POPES SYNODS AND COUNCILS
Pope Saint Sixtus I (d. 125AD)
said about the practice: “It is prohibited for the faithful to even touch the sacred vessels, or receive in the hand.”
The Council of Saragossa (380AD)
declared “anathema” anyone who dared continue receiving Communion in the hand.
The Synod of Toledo (589AD)
declared “anathema” to anyone who received Communion in the hand.
The Synod of Rouen (650AD)
condemned Communion in the hand to halt widespread abuses that occurred through this practice, and as a safeguard against sacrilege. Furthermore, this same synod decreed:
“Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layman or laywoman, but only in their mouths.”
The Sixth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (680AD)
forbade the faithful from placing the Host in their hands, threatening transgressors with excommunication.
Saint Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) said
“Out of reverence towards this Sacrament [the Holy Eucharist], nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this Sacrament.” (Summa Theologica, Part III, Question 82)
“The dispensing of Christ’s Body belongs to the priest for three reasons.
“First, because he consecrates in the person of Christ. But as Christ consecrated His Body at the (Last) Supper, so also He gave It to others to be partaken of by them. Accordingly, as the consecration of Christ’s Body belongs to the priest, so likewise does the dispensing belong to him.
Second, because the priest is the appointed intermediary between God and the people, hence as it belongs to him to offer the people’s gifts to God, so it belongs to him to deliver the consecrated gifts to the people.
Third, because out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches It but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands for touching this Sacrament. Hence, it is not lawful for anyone else to touch It, except from necessity, for instance, if It were to fall upon the ground or else in some other case of urgency.” (ST, III, Q.82, Art. 13)
Pope Saint Paul VI (1969) said:
“This method of distributing holy communion [on the tongue] must be retained, taking the present situation of the Church in the entire world into account, not merely because it has many centuries of-tradition behind it, but especially because it expresses the faithful’s reverence for the Eucharist” (Memoriale Domini, 29 May 1969)
Pope Saint John Paul II:
“I cannot be in favour of the Communion in the hand and I cannot recommend it. The priest has a primordial responsibility as a ‘servant of the Holy Eucharist and of all the Holy Forms’, primordial because it is complete. Touching the Holy Creations is a privilege of the ordained ones”
“to touch the sacred species and to administer them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained.” (Domincae Cenae letter dated February 24, 1980)
Monsignor Juan Rodolfo Laise, Argentine Bishop:
“I know the history of the communion in the hand, was clandestinely reintroduced, disseminated on the basis of equivocation, and confirmed through unwavering disobediences… (to the Holy Father), by imposing over twenty-seven years a use that the Pope did not want to authorize because he considered as dangerous for the good of the Church, until they finally managed to spread it almost everywhere in the world.”
Jesus to Catalina Rivas, (stigmatized seer. Nihil Obstat by Msgr. R. Fernández, Bolivian Archbishop:
“There are neither 10 nor 20 executioners who hit My Body, but many hands that hurt My Body by receiving Communion in their hand – the sacrilegious work of Satan.”
Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise.
“With Communion in the hand, a miracle would be required during each distribution of Communion to avoid some Particles from falling to the ground or remaining in the hand of the faithful….”
Fr. John Hardon
“Whatever you can do to stop Communion in the hand, will be blessed by God.”
CATHOLIC ARROWS 