ROME (LifeSiteNews) — They’ll have to wear masks in church, but at least Catholics in Rome will be able to receive Holy Communion on the tongue on Easter Sunday this year.
The Italian Bishops’ Conference has updated its COVID guidelines and suggestions for liturgical celebrations during Holy Week, apparently allowing for — although advising against — Communion on the tongue, which they had previously forbidden, violating Church law. The guidelines also lift distancing requirements, but they keep masks mandatory until April 30 and leave holy water fonts empty.
Although bishops’ conferences lack legislative authority according to the Code of Canon Law, this has not prevented bishops and priests in Italy from treating the COVID guidelines issued by the Italian Bishop’s Conference as law. The previous ban on Communion on the tongue was only one example of the Church’s more universal sacramental discipline and legislation being set aside in the name of bodily health.
Priests in Rome have seemed hesitant to honor the wish of the lay faithful to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. In December 2021 at the Gesù, the Jesuit church in which SS. Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, and Peter Claver are buried, a priest publicly denied Holy Communion to a LifeSiteNews reporter kneeling to receive on the tongue. When confronted in the sacristy after Mass, the celebrant yelled “You are proud” at the reporter and claimed he was forbidden by the Italian Bishops’ Conference to give Communion on the tongue. The Dominican church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva also recently refused Communion to the same reporter desiring to receive the Blessed Sacrament on the tongue during a weekday evening Mass.
In the diocese of Milan, many of the COVID restrictions that have been lifted elsewhere in Italy will continue, including the ban on Communion on the tongue. Some rules became even stricter, drawing sharp criticism, as they came shortly after the Bishops’ Conference eased rules for priests and the faithful.
The refusal to administer the Blessed Sacrament to a baptized Catholic on the tongue runs contrary to the Church’s universal law concerning the reception of Holy Communion by the lay faithful. The General Instructions of the Roman Missal state:
The consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or in the hand, at the discretion of each communicant. (n.160)
If Communion is given only under the species of bread, the priest raises the host slightly and shows it to each, saying, Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ). The communicant replies, Amen, and receives the Sacrament either on the tongue or, where this is allowed and if the communicant so chooses, in the hand. (n.161)
Likewise the Code of Canon Law, which binds all bishops and priests in the Roman Rite, legislates the following:
Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them. (Can. 843 §1.)
Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy Communion. (Can. 912)
The document Redemptionis Sacramentum, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2004, also addressed the matter, reaffirming the Church’s universal law permitting Communion on the tongue at any time. The section on the distribution of Holy Communion in Chapter 4 of the document reads:
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 Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing. (n.91)
Each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice. (n.92)
Cardinal Francis Arinze affirmed the sacramental rights of the faithful in an interview with Church Militant in May, 2020, stating: “No priest has the right to demand that, and even no bishop has the right to demand, you must receive on the hand.”
The previous Italian ban on Communion on the tongue also stood in contradiction with the statements of medical doctors in various countries, who advised that Communion on the tongue was safer than on the hand.
According to a press release in September 2020, 27 medical doctors wrote to the German bishops that there were “no medical reasons for a ban of Communion on the tongue.” Earlier that year, 21 doctors in Austria supported the professional opinion of Professor Filippo Maria Boscia that “Communion on the tongue is safer than hand Communion.” Boscia is the president of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Italy. This was echoed in a public statement in 2020 by doctors in Poland as well.