Opus Dei calls for ‘no Communion’ during huge Masses

THE head of the conservative Roman Catholic movement Opus Dei has suggested the Catholic Church should consider not giving Communion during huge Masses because it cannot be done “in a dignified way”.

Monsignor Javier Echevarria Rodriguez also criticised Masses that have an excessive number of priests celebrating together, saying it can confuse the faithful and diminish the link between the priest and the altar.

His comments to the Synod of Bishops, the meeting of the world’s Catholic bishops, appeared to be an indirect criticism of the enormous outdoor Masses favoured by the late Pope John Paul II.

During those Masses, which took place at the Vatican and during John Paul II’s many travels abroad, tens of thousands of people would line up to receive Communion and dozens, sometimes hundreds of priests would concelebrate.

One of the largest such gatherings at the Vatican came in 2002, when the Opus Dei founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, was canonised.

During that Mass in St Peter’s Square, priests walked down as far as the Tiber river to distribute Communion to the estimated 300,000 people who attended.

Echevarria said he asked himself whether such large Masses were being celebrated correctly, and said the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, had expressed a similar question in his book “Look at the Crucifix”.

“I ask myself if ... maybe it would be convenient to avoid the general distribution of Communion, in such a case where this cannot be realised in a dignified way,” Echevarria said, according to Rev John Bartunek, a synod spokesman who read from Echevarria’s speech.

The Opus Dei prelate also complained about Masses with a large number of priests concelebrating, saying that they sometimes are so far from the altar they cannot even see it.