Plans are underway in the Diocese of Phoenix to implement new local norms for the distribution of Holy Communion that will bring the local Church in line with universal Church guidelines.
As a result, the Precious Blood will not be offered at every Sunday Mass, but instead be reserved for special occasions, left to the determination of each parish pastor.
The change will bring local Catholic celebration of the Eucharist into union with the practice of the faithful around the world. Receiving Communion under both kinds is uncommon in most countries.
"What many people don't realize is that we've had experimental privileges," said Fr. Kieran Kleczewski, executive director of the Office of Worship. "We're now under the same norms as the Church in the rest of the world."
Little by little, things are turning around in the Catholic Church in the United States (a bit slower than I would like, but hey, it's a good thing).
Next up: bye-bye altar girls, adios Communion in the hand, see-ya armies of unnecessary lay 'Eucharistic ministers'. One can only hope. As an aside, this is exactly why going to Mass in the extraordinary form is so edifying. As someone who was reared in the ordinary form, replete with all of the customary abuses (which I incorrectly thought were normal), I can attest to this. With the extraordinary form, I simply don't have to worry about the scads of liturgical abuses that have gradually become so commonplace in the novus ordo. It's possible to simply relax, in the spiritual sense of the word, without the endless distractions, the spectacles, the overtures for me to "get involved" in this or that way. "Getting involved" of course usually means breaking down so-called barriers by doing something that has traditionally been reserved for the priest or deacon.
Some may point out that the things I mentioned aren't necessarily abuses. Perhaps, because they technically are allowed, but remember, most of them were born from outright disobedience.
I'm thrilled to see that abuses or excesses in the ordinary form are (slowly) being corrected. And I'm happy that the new translation is on the horizon so that liturgical English more closely matches the Latin, something that should have been done at the beginning. That said, one can certainly understand why so many people (myself included) have long since decided to take advantage of the Holy Father's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum and track down a Latin Mass parish in their neighborhood.
Home for Liturgy in Milwaukee: Saint Stanislaus Oratory
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