A Catholic parish in the Diocese of San Bernardino is requiring parishioners to sign waivers before receiving Holy Communion kneeling, in a move that may violate Church law.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Community in Beaumont and Banning, California, announced the rule in a bulletin for the week of December 18, 2022.
The bulletin notes that the parish “highly discouraged the receiving of [C]ommunion while kneeling down” due to unspecified “incidents that happened in the past caused by people kneeling down when receiving [C]ommunion.”
The parish church “does not have [C]ommunion rails or kneelers to assist you when you get up and so you will be responsible for any harm that will cause to your body or to the ministers and people around you if you will have an accident,” the bulletin adds. “If you would like to continue receiving [C]ommunion kneeling down, we ask that you sign a waiver that releases our parish for any liability that may arise due to your action.”
“You will also be legally responsible,” it continued, “for any harm that your action may cause to the ministers or the people around you when taking [C]ommunion kneeling down,” which was the standard practice of the Catholic Church for centuries until the 1960s.
The recommendation against receiving the Eucharist while kneeling “is for your safety and the safety of our ministers and the people around you, and also to protect the sanctity of the Body and Blood of Christ,” the bulletin further stated….
The above comes from a Dec. 15 story in LiveSiteNews.
The best way is Father Illo’s.
He asks those who want to receive kneeling to come up first.
Then he calls up those who want to receive standing.
You could do the reverse as well.
You should not have to sign a waiver.
Sometimes people just have silly solutions to small problems.
I agree, Fr. Illo’s solution is best. But he respects communicants who kneel– many other priests do not, or are against it, sadly. You can use the altar rail for kneeling, if your church still has one. Or else, you can set up a prie-dieu, at the front of the church, near the priest, for communicants who wish to kneel. Signing waivers is unnecessary.
Odd…they might want to run that one by legal…I’ve given communion multiple 10’s of thousands of times, a minority of which the communicants are kneeling and I cannot think of a single time when there’s been any kind of issue at all. Folks know their limitations. It’s when communicants ‘snatch’ the sacred cup like its a beer and shove it back after communing that there is a huge potential for desecration. Would not mind in the least if communion under both kinds were ended. Could care less if they kneel to receive the sacred host.
“Watch out, everybody! Those little Filipino ladies kneeling for Communion are going to kill you!”
Seriously. How stupid can a parish get?
scanning the web quickly for incidents of kneeling at communion( i stopped at three) reveals that most incidents involve the celebrant angrily calling out the kneeling worshipper. One involved a recent first communicant who was told “stand up! stand up. we are are a journey. this is a journey”. One involved a parishioner incensed at seeing a woman kneeling being berated who then berated the priest in return. When a celebrant loses his cool, that is an “incident” involving loss of face, contradicting the image of the loving “strong, gentle and wise” presider.
the website of the parish tells us that it is a diverse community….except when it comes to allowed liturgical freedom. The website also presents a severe warning in bold lettering on the page bottom: “permission to copy information from this website is required by law. All materials…must not be copied or published in any other websites or social networking sites without permission”.
Obviously, everything is not on the web. I had a near miss a couple of decades ago when I moved to a new town and went to a new church. I had never seen anybody kneel for communion so I was not expecting it. I moved forward to stay behind the communicant in front of me and instead of moving in for communion, she knelt and I had to quickly move to the side to avoid stepping on her. I almost lost my balance but I recovered. I learned my lesson so it never happened again.
A way to prevent this is to have tape on the floor or an usher or just the end of the pew where the practice is to stop and give every communicant space. Or to instruct those who want to kneel to go into the priest’s line or something.
Another version of “show me your papers” – appalling for a Catholic parish to do this.
An advisory ballot proposal, approved by voters of San Bernardino County, directs officials to comnence a study of the possibility of a formal secession from the State of California. One of the main reasons is that this country does not get as much State funding for their needs and problems, as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Many officials however, do not think the secession will actually occur, the study will just draw attention from Sacramento, for the needs of San Bernardino County to receive needed State funds.
In my comment of Dec. 16, at 6:04pm, there is an error in the second sentence. It should read, “One of the main reasons is that this county…(etc.)” not “country!” San Bernardino County, with 20,000 square miles, is the largest county in the Nation– larger in square miles, than nine states. It has 2.2 million people. Throughout its 172-year history, California has had 220 failed attempts to dismantle the state into various groups of smaller states.
Am I on the Babylon Bee again? I don’t kneel when receiving Holy Communion, but signing a waiver is ridiculous. Sometimes our Church seems run more by lawyers than pastors and bishops. “You will also be legally responsible,” it continued, “for any harm that your action may cause to the ministers or the people around you.” Do priests sign a waiver when preaching heresy or immorality? Do poor musicians and singers who select inappropriate music sign a waiver? Do Catholic school teachers who misrepresent the Faith sign a waiver? Does Rev. James Martin have to sign a waiver before he Tweets? Why aren’t any of them held accountable for the harm they cause?
And, spiritual harm can have eternal consequences.
I can hear the Fire engines and ambulances being dispatched for a mass casualty event at St. Kateri’s. Followed by the ambulance chasing lawyers.
They’re taking the name Banning too seriously. What’s next?
