(LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican reportedly told two Argentine bishops that the faithful must not be prevented from receiving Holy Communion kneeling or on the tongue.
“Reliable sources” told El Wanderer that representatives from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments “reprimanded” Archbishop Marcelo Colombo of Mendoza, who is also president of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference, and Bishop Gabriel Barba of San Luis for their “restrictive regulations” on the reception of Communion.
The Catholic Church affirms the right of the faithful to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue. According to El Wanderer, that is what the Vatican officials told both bishops.
Last year, Archbishop Colombo, in violation of Church teaching, restricted the norm for receiving Communion to standing. In a widely publicized incident last September, multiple individuals at the diocesan basilica were allegedly denied Communion or forced to receive Our Lord standing or in the hand.
Bishop Barba, for his part, had written a letter last October in which he asked extraordinary minister candidates to receive Communion in the hand so they could “preach by example” and “become pedagogues of this way of receiving.”
Restrictions on the reception of Communion have also caused significant controversy in the United States. In December, Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, ordered all parish churches to remove kneelers and cease the use of altar rails for the reception of Communion.
Last month, two or three families who knelt at an altar rail for Communion were allegedly ignored during a Confirmation Mass led by Martin.
The Dicastery for Divine Worship is currently reviewing an appeal against Martin for his “apparent refusal” to respond to “requests concerning liturgical matters,” presumably a reference to his suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass and restrictions on Communion.