The Times, London, 4 May, 2004
VATICAN CUTS OUT KISSING AND PEW-JUMPING AT COMMUNION
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Roman Catholic Church has issued strict rules aimed at stamping out "abuses" of the rite of Holy Communion.
The Vatican document will put an end to an unorthodox liberalisation of the Mass in many parts of the Western world.
Practises now outlawed are indiscriminate kissing, hugging and pew-jumping during the "peace", the part of the service in which members of the congregation exchange greetings with each other. This must now be done in a "sober manner" and only with those standing near by.
The document also restricts the growing use of lay people to distribute Communion at Mass and bans the term "special ministers of the Eucharist" to describe them. Lay people should not be used except at busy services and must be decribed as "extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Communion", a change designed to emphasise the fact that they are not priests.
The document, Redemptionis Sacramentum, is explicit in poiinting out that pastoral assistants should not be confused with priests and condemns the "clericalisation" of the ministry of pay people.
The documents speaks of "shadows" behind present eucharistic practices> It says it is not possible to be silent about "grave" abuses that "in our day not infrequently plague liturgical celebrations".
The document goes on: "In some places the perpetration of liturgical abuses has become almost habitual, a fact which obviously cannot be allowed and must cease".
It cautions against celebrants giving free rein in their own inclinations. The results of the abuses are "uncertainty in matter of doctrine, perplexity and scandal on the part of the people of God".
According to the Catholic Herald, the instruction attempts to recapture the fervent piety of an earlier era, encouraging processions on feast days such as Corpus Christi and asking that deacons wear the dalmatic, a sleeved vestment rarely seen at services in Britain.
Sheridan Gilley, a prominent lay Catholic, writing in the Herald, says: "Practices are condemned which lend an air of secular dinner-time informality to the Mass".
The trend for simple pottery, glass or clay chalices instead of the traditional plate is also criticised> "Truly noble" materials should be used instead.
The long-awaited document does not, as was feared, ban altar girls, but it says that they should be used at the discretion of the bishop.
Howing little contact with RC forms of worship, I can only remain 'baffled' as to what "pew-jumping' might be. (Will we see it at the Athens Olympics?).
However, on a more serious note, I have no doubt that in Orthodox parishes there are regular 'liturgical abuses', with clergy 'giving way to their own inclinations'. Certainly I am told and read of such from time to time. The consequence is, "uncertainty, perplexity and scandal".
The Vatican documents allusion to "shadows" behind liturgical innovation is also interesting, although possibly a little late. (I long ago concluded that they had thrown the baby out with the bath-water). More importantly are there "shadows" behind 'liturgical abuses' within our present day Orthodox Church; i.e. shortening of services, little use of the Mystery of Repentance, etc?