St. Kateri is my local parish. I don’t know if this whole approach to communicants who kneel is directed by the local parish or the diocese, but I want to point out that the priests go out of their way to accommodate those who kneel. One priest in particular invites these reverend traditionalists to kneel in the front pew. He then walks to the front pew and administers communion. Our priests and Eucharistic Ministers are also respectful of those who, like me, receive on the tongue. But, I have to agree, asking people to sign a waiver is ill advised.
Tim, it would be helpful if you could look into the origin of the waiver and the “incident’ that provoked it. Extremely unlikely that the diocese has required this. please report back.
Sounds to me like you have too many attorneys on your parish council.
“the priests go out of their way to accommodate those who kneel”?
Good grief. How are they being accommodated if they’re still being threatened with a waiver in what is possibly the nastiest letter I’ve ever read in a Catholic bulletin (“Sign or else, you scary little Filipino ladies!”)?
And the parish won’t even shell out a few bucks from the collection basket to get those dangerous old Filipino ladies a proper kneeler? My goodness.
This doesn’t look accommodating to me at all. In fact, the whole thing just looks mean.
This is against Church teaching. The faithful may receive on the tongue or in the hand, standing, kneeling or if necessary on a gurney or in bed (for those who are ill or injured).
What is the pastor thinking?
The pastor is thinking he is showing those mad trads who’s the boss. Just another woke liberal trying to be in control.
Maybe not the pastor, but the parish council.
This waiver nonsense is clearly unjust and unlawful. Call your canon lawyer.
The normative manner of receiving our Blessed Lord in the Roman Rite is kneeling, on the tongue.
A Roman Catholic has the right to receive in this manner, period.
Restore the communion rail.
It solves 99% of the problems.
Well, the irony there is that communion rails are standard equipment in many high Anglican places of worship.
First step would be to ask your pastor about it and tell him that you don’t think you have to do that.
If his response is not satisfactory, you contact your diocese.
If they double down on it, you should contact the bishop directly.
Then as a last resort, contact the papal nuncio in Washington DC.
I am one of the “little old Filipino ladies” who receive communion kneeling down and on the tongue in our parish north of San Francisco. While our priests and EMHCs are accommodating, the way the transept was wreckovated a couple of decades ago is unforgiving to the traditionalist-bent. No communion rails, the floor is smooth and shiny, and the heavy double prie dieu is used only for weddings. I was afraid I would not be able to get up from the floor if I dared kneel down.
To solve the problem, I carry a walking stick to the communion line. I lean on the cane as I kneel to receive Him and lean harder when I stand up. Of course this is done on just one hand for now, but as I continue to grow older and my legs weaker, I plan on having two canes for support – one for each hand. It takes a bit of practice at home to perfect this feat, but it’s worth it.
God bless you, Margarita. Large cane umbrellas in the winter are good for getting up and down too. Probably not as sturdy as real canes, but all right for some of us. I always remember St. Pope John Paul II as a role model. Of course, he was very athletic in his younger years. That always helps if one does not overdo it.
I have been blessed enough to be able to go to two churches most masses, one Traditional Latin and the other the newer rite, where we kneel and can receive on the tongue. If I go to a mass where there are no kneelers, I usually receive in the hand reverently as I would be afraid of tripping someone behind me in line, and most of the servers are not tall enough to give me the Host on the tongue while I stand, even though I am fairly short. There should be accommodations at every mass, though, for people who want to kneel while receiving on the tongue. I have not had COVID so far.
After being prompted by “drewelow” I discussed this situation this morning with one of our parish senior priests. We’re fortunate to have four priests in our parish. It turns out that there are two serious incidents that brought this issue to the forefront. In one instance, a kneeling communicant lost balance when returning to the standing position and automatically reached out, inadvertently grabbing the arm of the EM. This happened to be the arm/hand holding the Blood of Christ, and it spilled onto the clothing of the EM and the surrounding floor. In another instance, similar situation, but this time it was the consecrated hosts that scattered.
So, the waiver is a response from the local parish, not the diocese. The pastoral council may or may not have been part of the discussion, don’t know. But I would say this: Administering the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist must always be reverent and dignified. This is what the parish is aiming for by requiring the waiver. As for the waiver, we all know it is unenforceable. To my knowledge, nobody has asked for the signed waiver from a kneeling communicant.
I tried to make the point earlier that our priests are very gentle and loving, and, yes, accommodating. They honor the communicant by allowing the reception while kneeling, or directly placing the Eucharist on the tongue.
I consider the waiver to be a well-intended attempt to respect and protect the Eucharist. This is a hiccup on the path to a better solution. I hope the suggestions mentioned above will be taken into consideration. Thank you all for your enlightening and helpful comments.
Thank you so much for getting that information.
I am sorry about the incidents. I hope they were handled reverently.
A waiver would not help those situations, but a kneeler might.
I looked up the price of a kneeler and you can get them for less than $300.
Let us know what happens.
If the story drops off the home page you can find it by clicking on the past articles box at the bottom.
observers have noticed that altar rail-with-kneeler style communion significantly speeds up the reception process, an important consideration ofr priests who have to take care of 2 or 3 parishes.One wonder function of altar rails is to set off the sanctuary as a sacred space, deepening an atmosphere of respect reverence for the Eucharist