Matt C. Abbott
Catholic funerals, weddings, and Holy Communion; Did the AP mischaracterize Archbishop Burke's clarification?
By Matt C. Abbott
I recently attended a funeral Mass at a parish in the Madison, Wis., diocese (the same diocese, incidentally, in which the murdered Father Alfred Kunz had worked and resided), and was bothered by the fact that the priest invited everyone present to receive Holy Communion. It was also evident that the priest did not want to give me Holy Communion on the tongue.
I asked Father J. Patrick Serna, of the Corpus Christi, Tex., diocese — whom I've quoted in previous columns — for his commentary on the matter, which is as follows (edited):
It would seem so.
In an April 25, 2007 AP story regarding Archbishop Burke's protest of pro-abortion singer Sheryl "toilet paper remark was just a joke" Crow, reporter Christopher Leonard wrote:
© Matt C. Abbott
I recently attended a funeral Mass at a parish in the Madison, Wis., diocese (the same diocese, incidentally, in which the murdered Father Alfred Kunz had worked and resided), and was bothered by the fact that the priest invited everyone present to receive Holy Communion. It was also evident that the priest did not want to give me Holy Communion on the tongue.
I asked Father J. Patrick Serna, of the Corpus Christi, Tex., diocese — whom I've quoted in previous columns — for his commentary on the matter, which is as follows (edited):
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'A wise priest once told many of us during the days of seminary, 'The Church will be in really bad days when, after learning that a priest did or said something scandalous, people are no longer shocked or scandalized.' Hearing about the actions of this priest is very disturbing — unless by some rare miracle it was a 'Catholics in a state of grace only' funeral Mass. Sadly, however, this does not shock me in the way it would have even ten years ago.
'After experiencing several bad situations during my first few months as a priest, I decided to announce certain rules before the distribution of Holy Communion at weddings and funerals. I inform everyone that the necessary pre-requisites for reception of Holy Communion are as follows:
'1. One must be Catholic.
'2. One must be a practicing Catholic — not a Catholic who attends Mass only on Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday, or for weddings and funerals. (Poor catechesis nowadays makes it necessary for this sad but necessary lowest common denominator type of language.)
'3. One must not have a mortal sin on his soul. An example of a mortal sin is not attending Mass on Sundays or other Holy Days of obligation [without a serious reason for doing so]. Sacramental confession is the only way to be rid of mortal sin.
'I preface my three points with a warm welcome to all non-Catholics in the congregation, and the statement, 'As I would gladly follow the rules of another person's church, it is necessary for non-Catholics to respect our rules in this Church. These criteria for worthy reception of Holy Communion are not a judgment on anybody; they are simply the rules.'
'Have I been reported for being 'unpastoral' or mean? Definitely. To love Jesus is to obey Him (yes, this is in the Bible!). On the occasions I've been cursed or reported [to the diocese] by someone who attended a wedding or funeral Mass, it was never by a non-Catholic; it was always by a disobedient, non-practicing Catholic who gave all the rationalizations for the non-necessity of Sunday Mass attendance, or the non-necessity for following rules when it comes to God. Such rationalizations always stem from bad logic and faulty presuppositions as to what 'love of God' means.
'When it comes time for weddings or funerals, and it is obvious the majority in attendance are either non-Catholics or non-practicing Catholics (who need to be instructed by me through the entire Mass), I simply bypass the whole ordeal by doing a celebration of the word of God.
'Before folks try to slam my pastoral right, I would first like to thank Pope Benedict XVI for Sacramentum Caritatis, especially paragraph 50. Below is the end of that paragraph:
Wherever circumstances make it impossible to ensure that the meaning of the Eucharist is duly appreciated, the appropriateness of replacing the celebration of the Mass with a celebration of the word of God should be considered.
'The most recent General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2003), the current binding Instruction, leans toward Holy Communion on the tongue instead of in the hand if there is a 'risk of profanation' (no. 92).
'One profanation is one profanation too many, and of the many profanations I have encountered regarding the reception of Holy Communion, they have always been as a direct result of Holy Communion in the hand instead of on the tongue. The risk for various profanations increases at Masses where regular Sunday Catholics are not the majority of those in attendance.
'In paragraph 84 of the GIRM, it is clearly stated that 'care should be taken lest out of ignorance non-Catholics or even non-Christians come forward for Holy Communion, without taking into account the Church's Magisterium in matters pertaining to doctrine and discipline. It is the duty of Pastors at an opportune moment to inform those present of the authenticity and the discipline that are strictly to be observed.'
It would seem so.
In an April 25, 2007 AP story regarding Archbishop Burke's protest of pro-abortion singer Sheryl "toilet paper remark was just a joke" Crow, reporter Christopher Leonard wrote:
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'Burke made national news during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign by saying he would deny Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights. He later clarified the statement to say Catholics can vote for such candidates if they believe the candidate's stance on other moral issues outweighs the abortion-rights stance.'
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'The long-awaited clarification letter from St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke on the issue of voting for pro-abortion politicians has been released in the St. Louis diocesan newspaper.
'Rather than backing down from his former statement that voting for a pro-abortion politician constituted a sin, Archbishop Burke has widened the scope of his direction against voting for anti-life politicians. 'There is no element of the common good that could justify voting for a candidate who also endorses, without restriction or limitation, the deliberate killing of the innocent, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, human cloning or same-sex marriage.''
© Matt C. Abbott
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