ACK IN THE EARLY 1990s, an effort was undertaken to force every congregation in the United States to remain standing during the entire distribution of Holy Communion. In those days, KNEELING was the great enemy of “progressive” liturgists, and they would use any justification (no matter how absurd) to eliminate kneeling. They hated kneeling before the SANCTISSIMUM most of all. Some churches even removed all the kneelers. In elementary school, I remember being told kneeling was bad “because people in Asia feel it’s more respectful to stand.” Looking back, I wish I’d replied: “But we’re not in Asia—we’re in Kansas.”
* PDF Download • EXCERPT from a 1992 Catholic Hymnal
—This excerpt comes from page xxi of the American Catholic Hymnbook.
Dishonesty • Certain people—who are very dishonest—have attempted to eliminate KNEELING by pointing out that KNEELING in the primitive church seems to have been prohibited (on certain days) in certain localities.1 But these same people reject a whole bunch of other practices done in the primitive church. Furthermore, is our goal really supposed to be attempting to re-create the primitive church? Sensible people know better.
Very Few Parishes • The document above cites the earlier version of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM). That version has since been replaced by a newer version. I would be interested to see the actual citations from the previous GIRM, even though it’s now irrelevant. For the record, very few parishes in those days made the entire congregation stand in their pews during the reception of Holy Communion. (I’m told the Legionaries of Christ made their seminarians do that.)
1 Historians argue about precisely what that meant. Some suggest it was to differentiate between penitential days, when the congregation knelt for hours.
