VATICAN CITY -- A papal aide says Pope Benedict intends to return to the old way of distributing communion at mass.
Benedict's master of liturgical ceremonies says in an interview Wednesday in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the pontiff will place the communion host in the mouths of the faithful who kneel before him.
That's how Roman Catholics received Communion in the years before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
The reforms made it possible for faithful to take the host in their hands while standing.
The aide, Msgr. Guido Marini, says that distributing communion the old way helps the faithful remain devout.
Benedict gave communion to kneeling faithful during his trip this month to southern Italy.
Archdiocese intervenes in church's gay pride service
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has told a liberal Roman Catholic church in Minneapolis that it can't hold its annual gay pride prayer service because the event goes against the teachings of the church.
St. Joan of Arc Church has held the prayer service for several years in conjunction with the annual Twin Cities Pride Celebration. The archdiocese, however, suggested that the church hold a "peace" service with no mention of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender people.
"That descriptor (LGBT) was not possible on church property. We suggested they shift it, change the nature of it a little bit, and they did," archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said. "The reason is quite simply because it was a LGBT pride prayer service, and that is really inimical to the teachings of the Catholic church."
Officials with the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, an independent coalition promoting acceptance of gays in the Catholic church, said they consider the action an attack by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who took the helm of the archdiocese in May.
Nienstedt has said homosexuality is a disorder and is a leader in the campaign to persuade the legislature to prohibit same-sex unions.
Presbyterian Church posts steep membership loss
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suffered its worst annual membership decline in decades last year.
The Louisville-based denomination reported 2.2 million active and confirmed members in 2007, a loss of 57,572 members and a 2.5 per cent decrease from 2006. It's the denomination's largest membership loss in terms of numbers since 1981 and the steepest percentage loss since 1974, when it fell 2.7 per cent.
The church has steadily been losing members since peaking at 4.25 million in the mid-1960s.
-- From The Associated Press
PREVIOUS
