Originally published in May 2009.
Cardinal Caffarra of Bologna, Italy forbids Communion in the hand in chief archdiocesan churches
On April 27, 2009, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, the metropolitan-archbishop of Bologna, Italy, published a directive forbidding the practice of receiving Communion in hand in three of the archdiocese’s most important churches. This decree was made on the grounds that this abuse that exists in the Novus Ordo is both sacrilegious and scandalous.
The pastoral catechesis must never miss to linger over the way the Eucharist should be approached in order to avoid as much as possible that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist be treated with superficiality or even in a disrespectful way, or even worse, sacrilegiously.
We must in fact realize that unfortunately many cases of profanation of the Eucharist have occurred, profiting by the possibility to receive the consecrated Bread on one’s palm of the hand, mostly, but not only, during large celebrations or in large churches attended by a great number of occasional faithful...
Considering the frequency in which cases of irreverent behavior in the act of receiving the Eucharist have been reported, we dispose that starting from today in the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter, in the Basilica of St. Petronius and in the Shrine of the Holy Virgin of St. Luke in Bologna, the faithful are to receive the consecrated Bread only from the hands of the minister directly on the tongue.
In addition, we recommend all priests to remind their faithful of the necessity to be in the grace of God in order to be allowed to receive the Eucharist and of the great respect that is due to the Sacrament of the Altar...
Bologna, from the Archbishop’s Residence
April 27, 2009
+ Cardinal Carlo Caffarra
