OWARD THE BEGINNING of an article I published about the “extra” Confiteor before Holy Communion, I made an erroneous statement. I said the Missal “says nothing” about how the priest distributes Holy Communion. While that’s true from a certain point of view, I stupidly failed to mention how the Ritus Servandus absolutely does spell this out—in a section on “When the Faithful Receive Communion during Mass”—and the wording has remained the same for centuries. I have nothing to say in my own defense, and I won’t delete the original article so everyone can always remember I’m an idiot. 1
For example, here’s an 1842 edition:
Another example would be page 116 of this book from the 1700s. You can find this same wording in billions of other places. I had an obligation to mention this, and I failed.
For the record, Session 22 of the Council of Trent specifically said Catholics ought to receive Holy Communion each Mass, long before Pope Saint Pius X:
The sacred and holy Synod would fain indeed that, at each Mass, the faithful who are present should communicate, not only in spiritual desire, but also by the sacramental participation of the Eucharist, that thereby a more abundant fruit might be derived to them from this most holy sacrifice…
H/T to Anthony Hawkins.
NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:
1 Without making excuses for myself, even many “traditional” priests were unaware of this—such as a seminary professor who wrote to me regarding this topic.
