Prof. Louis Aldrich, Taiwan,
The Vigilance of the Bishop to Avoid Abuses of
the Holy Eucharist
The title of my talk is "The Vigilance of
the Bishop to Avoid Abuses of the Holy Eucharist." In this brief talk we
examine the Bishop's need for vigilance from three perspectives: first, the
foundation and extent of his authority to correct liturgical abuses; second,
the most common abuses associated with the Eucharist; third, the price of
failure if the Bishop is not vigilant and allows abuses of the Eucharist to
become common in his dioceses.
According to the Instruction of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament,
"Redemptionis Sacramentum": "The regulation of the Sacred
Liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, which rests specifically
with the Apostolic See and, according to the norms of law, with the
Bishop[14]". Further, that the liturgy should be free of abuses is a right
of the Christian faithful and the Sacred Liturgy should never seem to be "anyone's
private property,
whether of the celebrant or of the community
in which the mysteries are celebrated [18]". The Bishop has, therefore,
within his Diocese, the responsibility and sacred task, with reference to the
Holy Eucharist, "to regulate, to direct, to encourage and sometimes also
to reprove [22]"; he has especially the responsibility to reprove and
correct abuses of the Holy Eucharist. What then are the abuses the Bishop is
responsible to correct?
Abuses touching on the matter of the Holy Eucharist
are most serious; hence, any mixture of other grains, such that the bread would
no longer be considered wheat bread would invalidate the sacrament; further,
adding fruit or honey or sugar would also be a grave abuse; finally, it is
"absolutely forbidden to us wine of doubtful authenticity . . . nor are
other drinks of any kind to admitted for any reason [50]".
With regard to the Eucharist Prayer, only
those approved by the Holy See are to be used and it is a serious abuse for a
celebrant to create his own Eucharist Prayer or change the approved texts [51,
59]. Finally, the Bishop must be vigilant with regards to abuses in the
distribution of Holy Communion (for example, lay persons handing the sacred
hosts or sacred chalice from hand to hand), proper liturgical dress, proper
dispositions for receiving Holy Communion, etc.
What is the cost to the Church and the
faithful if the Bishop (or the Ordinary of a Religious Congregation) is not
vigilant in correcting the above and other abuses of the Holy Eucharist.
Clearly a diminishment of spiritual health and vigor will result; over the last
35 years, those
dioceses and religious congregation which have
not been vigilant have seen a diminishment in attendance at the Eucharist or in
number of its religious. It has also led to confusion about the Church's moral
teaching: for example, if even legislators who aggressively promotes
pro-abortion laws can regularly and openly receive Holy Communion, by such a
standard, who would then judge himself to be unfit to receive the Sacred
Species. Hence, the faithful need and have the right to demand that Bishops be
vigilant in correcting abuses of the Most Holy Eucharist.