Well, I received a response from Father on denying me communion for kneeling.

I was pleasantly surprised that it came in, I honestly wasn’t expecting a response so quickly. In fact, I was expecting to go the two months that I gave him and would have to just let his Bishop know what was going on.

Unfortunately, his response will lead me to write his Bishop. Even though Father was very polite and thoughtful, he disagreed with me on my main point, and I am now contemplating my next steps.

I’ve decided not to post the response that he gave me, mostly due to privacy and in trusting that Father did not think that I would post this on the internet for many people to complain about. If at some point in the future, publishing the letter is necessary, then I will post it at that time.

A few points that he did make that I have some qualm over and I will address them here:

1. He mentioned that he does not deny communion to those kneeling, but rather, invites them to stand and informs them. This did not occur to me. What he said to me when I knelt was “No. You have to stand.” This is not an “invitation” to stand, this is a command. Also, the “no” that he gave me was an explicit denial. I did not feel that it was polite, but, out of charity’s sake, I will give Father the benefit of the doubt that he was having a bad day (it was after all Palm Sunday and he may have been stressed out).

2. He explicitly called the Mass “the Mass of Paul VI”. This bothers me as I’ve never heard the Novus Ordo Mass called this. Again, this seems like poor implementation of Vatican II. It makes it sound like its “this specific Pope’s Mass” and not that of the Church. The Novus Ordo is the Catholic Church’s Mass just as much as the Latin Mass is that of the Church.

3. The main point I was making, that he should not have denied, was to some extent largely ignored, I felt. I might have been too charitable in my letter to him as I did say “you requested that I stand” and he took this as he was asking. Regardless, if you look at the points I made, we are able to kneel and the documents imply that kneeling is the optimal position (since they explicitly make a big deal on how communion in the hand needs to be done with scrutiny and if suspicion occurs to not do by hand, what does this imply?)

4. He mentions the GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) and mentions that he is in complete compliance with this document. Based on the wording of this document, he is, depending on your interpretation, however, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s letter Redemptoris Sacramentum, is not mentioned in Father’s response, and on top of that, the Pope’s letter has more authority than what a country’s bishops have decided what the “norm” is.

I’m pretty certain that I will be writing his Bishop, and I will be posting that letter on here. I just thought I’d let you all know that I did hear from Father. Please if you can, out of charity, pray for him as well as his Bishop.