Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Charlotte, led by Confirmandi, knelt to receive Christ in the Eucharist despite the bishop’s discouragement of this reverent practice.
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — Catholic faithful overwhelmingly kneeled to receive Holy Communion from Bishop Michael Martin, OFM, of the Diocese of Charlotte during a recent Confirmation Mass after he planned to ban altar rails and kneelers.
The Charlotte Latin Mass Community (CLMC) Facebook account posted on Wednesday that an estimated “95% of the faithful” at a Confirmation Novus Ordo Mass earlier this week knelt to receive the Eucharist, including from Bishop Martin himself.
The CLMC account posted a video showing successive pairs of faithful, including children, kneeling to receive Holy Communion without the use of an altar rail or kneelers.
Priscilla Lissette Benson commented, “Can confirm, I was there. And it started with all the Confirmandi. It was a proud moment when all those youths kneeled!”
In late May, a draft was leaked of a letter from Bishop Martin detailing plans for restrictions on traditional practices within the liturgy, including a ban on altar rails and kneelers, less than a week after Martin announced sweeping bans on the traditional Mass.
“To instruct the faithful that kneeling is more reverent than standing is simply absurd,” he wrote in the document originally published on the blog Rorate Caeli.
Martin stipulated that “in new constructions and renovations of sacred spaces, altar rails are not permitted,” and that “Moveable altar rails should be removed, and permanently fixed altar rails should no longer be used.”
“The placement of a prei dieu (a kneeler) for the reception of communion is not appropriate,” he added.
After the letter was leaked, the diocesan communications director said the highly controversial document “was an early draft that has gone through considerable change over several months” and still remains “in discussion.”
According to The Pillar, although the leaked document has reportedly been largely shelved, sources have shared that Martin still has plans to prohibit the use of altar rails – something that he already enforces in churches as he travels around the diocese – since “that’s his big thing, he’s really focused on that.”
The tradition of the Catholic Church, unbroken until after the Second Vatican Council, is that the lay faithful receive the Blessed Sacrament, administered by a priest, his hands having been consecrated for the handling of the sacred Eucharist, on the tongue while kneeling.
In 2018, then-prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Cardinal Robert Sarah criticized reception of Holy Communion in the hand and standing as part of a “diabolical attack” on faith in the Eucharist and praised receiving Communion on the tongue and kneeling.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, has also underscored the importance of receiving the Blessed Sacrament while kneeling to show proper reverence while receiving the Lord.
