February 17, 2012

Letters to the Editor

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Reader questions priest’s response to lack of Communion services at parish

I am offended by the tone of Father Kenneth Doyle’s response to the question concerning Communion services in the Feb. 3 issue of The Criterion.

Father Doyle seems overly concerned with the possibility that the laity might “get confused” if Communion is distributed by a layperson outside the context of a Mass.

Let me see if I understand his logic. A layperson can look at the bread that has been consecrated and see Jesus, but can’t look at a man dressed in vestments standing behind an altar elevating the host and tell that he is a priest rather than a layperson or that this is a Mass and not a Communion service?

One could perceive this as one more attempt to limit the role of the laity that Vatican II fostered.

Will the next move be to have the priest speak a language that laypeople don’t understand—Latin—in order to eliminate any further “confusion”?

Father Doyle can use as much “Church-speak” as he chooses in his response, but the bottom line is this—Jesus is being withheld from those who wish to receive him at times when they may need him the most! There is no confusion about that!

- Jim Welter | Indianapolis

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