Diane @ Te Deum Laudamus gets Bishop Athanasius Schneider Wrong!

(I would simply write this as a 'combox' comment at Diane's blog, but she has banished me!!)

Diane over at 'Te Deum' blog has written a nice 15 Feb post about Pope Francis' recent homily criticizing the laity for one thing or another.  (It seems it is now ok to be judgmental of the laity who dare to question why the Church continues to coddle predatory homosexual priests or why the Church simply does  not tell the laity clearly what to they are supposed to believe.)

Then  Diane branches off to her (hers and mine!) favorite prophetic voice, Bishop Athanasius Schneider.  Diane assures us that he would never force his sheep to forgo hand-Communion.   see below


DIANE:>>>>>>>

Consider
how we see people discussing the need to increase reverence for the Eucharist. Some will promote distribution of Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling with a bitter sarcasm that sometimes even mocks others who receive in the hand while standing - a valid and popular method of reception.  Because it is popular and valid does not mean we ought not talk about changes. I myself am an advocate of returning to Communion being distributed on the tongue while kneeling.  However, I am also an advocate of the method used by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, ORC.  He proposes and invites people by appealing to their intellect and hearts.  This shepherd talks to lambs like a lamb and the end result is that they do not scatter when he speaks.  It is a mode of delivery that is pure and because it is pure, it allows the Holy Spirit to do the real work.  I've known people who cannot bring themselves to agree with Bishop Schneider, yet they say they will think about what he says.  Bishop Schneider's approach is one that respects the free will of others. He is mindful that he cannot force others to accept what he is teaching.  People who use caustic methods to advance a cause do harm to the very thing they are promoting. <<<<<

Diane,
His Excellency certainly does--as you say-- appeal to people's intellect and hearts. However he does not stop there.  I post below his recent words in Hong Kong.  I think he either has changed his mind and now simply thinks the simple invitation of Pope Benedict fell on deaf ears (and was undermined by know-it-all clerics) or he has always blamed  lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament on solely on clerics.  At any rate, it appears that now his Excellency thinks it is time for clerics to act.

BISHOP SCHNEIDER>>>>
One can adduce pastoral reasons in favor of continuing with the practice of Communion in the hand, as for example the right of the faithful to choose. Such a right, however, violates—considering the general proportions of the practice—the right that the Eucharistic Jesus has, i.e. the right to the greatest possible sacredness and reverence. In this regard it is about the right of the most fragile in the Church. All the reasons in favor of the continuation of the practice of Communion in the hand lose their weight confronting the gravity of the situation of the minimalism of reverence and sacredness, the obvious danger of carelessness and loss of the fragments and of the increasing stealing of the consecrated hosts. The continuation of the use of the indult of Communion in the hand cannot be said to be a pastoral need, because it damages the faith and the piety of the faithful and it damages the rights of the Eucharistic Lord Himself.