Communion in the hand is wrong

Cathcon receives an email!

Since you do such an outstanding job reporting on scandals and abuses in Europe, I thought you might be interested to learn of a recent incident here.

The pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, NY, Fr. Anthony Trapani, last Sunday took the bold and unprecedented step of
banning Communion in the Hand after several cases of desecration of Consecrated Hosts were discovered in his parish:

Yesterday, however, in his bulletin,
he announced that Communion in the Hand had to be resumed and he cited instructions from Sr. Sheila Browne of the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Rockville Centre (Cathcon- even a Bishop's instructions would not make this practice right, and certainly not instructions from this source).



In his own statement, however, he says he did not regret the action he took, so it would seem he was forced to back down by the Diocese. We Catholics here feel this is a shameful humiliation of an outstanding pastor.

This same fine priest, a former Navy chaplain, by the way, has undertaken a beautiful restoration of the sanctuary and returned the tabernacle to a central place of honor in his church. He replaced the former main altar with a beautiful Italian marble altar. He has endeavored for months to instruct his parish in the proper respect and reverence for the Blessed Sacrament as can be seen in his previous bulletins.

We are convinced, though we have no proof, that Fr. Trapani probably had permission to ban Communion in the Hand temporarily from Bishop Murphy, since he is a man who has great respect for Church law, but the bishop changed his mind when complaints began rolling in.

God bless for all you do,
Cathcon thanks!

Comments

Xathar said…
Redemptionis Sacramentum #92: "If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful."
JustTheFacts said…
I am really grateful to you for bringing the story of this heroic and humble priest more attention.

In retrospect, I probably should not have publicly speculated that the bishop had given the nod to Fr. Trapani and then turned on him.

I really have no idea if this is true, but was so frustrated to see yet another priest being given the treatment by the Rockville Centre that I got a little carried away.

Thanks again, Gillibrand!
Xather pointed out Redemptionis Sacramentum 92 already. I'm not a canonist, but I believe this supercedes particular law. The risk of profanation has been established with moral absoluteness. Therefore Fr. Trapani acted within, and more importantly, according to the law. Sister Brown is out of place and obviously not qualified to be in any position of authority where "worship" is concerned given her ignorance of the law.

By the way, is that supposed to be a picture of Sr. Brown? The person in the picture certainly doesn't look like a woman religious. Would Cathcon be teasing us by showing us the picture of a laywoman? Oh, that's right, the modern American nun is "exempt".... from everything.