Ban on the Eucharist reversed:
Howard County, Maryland, has reversed a policy that banned consumption of any food or drink during religious services, effectively preventing the licit celebration of Mass.
A county spokesman told CNA May 28 the prohibition will be removed, and faith leaders will be consulted on future guidelines for church reopenings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball issued an executive order delineating reopening regulations and conditions for houses of worship and other entities deemed “non-essential” by the state of Maryland.
“There shall be no consumption of food or beverage of any kind before, during, or after religious services, including food or beverage that would typically be consumed as part of a religious service,” that order said.
The executive order was due to go into effect May 29.
On Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said it had “serious concerns” about the policy, and that the “Eucharist is central to the faith lives of Catholics.”
The consumption of the consecrated species at Mass, at least by the celebrant, is an integral part of the Eucharistic rite. Rules prohibiting even the celebrating priest from receiving the Eucharist would ban the licit celebration of Mass by any priest.
Go here to read the rest.
Archbishop Lori, Surpreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus, had “serious concerns” about the policy.
My concerns about him has hasten my departure from the KofC. See his connections to the West Virginia bishop fiasco.
I suspect someone on his staff reminded him it’s spread through the respiratory system, not the GI tract.
The problem is the singing.
We’re not going to make any progress on this front until the people who pull these stunts get jail time.
It didn’t even occur to me that, as originally written, it would have prevented the priest from receiving the Eucharist from his own hand. I hope that was an oversight, and I’m glad it was corrected.
Catholics don’t sing, (smirk) so what’s the problem?
Archbishop Lori is still mandating masks at mass. I think that’s extremely dehumanizing. Our parish same diocese) is mandating masks at their outdoor mass. This entire thing is insane. I’m trying to find a parish that doesn’t have/enforce a mask rule.
Catholics don’t sing, (smirk) so what’s the problem?
Some of them do, especially in the choir. Not to mention the parish diva.
While masses are in theory now allowed in Minnesota, all but one of the local churches say that the new health restrictions will take so long to implement that they will not be able to offer mass for at least another week. And I’m not sure that the one church that says that they will have mass on their website really will, since there are still signs on their doors saying that they don’t want to have more than 10 people in the building.
There’s also still no word on how they will enforce attendance restrictions. Some have hinted that you will have to register online, but currently there is no way to do that.
I guess this Sunday I’ll continue the ritual of driving to various churches and seeing if the doors are locked. Except this time there might be mass and I might be kicked out by a bouncer.
Some of them do [sing], especially in the choir. Not to mention the parish diva.
Well, I’m a good twenty feet away from her, (the parish diva is always in the choir) so I think I’ll take my chances.
In our parish, we’ve had one cantor, and I for one have especially appreciated the communion antiphon, since nobody (other than the priest, deacon and altar server), is allowed to communicate until after Mass, when the priest and the deacon can mask up for the communion service immediately after mass.
Strange times.
A new low ! The offensive ban was anti-Christian across the board. Besides Catholic and some Orthodox churches with Transubstantiation, other Christian religions have food and beverage such as grape juice and bread as part of their worship services. Just wondering did any other denomination protest?
Re Catholics can’t or don’t sing. That goes back to days of priest holes and martydom when the Catholic Faith was outlawed in the British Isles. The singing of vernacular and Latin hymns at clandestine Masses would have have meant discovery by the enemies of the Faith. On the other hand European Catholics had a rich tradition of sacred music which they brought with them when they immigrated to North America. In the US up to WWI parishes had services in the language of the Old Country. My grandparents went to Sts Peter and Paul Church where Swiss, Austrians and Germans worshipped in German. St John parish was for the Irish and English was spoken. The Lutherans had separate churches for the Swedes-Norwegians and the Germans.
Tale of two Texas parishes. Both suburban Dallas, and both this week allowed by the bishop to begin weekday Masses only. Both have lots of ribbons and signs blocking off 3/4 of the seating area for “social distancing” purposes.
Parish One, very large (6,500 registered families, normal Sunday attendance around 5,000 for seven scheduled Masses): online registration required, masks strictly required indoors everywhere in the complex, ushers strictly regulating seating, who and when to approach the sanctuary for Communion, Communion in the hand only during Mass; those who wish to receive on the tongue must wait until everyone else has received and go to a special line where the priest uses hand sanitizer after every communicant; after the final blessing everyone must stay in place until released by an usher. We attended Tuesday evening, there were about 125 present, and it took a good fifteen minutes to let everyone leave after a forty-minute Mass. Parish Two: Medium sized, (2,500 registered families, Sunday attendance normally around 3,000 for four scheduled Masses), no pre-registration required, masks “encouraged” but not required, (the pastor was not wearing one when we attended Wednesday, and about half the congregation of about 75 people were also maskless), no one telling us where to sit, no one regulating when we could leave. Communion in the hand only. Everyone voluntarily maintained respectful distance from each other. Took about three minutes to clear out after Mass.
No singing or EMHCs or hand-holding during the Our Father allowed in either parish, per the current decree of the bishop. I wish those last two rules would stick around after this is all over, but that’s just a quirk of mine.
For what it’s worth, Parish One is located in Dallas County, run by Democrats. Parish Two is in Republican-controlled Collin County. Both pastors are good and holy men by all accounts, and more or less traditionally oriented.
By stark contrast, the parish we attend in Northwestern Illinois during summer vacation is limited to ten people in the church at any one time, and is using a lottery to decide who can even attend Mass starting the weekend of June 6 & 7. We won’t be traveling north this summer for a while yet, if at all.
I used to live in (Moe) Howard County. The People’s Republic of Maryland lives down to its reputation. No surprise here.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is still stuck with Reichsfuhrer Wolfgang, Richard Levine and resident anti-Catholic bigot and attorney general Josh Shapiro, who sues the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for birth control and ran a grand jury investigation to get the Commonwealth Legislature to get rid of the statute of limitations for child abuse claims specific to Catholic priests. Shapiro could not be bothered to go after public school teachers doing similar things. Why? He is from Philthadelphia, where rioters ransacked and roobed a Target store.