ARGENTINE ARQUIDICECE FORMS TO COMMUNE FOOT AND HAND IN THE FIRST COMMUNIONS

The archbishopric of San Juan de Cuyo (Argentina) established that in the first communions and confirmations in the archdiocese, the sacred communion must be received “only standing and in the hand”.

As they explained, this measure seeks to counteract the attacks that have described this way of communing as “sacrilegious.”

“The ministers attending at the altar (of all ages and condition) will always commune standing and hand,” establishes a protocol made public by the archbishopric on August 27, 2025 and based on a provision established in the rules of March 25, 2022.

He adds that “in the celebrations of the sacraments of Christian initiation the catechumenos (of any age) will receive the sacred communion only standing and in the hand.”

What does the Holy See say?

According to the instruction Redemption mysterypublished in 2004 by the congregation for the divine cult and discipline of the sacraments, “in the distribution of the sacred communion it must be remembered that ‘the sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who ask them in a timely manner, are well arranged and are not prohibited by the right to receive them.”

“Therefore, any baptized Catholic, to whom the law does not prohibit it, must be admitted to the sacred communion. Thus, it is not lawful to deny the sacred communion to a faithful, for example, only because of the fact of wanting to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing,” he details.

Likewise, the Pontifical Document, issued in 2004, under the papacy of John Paul II, and signed by Cardinal Francis Arrinze, provides that “although everything faithful always has the right to choose if you want Sacred Host.

“A catechetical end”

Accessed by ACI Press on the reasons for the provision in San Juan de Cuyo, the advisor of the Pastoral Communication and Pastor of the Cathedral, P. Andrés Riveros, explained that he has “a catechetical purpose”.

“There was as a left of desacralization in that way of receiving the Eucharist, which we had perceived in the listening of several parishes, which was less worthy to receive it in hand and standing. They referred to this way as a sacrilegious, which had produced a lot of confusion in people,” he explained.

“Every form that the Church allows is fine”

It was then that the Archbishop, Mons. Jorge Lozano, proposed “a silent catechesis, because it is not that it is preached on that, but that in carrying out this form we imply that every way that the Church allows is fine, it is sacred, and one form is not over another as some imposed.”

The priest acknowledged that this protocol “has produced a lot of concern, with headlines such as ‘The Bishop prohibits communion in the mouth’, which is a lie because it is not so,” he said. “Everyone here continues to commune as you want: standing, on your knees, in your mouth, in your hand, but it had produced much concern.”

Asked if in the desire to end an “imposition”, the priest insisted that it is “a catechetical purpose, because the boys (who receive the first communion or confirmation) the next day, if they go to the Mass, they can receive communion in the mouth and knees, and they can do the rest of their life if they want it.”

Value communion in hand

“It seemed to us from the evil spirit to treat this form of sacrilegistic or satanic, so we had to be able to show that it is another way. Then each one chooses the way they want, it is not an imposition, on the contrary. The other day the person can opt for the way he wants,” said the priest.

The intention behind this decision was to “value this because it has been attacked a lot in this last time, at least here in the diocese.”

“In the Archdiocese it was happening that there was a persecution of communion with the hand, then in response to that, to that movement, a sense of teaching from children is sought that is the same, which has the same dignity, and that each one later can make their own choice of how he wants to receive the Lord,” he concluded.