World Youth Mass Debacle

Take a look at the picture on the right.  At first glance, it appears to be condiment bowls that one might find at an outdoor potluck.  The bowls are paper and that is plastic wrap on top.  But it isn't.  That is how Holy Communion is being distributed at the World Youth Day this year.  That has been the case for several years now.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is sacrilege.  It is absolutely inexcusable and objectively sinful to treat the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in such a banal and flippant manner.

Bishop Strickland has a few things to say about it.

What a tragedy that World Youth Day has fallen prey to the current trend to secularize the Catholic Church & de- emphasize Jesus Christ. No wonder it will have the lowest attendance since John Paul II first began WYD in 1986. It WAS a beautiful moment of evangelization.

— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) August 1, 2023

LifeSiteNews has additional commentary on the bishop's remarks.  Read One Peter Five's take.  That backdrop looks like a Lego-driven nightmare.  It looks quite sterile and bleak, and probably by intent.  And the altar?  It looks like if one were to put pressure on one end of it, whatever is on the altar would topple right off.

I watched some of that clip (no time for the whole thing) and saw some of the abuses in distribution of Holy Communion (besides the potato-chip style bowls).  What was that priest thinking when he did intinction of the Host and used his hands to catch any droplets of the Precious Blood?  I am glad that the one woman ordered the other to consume the Host that she took.  It was good to see a few of the attendees receiving on the tongue, albeit from other lay people.

Still, the way in which Communion was distributed was rife with sacrilege.  It would have been better not to distribute Holy Communion at all.  Recall that there is no obligation to receive at Mass.