BOISE, Idaho (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic family of eight was recently denied Holy Communion while kneeling while attending Mass at a church in the Diocese of Boise. Both the local priest and bishop refused to acknowledge that the denial of the sacrament was a grave violation of canon law.
Scott Smith, a Catholic attorney, author, theologian, and father of six, was on vacation with his family in Idaho in August and went to Sunday Mass at St. Charles Borromeo in Hailey. “After driving two hours out of the mountains to attend Holy Mass, the parish priest denied all of us, my children and my in-laws, Holy Communion because we knelt to receive the Eucharist,” Smith recounted in a blog detailing the occurrence.
“It was so sad to see my little children, kneeling reverently to receive the Eucharist, and then to see the priest wagging his finger at them,” he wrote. “Irony of ironies, before denying my whole family Holy Communion, father had just preached a homily on inclusion, warning about exclusivity.”
After speaking with the parish priest after Mass, Smith then emailed him, citing the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which draws on the instructions of the Roman Missal, the Code of Canon Law, and the norms of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Concerning the reception of Holy Communion, the USCCB wrote:
The General Instruction asks each country’s Conference of Bishops to determine the posture to be used for the reception of Communion and the act of reverence to be made by each person as he or she receives Communion. In the United States, the body of Bishops has determined that “[t]he norm … is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling” and that a bow is the act of reverence made by those receiving (GIRM no. 160). This norm is supported by an Instruction by the Holy See regarding the Eucharist: “In distributing Holy Communion it is to be remembered that ‘sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who seek them in a reasonable manner, are rightly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 843 § 1; cf. can. 915). Hence any baptized Catholic who is not prevented by law must be admitted to Holy Communion. Therefore, it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing” (Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 91).
When Smith received no response from the local priest, he wrote to Bishop Peter Christensen of the Diocese of Boise, who is known for instructing priests in the diocese to discourage reception of Communion kneeling.
Responding to Smith, the bishop wrote, “As our Church teaches when receiving communion, we are encouraged to have unity in our posture and gestures. Perhaps in Louisiana the general posture when receiving is kneeling, but that is not the case in the Diocese of Boise.”
Commenting on the bishop’s apparently condescending reply, Smith noted on his blog that “the Bishop makes no response to the violation of the Church’s law.” “He also seems to speak derogatively and dismissively of Louisiana,” Smith wrote.
Writing again to the bishop, Smith declared, “The Church’s unity comes from its universality, its universal law, history, origin — in a word, its Catholicity. Protestants have local uniformity in gestures, etc.; the *Catholic* Church provides a far greater unity.”
“Speaking of the universal law of the Church, the GIRM (no. 160) and Canon Law (Code of Canon Law, can. 843 § 1; cf. can. 915) state that the conference of bishops decides the norms for postures while receiving Holy Communion. Accordingly, the USCCB states … ‘Therefore, it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing (Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 91).’”
Smith then challenged the bishop, “Can you please provide me with a legal basis for this violation of Canon Law and the norms established by the USCCB? Were you granted an indult or dispensation from this norm? If so, I would just plead that properly disposed communicants be allowed to show reverence before the Eucharist by kneeling to receive Holy Communion.”
The Catholic father of six emphasized on his blog that what’s at stake is the ability of a father to teach his children the reverence due to Jesus Christ, who is really present in the Holy Eucharist.
“Why is this important?” he asked. “Because the language of the body is the greatest catechism of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. If the father of the family cannot teach his children by kneeling before Jesus, we are in deep trouble.”
“Prayerfully consider whether it might be time for a reverent, respectful kneel-in to protect our Catholic civil rights!” Smith wrote.
In 2020, Bishop Christensen prohibited priests in his diocese from saying the Mass facing toward the tabernacle (ad orientem) and from using communion rails for Catholics who prefer to kneel to receive Communion. In addition, the bishop wanted to be informed of every traditional Latin Mass that took place in his diocese.
READ: US bishop forbids priests to say Mass facing tabernacle, bans communion rails
In a memo to the priests of Boise instructing them to enforce his liturgical preferences on February 28, Christensen took aim at the practice of receiving Holy Communion while kneeling. While acknowledging that the faithful have the right to receive the Eucharist in this way and may not be refused Communion because they kneel, he ordered that they not be assisted in doing so.
“While it is the right of the faithful to kneel to receive, nor may any communicant be denied Communion based on posture, given that the established norm in this country is standing, I am instructing that priests do not use furniture or such items as prie dieus or communion rails, as these may seem to undermine the norm or to imply a preference for kneeling to receive,” he wrote.
Peter Kwasniewski told LifeSiteNews that “it is always a bad sign for a bishop to want to discourage the faithful from kneeling before their Lord and God.”
Kwasniewski stated that the ban on prie dieus is “vindictive.”
“It amounts to saying: ‘You knuckleheads can get down on your knees if you really want to — but not if you’re elderly. Tough luck for you cronies. No help from the church,’” he wrote.
“Isn’t it surprising, too, just how rigidly some bishops want to exclude kneeling before the SON OF GOD? ‘Hey you — cut it out — no kneeling around here to the Word made flesh! We don’t do that anymore. It’s okay for the three kings and medieval peasants and whatnot, but not in this democratic age. Besides, the USCCB has spoken, and it has more authority than a millennium of Catholic practice.’”
While it has become a trend among liberal bishops and priests to deny Holy Communion to traditional Catholics who wish to show reverence to Christ in the Eucharist by kneeling, on the other hand, admittance to the reception of Holy Communion for those who openly violate God’s Commandments and dissent from the Church’s teachings on sexual morality is aggressively being pushed by cardinals and bishops under the guise of “inclusion,” “welcome,” and “accompaniment.”
RELATED: Archbishop Fernández suggests Pope Francis might allow people in grave sin to receive Communion
Pope Francis himself recently signed a document affirming that the divorced and “remarried” who engage in sexual relations with each other — thereby committing the sin of adultery — may be admitted to Holy Communion.
However, faithful bishops such as Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, have affirmed that, as St. Paul teaches, unrepentant adulterers, fornicators, and homosexuals cannot receive the Eucharist.
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