Church Announcement: Covid or Catholic?

Every single day that I attend Mass I hear the same, elaborate detailed message regarding Covid-19. Not one, but two in fact. Every single action of the laity is described in excruciating detail to ensure 100% compliance with all Covid regulation. Yet, little if any attention whatsoever is given to God-given Church law concerning the reception of the Blessed Sacrament. I have spoke about this previously. Yesterday, I was listening to a great talk by a holy priest and prior to his homily, he gave instruction, but not in service of Covid, but in service to God. It was quite refreshing.

As mentioned, each and every time I attend Mass, we are inundated with Covid regulation. The second you step inside the designated door, you are greeted by a team of Covid-tracers, people who take your full name, phone number, and ensure you answer correctly to Covid-related questions. You are then given a small piece of green tape which you must stick to your seat so that cleaners know which seats to decontaminate after Mass.

During the opening announcements, we are told the following each day:

Welcome.....

We pray that you are in good health.

We ask that all present respect the instructions given by our ushers and the guidelines in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19, including using hand sanitizers, maintaining a distance of 2 meters, and wearing face masks when entering, leaving, or moving within the church. We will not have a collection at this Mass, but there are collection boxes provided for you at the entrance and the exit of the church. Thank you for supporting our parish. At the time of communion, we will give you further instructions. At the end of Mass, we ask you to exit through the doors through which you entered the church.

Then right before communion, we get this message:

To ensure that the reception of Holy Communion takes place in a safe and respectful manner, we ask that you please following these instructions:

• Instead of individually replying "Amen" upon receiving the Host, there will be one general attestation of Amen before distribution begins.
• Please remain standing in your pew until invited forward by an usher.
• Ensure your facemask is correctly worn before coming forward and maintain a 2 meter social distance in the communion line.
• As you approach the front of the line, sanitize your hands before receiving communion, bow before the Host, in silence receive the host in your hand, step aside to consume the Host, return to your pew as directed by ushers.
• Those unable to receive Holy Communion in the hand, may come forward to receive a blessing.

Yes, the message is actually that long. During the multi-minute messages during a 30-minute Mass, there is never even the slightest mention of far more important qualifications to receive communion. I have talked about this before. Yesterday, however, I found a homily on Youtube in which the priest in fact does go through the important aspects of the reception of communion.

His message was perfectly balanced, speaking almost exclusively of the spiritual requirements for worthy reception of the Eucharist. The video is linked below, but in brief, he mentioned the following:

Holy Communion should only be received by practicing Catholics. He goes on to say this means people who attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, and are living by the moral laws of the Church meaning you have no serious sin which has not been absolved by sacramental confession.

He then proceeds to explain why as he says "in the old rite", you do not say "Amen" when receiving communion. He says this practice is not really Catholic in that it can imply that our assent brings about the Real Presence, which is not a Catholic idea. He said the priest brings about transubstantiation, and our assent is not required. A very interesting point which I did not know.

He goes into detail about the mechanics of receiving the Eucharist such as placing one's tongue out far enough for the Host to be placed there correctly and to close one's eyes when receiving. He even goes on to speak about one's role in the traditional Mass with regards to saying the lines out loud, etc.

All of this advice is highly valuable and probably needed, at least from time to time, if not at every Mass. Yet we never hear these things.

Why are churches so gung-ho and careful about ensuring they following every tiny little detail of random Covid regulations and very lax about legitimate moral issues surrounding the worthy reception of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord? In fact, most of the announcements and specifications are made up by the parish itself. There are basic guidelines issued by the government, but in many cases such as the one above, the church voluntarily chose to have that many announcements to ensure compliance.

I want to say I am not criticizing anyone involved in carrying out tasks associated with Covid compliance. I am simply saying if we can have detailed Covid announcements, we can have spiritual reminders as well.