!!!!
Bishop Krzysztof (Cristobal) Białasik, Bishop of Oruro, Bolivia
.
A regular reader of this Blog sent me the text below. I am reminded, reading this, of the time shortly before my retirement, when I noticed that a man who had received communion in the hand in Corpus Christi Cathedral did not consume it. I pointed him out, by a hand signal, to the usher who was standing nearby and the usher accosted the man and told him to consume the host, which he did. Had I remained Ordinary much longer I would have restricted reception of Holy Communion to the tongue. I had become more and more convinced that, just as the custom of genuflecting to our Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle is seen less and less often, so the practice of receiving Holy Communion in the hand has led to a diminished reverence toward Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist. Abolishing Communion in the hand will not automatically cause an increase in respect for the Eucharist, but there is no doubt that there is more humility involved in receiving Communion on the tongue and humility at the moment of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ can only be a good thing for the soul.
– Abyssum
Just recently at a Saturday Noon Mass last month [July] at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Austin, I was witness to a couple, who upon receiving Our Lord in their hands did not consume the Divine Presence, rather they attempted to walk out of the Cathedral. It was only at the insistence of a brave lady, who noticed that they did not consume the hosts, quickly rushed past me and stopped them before they could leave and ordered them to consume the hosts, which they did. I witnessed that they did consume the hosts upon being ordered. It was a most disconcerting thing to witness, the attempted stealing of consecrated hosts.
Now here is the tragic supposition, just how many Hosts have been taken from the Austin Cathedral all because of the indult to give Holy Communion in the hand. Stealing consecrated hosts is SACRILEGE. The danger of even one sacrilege being committed by people stealing the hosts freely given to them in their hands is one too many; and therefore this practice should be prohibited in this diocese.
God bless the brave bishops who diligently endeavor to protect the Blessed Sacrament.
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http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/08/bishop-in-bolivia-prohibits-communion.html
Novus Ordo Chronicles: Bishop in Bolivia prohibits communion in the hand in his diocese.
Plus: a review of bishops who have restricted communion in the hand
Our partners at
Adelante la Fe / Rorate Caeli en Espanol report that the Bishop of the Diocese of Oruro, Bolivia declared this past
Sunday that he will no longer permit communion in the hand (
EXCLUSIVA: El Obispo de Oruro prohíbe la comunión en la mano en su diócesis). The report says that the Bishop, the Polish Verbite missionary Krzysztof (Cristobal) Białasik,
made this decision after it was noticed that some people receive the Host but do not consume it, apparently wishing to carry It away for unknown reasons.
Bishop Białasik is 57 years old and was appointed Bishop of Oruro by Pope Benedict XVI on June 30, 2005; he was consecrated in September of that same year.
To our knowledge, Bishop Białasik is only the third bishop in the last ten years or so to withdraw permission for communion in the hand in his diocese (as opposed to maintaining an existing prohibition, or simply recommending communion in the tongue for the faithful in their diocese, or forbidding communion in the hand only in specific churches). The first was
Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani of Lima, Peru in 2008 (reiterated
in 2011 at least for large celebrations) followed by
Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2011 (reiterated
in 2012). A fourth bishop, the recently-deceased Rogelio Livieres (
may he rest in peace),
strongly condemned communion in the hand in August 2014, in one of his last acts as Bishop of Ciudad de Este. Perhaps he would have prohibited it altogether had he not been
ousted from his See soon after. (He already issued
a letter on the liturgy in 2013 that recommended to his faithful the reception of communion kneeling and on the tongue, but did not prohibit the opposite practices.) Finally, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria
temporarily permitted communion in the hand in July last year (at the height of the Ebola scare) then quickly
withdrew the permission (in December) once the scare had passed.
A handful of other diocesan bishops have taken measures to require communion on the tongue in some circumstances. These include: Bishop Antonio Carlos Rossi Keller of Frederico Westphalen, Brazil, who
announced at the end of 2011 that those receiving communion from him at his cathedral should do so on the tongue while kneeling; Bishop Eduardo Maria Taussig of San Rafael, Argentina, who
required the same thing from all communicants in his cathedral in that same year; and Carlo Cardinal Caffarra of Bologna who
mandated in 2009 that in three major churches in his Archdiocese (Cathedral of St. Peter, the Basilica of San Petronio and the Shrine of the Madonna di San Luca) communion be distributed to the faithful on the tongue only. Naturally there was the example generally given by Pope Benedict XVI starting in Corpus Christi 2008, plus the widely reported (but frequently violated) requirement during his reign that for Papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica communion was to be given only in the tongue.
Last but not the least: this should be a good time to recall the achievement of the now-retired Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise OFMCap who,
in 1996, withstood enormous pressure to be the only diocesan bishop in Argentina to refuse to permit communion in the hand in his diocese (San Luis) when the indult for it was granted to his country. We are told that the diocese continues to maintain the prohibition. His actions thrust him into the limelight, leading him to write a book (“Communion in the Hand”) and to speak at various conferences in defense of the reception of communion in the tongue. Traditional Catholics familiar with the situation in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s will recall that he also became a proponent and friend of the Traditional Latin Mass, which he offered on a number of occasions. In a sense, Bishop Athanasius Schneider is his successor as defender both of the traditional manner of receiving communion and of the Traditional Latin Mass.
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About abyssum
I am a retired Roman Catholic Bishop, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas
ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP 
Bishop Rene, I have witness this at the Cathedral in Pittsburgh and didn’t have the courage to say something. this article has helped me. Thank you.