4/15/2021
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| Giotto, "St. Francis Preaching a Sermon to Pope Honorius III" |
Let’s take a step back for a second and see where we’ve been so far.
We’ve looked at the GIRM, CIC, Nullo and ’29. We can also look at the Rituals for Holy Communion and for Veneration of the MBS. These will also contain instruction concerning appropriate attention to safeguarding the MBS.
Should we look at RS? I think so.
At the same time, I ask, how will we loop in the questions regarding the use of Extraordinary ministers or of common abuses, or of historical cases of abuse documented by local media? There is also the recent magisterium of JPII and BXVI concerning Eucharistic piety. Also, there’s the particular question concerning exposition of the MBS for private devotion. This is one which affects many priests.
There’s the question of the “hermeneutic of Continuity” and whether prescriptions which existed prior to the post-conciliar reform are still valid, or whether they have in fact been entirely abrogated, banned and otherwise outlawed by the promulgations of the recent Missals and Rituals.
At the practical level of concrete application of prescriptions there is need of cataloguing best-practices as well as, again, common abuses. This can include the administration of Holy Communion to the Sick and of Holy Viaticum.
The practice of “Adoration” in its many forms needs also to be reviewed. Where it’s done well, best practices can be identified. Where it’s done poorly, abuses must similarly be identified so as to be removed.
There’s a lot of “cursing the darkness” in the area of Eucharistic Piety. We can often accuse ecclesiastical superiors for their lack of willingness to show proper reverence to the Lord in the MBS or likewise of cowardice in the face of a rebellious and faithless clergy. Certainly a low ebb of devotion to the MBS will reveal on the part of many the character of their devotion. Priests themselves, however, have no excuse for ignorance on the matters that pertain directly to their office. While decades of bad habits and lack of correction may have allowed the creeping of many abuses, attention to Church’s prescriptions and fraternal charity can roll back the impious advances. This is hard work. There may be the temptation to evade this hard work by retreating to communities where there is the appearance of genuine Eucharistic Piety. But escaping one’s responsibility under the guise of promoting Eucharistic devotion may expose one to other very real and very dangerous temptations.
