Bishop's continued ban taking its toll

A Kneeling Catholic source at St. Patrick's in Corpus Christi has noted that while Bishop Edmund Carmody's ban is not being strictly enforced and priests are not arguing with or lecturing communicants [any more] who still want to receive on the tongue, the ban is still producing a near universal conformity.



The source observed the pastor, Msgr. Roger Smith, carefully purify all the ciboriums and his fingers after Holy Communion, something he does quite beautifully. However when this is done after 99% of the laity have taken hand Communion and are not in the least concerned with Fragments, a question emerges:

Msgr., are only the Fragments on your fingers truly the Eucharist?

I believe there was once a heresy in England which said that the Eucharist is only Christ as long as one believed it was, but when that belief ceased then so did Christ's Presence. That heresy becomes our de facto faith, or perhaps schizophrenia does, when we see that the Fragments adhering the priests fingers are a huge concern, but those on ours are of no concern.

In a recent book by Claire Asquith, Shadowplay [K. C. has yet to lay hands on it!] she conjectures that Shakespeare's fool in the "twelfth night" was secretly quoting the martyr Edmund Campion when he said "That that is, is" . i.e. objective reality -- truth exists whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. As Catholics we need to understand what our is ... is! Is the Fragments, which are so callously disregarded, the Eucharist or is they not?!!

K. C.