, but one must be careful about making these assumptions. At any rate, it's a bad look nonetheless - prudence also requires not creating scandal.
Actually, I think this is a great argument for celibacy. As man, Jesusβ natural loneliness, which in most people manifests as sexual desire, found its Other in the Beatific Vision which he enjoyed in life. Similarly, the higher calling for all men and women is the religious life
and celibacy, in which they may contemplate β much less perfectly β the face of God. Prayer fulfills longing more perfectly than sex; it is fitting that there be some people of prayer who are wholly devoted to it, others who are somewhat devoted to prayer and somewhat to spouses
Raphael π»π¦β€οΈβπ₯ retweeted
If wearing a chapel veil is liturgical extremism, then I dare any cleric to tell a woman she canβt.
Sure would be nice if someone with a big voice and a Vatican dicastery laid out the treasures of Catholic heritage for the faithful and maybe explained Eucharistic reverence. That would probably help.
This seems like a gotcha, but itβs a fair question. Must a couple have sex if they lack a just cause to practice NFP? Must they do it every day to avoid being in the position of abstaining? Every hour?
Obviously not.
What must they do, then?
Replying to @CatholicRaph
So in situations where there isnβt βjust causeβ what is the couple morally obligated to do?
Thus, for us, striving to keep close to Godβs will, in several cases, we discerned over a few months what God wanted of us or else were pleasantly surprised in the way one might expect when happily submitting our wills to Godβs instead of trying to force nature to our wills.













