Desecration of the Blessed Sacrament and Communion in the Hand

Action: any readers concerned about the increasingly open attacks on the Blessed Sacrament has really got to grasp the nettle and stop receiving in the hand - if you still do. Priests should begin seriously discouraging the practice, which has only ever been allowed as an exception to the universal law of the Church.

Fr Zulhsdorf draws the obvious conclusion to the theft and repeated desecration of a consecrated host from the London Oratory, which we reported here.

Who goes forward for Communion is often hard to control

But there is something simple we can control.

No more Communion in the hand.

Not a fool-proof (and never was that term better applied) safeguard, but one that greatly reduces risk of profanation.

See his full post. Fr Zulhsdorf's podcast on the issue is here.

Here's Fr Finigan on Memoriale Domini, the 1969 document which permitted communion in the hand under certain conditions, while discouraging it strongly. It was permitted in England and Wales in 1976.