c. 2008 Religion News Service
Communion to be served on the tongue, kneeling at papal Masses
VATICAN CITY (RNS) In the latest sign of the Vatican’s increasing penchant for tradition, the pope’s master of ceremonies said that receiving Communion by mouth while kneeling would become the normal practice at papal Masses.
Monsignor Guido Marini made the statement in an interview published in the Thursday (June 26) issue of the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
Receiving Communion in the hand while standing has become increasingly common over the last four decades, even at papal Masses; but on two widely noted occasions in recent weeks, Pope Benedict XVI has distributed the sacrament in the more traditional manner.
Asked if “this (is) a procedure destined to become habitual at papal celebrations,” Marini replied, “I really think so.”
Marini, who oversees all liturgies celebrated by the pope, noted that permission to distribute Communion in the hand constitutes an exemption, granted to national bishops’ conferences that request it, from the church’s “universal law.” Communion in the mouth, he said, remains the “norm valid for the whole Church.”
According to Marini, the traditional method of distribution “better illuminates the truth of the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, assists the devotion of the faithful, (and) introduces them more easily to the sense of the mystery.”
Benedict has encouraged the revival of other traditional liturgical practices that have fallen into disuse, including Gregorian chant and the celebration of Mass by a priest facing the altar.
Last year, the pope lifted restrictions on the so-called Old Latin Mass, which had become a rarity since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s made Mass in local languages the norm.
Yet Marini denied that the pope’s embrace of tradition signifies a desire to return to “preconciliar models.”
“There are `old things and new things’ in the Church’s treasury,” he said. “The wise man knows how to find one and the other.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Bush touts success of faith-based initiative
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Bush on Thursday (June 26) touted the successes of his initiative to partner faith-based and community organizations with government funds, calling it a key part of his presidency.
“I truly believe the faith-based initiative is one of the most important initiatives of this administration,” Bush said in a keynote speech to some 1,100 clergy, government staffers and nonprofit leaders attending a national conference sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.
On Thursday, the White House announced that faith-based organizations won more than 3,200 grants in fiscal year 2007, totaling $2.2 million of the $15.3 billion in grants awarded to nonprofits. The total amount of grants increased by 3.9 percent from $14.7 billion in the previous fiscal year.
“I am confident that the progress that you have made over the last eight years will continue,” Bush said at the conference. “I’m confident because the movement is bigger than politics or any political party. This is not a political convention. This is a compassion convention. … We care about saving lives.”
Bush also highlighted the program earlier in the day at the annual National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast.
“I understand this: Government can hand out money but government cannot put hope in a person’s heart,” Bush said. “And oftentimes that is found in our faith community and our community organizations. And so we’ve lowered the barriers that kept government and faith-based groups needlessly divided.”
Critics, however, continue to question the initiative’s merits.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the initiative should be “shut down, not celebrated.”
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
At the Hispanic prayer breakfast, leaders from both parties referenced the debate over immigration. “The one thing I would like to say on Sen. (John) McCain’s behalf is that this is an issue that needs to be solved, not demagogued,” said Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., leader of the House Democrats’ Faith Working Group, added, “We must work together to be good neighbors to those who are new Americans, those who wish to be Americans, those who are looking to us to restore hope and faith in them.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Bibles to be available at China Olympics
LONDON (RNS) Despite controversy earlier this year, thousands of Bibles and Gospel booklets will be distributed to athletes and visitors at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing _ with the approval of the Chinese government.
The British-based Bible Society said the organization’s 180 affiliated branches around the world are jointly funding the project in a country whose Communist government once confiscated all Bibles during the turbulent Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
James Catford, the Bible Society’s chief executive, said in a statement: “This great sporting event presents a unique opportunity to make the life-changing message of the Bible available to thousands of athletes and visitors from all over China _ and all over the world.”
The Bible Society said some 50,000 booklets with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John published in Chinese and English will be available at the Athletes’ Village in Beijing and five other Olympic cities.
In addition, some 10,000 complete Bibles and 30,000 copies of the New Testament in Chinese and English also will be printed by the China-based Amity Printing Press for the 16,000 athletes and an estimated 2 million visitors expected for the games that open Aug. 8.
The Bible Society conceded that as late as earlier this year, there was controversy “over whether the Chinese authorities would allow Bibles” but said the project now “has the approval of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.”
Peter Meadows, the Bible Society’s director of communications and giving, told journalists that the Chinese government “is quite happy to do things _ as long as it’s done in the right way. It was about building a good relationship and taking it slowly, so they know we’re not about to bring the government down.”
_ Al Webb
Breakaway Catholic group rejects reconciliation deadline
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The leader of a breakaway group of conservative Catholics rejected a Vatican proposal for reconciliation, saying that last year’s revival of traditional liturgy by the pope does not go far enough to undo decades of modernization in the church.
“They speak of reconciliation, but it is an integration in the new, and we don’t want that,” said Bishop Bernard Fellay, in a sermon available on the Web site of “Voice of Catholic Radio on Long Island.”
Fellay gave the sermon last Friday (June 20) at a seminary in Winona, Minn., that’s run by the Society of Saint Pius X.
Founded in 1970 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the group has consistently protested the changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, including the replacement of the so-called Old Latin Mass with a newer liturgy typically celebrated in local languages.
Lefebvre died in 1991, three years after he was excommunicated by the Vatican. Last July, Pope Benedict XVI lifted restrictions on the Latin Mass, expressing hope that the move would lead to reconciliation with Lefebvre’s followers.
Earlier this week, an Italian newspaper reported that the Vatican had given Fellay an ultimatum, offering to repeal the excommunication of group leaders if they affirmed respect for the pope’s authority. The offer came with a deadline of the end of June.
Fellay characterized the Vatican’s position as an unacceptable demand for silence.
“They just say shut up,” he said. “We are not going to shut down our mouth or to shut up. … We have fought now for 40 years to keep this faith alive, to keep this tradition not only for ourselves but for the church, and we are just going to continue, happens what happens.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Quote of the Day: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(RNS) “Look, I am just glad he went to church.”
_ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, responding to a question about whether Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid will be hampered by his controversial former pastor. She was quoted by “On the Record With Greta Van Susteren.” (June 25).
KRE/PH END RNS1,450 words
