Pope Benedict Give Communion To Kneeling Folks Again At Large Public Masses

In BRINDISI, Italy Yesterday

Communion in Leuca the Day before!!!

Pope Benedict is onthe road again in Italy. I shall be posting on his trip BRINDISI, some during the day. However this is significant because this is the second time this has happen. THe first being at the Papal Corpus Christ Service just weeks ago. The Ratzinger Forum has translated this important French News Item piece here. (Im fact go that page for all the great coverage).


Nothing happens by accident at these Papal Masses as this piece shows. As the translator at the Ratzinger Forum points out this occured twice this weekend. The other occasion being at the Papal Mass in Santa Maria di Leuca !!!! Here is the first part of the article

Pope gives Communion the traditional way during his visit to southeastern Italy .


BRINDISI, Italy, June 15 (Translated from AFP French service) - After rehabilitating the 'Tridentine' mass and the reapparition of lace albs, Benedict XVI today took another step in returning to traditional liturgical practices by giving Communion to faithful who knelt to receive it at an open-air Mass before some 70,000 persons in this port city of southern Italy. This practice fell into disuse over the past 40 years following the liturgical reform of 1969-1970 in which receiving Communion in the hands while standing before the Mass celebrant became common practice with the new form of the Mass (now called the ordinary form). The Pope first gave Communion this way in public at the Mass on the Solemnity of Corpus Domini last May 22 in front of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, although it did not get much notice because the public was much more limited. Those chosen beforehand to receive Communion from the Pope himself knelt at a prie-Dieu set in front of the Pope.

The implication now is that the faithful may choose which way he or she prefers to receive Communion. Kneeling for Communion, which was never prohibited, had remained an exclusive practice at parishes where the traditional Mass was still performed (or had been allowed by indult to be performed). By his actions, Benedict XVI apparently wants to set an example for the whole church and his priests. "We Christians kneel only before the Blessed Sacrament (the Host) because we know and believe that we are in the presence of the one true God," he said on May 22. "I am convinced it is urgent to give Communion to the faithful directly on the tongue without them touching it" and "to revive kneeling at the moment of Communion as a sign of respect," he added. The liturgical modifications introduced by Benedict XVI in the past several months have favored a return to some practices which had fallen into disuse after the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms. .......

Oh How I wish the Holy Father had started this on his Papal Trip to the United States.