During a recent Sunday Mass at the Basilica Shrine of Saint Mary in Wilmington, North Carolina, a young woman was denied Holy Communion by Father Alberto Ortega, Associate Pastor.
This young woman is not known for promoting intrinsic evil as does Nancy Pelosi. Nor is she famous for advocating for the murder of millions of babies still in their mamas’ wombs like Joe Biden and a plethora of other democrats. No bishop or cardinal has prohibited her from receiving Holy Communion as, e.g., has the Archbishop of San Francisco regarding Ms. Pelosi, and as have the bishops of Colorado in publicly telling those democrat office holders who have promoted laws that will result in Roe’s baby-killing mandate becoming law there that they commit public sacrilege if they receive Holy Communion.
Based on what happened, it was not possible to tell if the young woman had ever committed a mortal sin by voting for a democrat; nor that she had publicly espoused and promoted heresy as have so many of the ordained clergy in America, including priests, pastors, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals. Nor has she paid out billion$s of the faithful’s money to settle criminal sexual predator claims against the clergy at all levels of the U.S. hierarchy.
She knelt reverently for Holy Communion to receive Our Lord on the tongue. This conversation took place when she realized Father Alberto Ortega was refusing her Holy Communion:
Fr. Ortega: “Put out your hands.”
Young Woman: “I can’t put Jesus on my hands.” She then stuck out her tongue again.
Fr. Ortega: “Here we receive on the hand. That’s the rule.”
Young Woman: “Are you denying me communion, father?”
Father Ortega: “Yes.”
After kneeling, and staring at Father Ortega for a few moments, the young woman then said:
I cannot put Our Lord on my hands.
Father Ortega did not respond to this. The young woman stood up and walked away. She returned to her pew and wept.
It appears that the “rule” to which Father Ortega referred is not the parish rule, the diocesan rule, or the church rule. It could only be his own “Ortega Rule,” proclaimed, implemented, and enforced solely by him.
The Rule for the Basilica of St. Mary and the Diocese of Raleigh
DIOCESE OF RALEIGH, NORMS FOR EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS OF HOLY COMMUNION, AT THE EUCHARISTIC LITURGY (THE MASS). 4.9 The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, 91; GIRM, 160). When receiving Holy Communion, the communicant bows his or her head before the Sacrament as gesture of reverence and receives the Body of the Lord from the minister. The consecrated host may be received either in the hand or on the tongue, at the discretion of each communicant. When Holy Communion is received under both kinds, the sign of reverence is also is also made before receiving the Precious Blood (GIRM, 160)(emphasis added).
The Rule of the Catholic Church: Canon Law
Canon 843. § 1: Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, Canon and are not prohibited by law from receiving them . . . . Canon 912: Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy communion…
There is no exception to these sections of the Code of Canon Law; nor do they authorize any priest to ignore, disobey, repudiate, or reject them and replace them with his personal law.
The “GIRM,” the The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM)—in the Latin original, Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani (IGMR)—is church document governing the celebration of Mass. Every priest must follow its rubrics and rules.
In his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the importance of proper knowledge of the General Instruction by priests:
The eucharistic celebration is enhanced when priests and liturgical leaders are committed to making known the current liturgical texts and norms, making available the great riches found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and the Order of Readings for Mass. Perhaps we take it for granted that our ecclesial communities already know and appreciate these resources, but this is not always the case. These texts contain riches which have preserved and expressed the faith and experience of the People of God over its two-thousand-year history.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal also says:
Nevertheless, the priest must remember that he is the servant of the Sacred Liturgy and that he himself is not permitted, on his own initiative, to add, to remove, or to change anything in the celebration of Mass. [GIRM§ 24](emphasis added).
The GIRM is here paraphrasing the Vatican II Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22.3:
Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the Liturgy on his own authority.
Contact Information for Church and Diocese
Basilica of St. Mary, 412 Ann St., Wilmington, NC 28401
Site: https://www.saintmarybasilica.org/
Pastor: Very Rev. Thomas Davis Phone: 910-762-5491
Diocese of Raleigh, The Catholic Center, 7200 Stonehenge Drive, Raleigh, NC 27613
Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama
Site: https://dioceseofraleigh.org/ Phones: 984-900-3200 984-900-3402
Pray for Fr. Alberto Ortega & For All Priests
Cursory internet searching reveals nothing about this priest or his history – or if he has ever validly refused any sacrament to any other person; but we do know we are to pray for him and for all priests. In today’s world – and this includes this earthly material world, earthly institutions of the church, and those with power in the church – it is incredibly difficult for any man to be a faithful, obedient, God-fearing, Alter Christus (other Christ), who acts uniquely in the person of Christ Himself to bring us His sacraments and serve as the conduit for His sanctifying grace to flow to us. We must thank God for them and pray often for them.
Prayer For Priests
Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the gift of our priests.
Through them, we experience your presence in the sacraments.
Help our priests to be strong in their vocation.
Set their souls on fire with love for your people.
Grant them the wisdom, understanding, and strength they need
to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Inspire them with the vision of your Kingdom.
Give them the words they need to spread the Gospel.
Allow them to experience joy in their ministry.
Help them to become instruments of your divine grace.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our
Eternal Priest. Amen.
[©2022 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]
Shame, Shame on this priest. When and where does it end?
My guess.
Fr. Ortega may have felt that the Pope’s leadership on matters of rigidity, traditionalism and false piety sprung up in this horrible case of a woman who perfectly exhibited the above atrocities.
Poor Father couldn’t be bothered with the GIRM’s because Pope Francis couldn’t possibly be wrong.
Yes.
Prayers for all priests….instruments of your divine grace. Indeed.
Sounds like the priest was the rigid one. He was insistent that everyone recieve it his way, his “traditional” way and failed to “accompany” this woman.
JFK.
My apologies.
My sarcasm runneth over.
Where’s his collar? Woke.
I was denied Holy Communion as well. As I stood up to walk away the priest was laughing as he made the Sign of the Cross.
I’m from this area and this has become the norm not only in this church but in two other churches in this deanery as well. Many have written the diocese and receive a response stating we ‘are in different times.’ The bishop himself has never had a problem with distributing holy communion to those kneeling and on the tongue. Yet, the laity in the Cape Fear Deanery are denied by local priests to receive on the tongue. Mercy!
This beautiful Basilica Shrine is in my town. I grew up in this parish, but our family left it many years ago due to the situations like this and other issues. We now attend another local parish with a true shepherd as its spiritual leader.
I’ve personally been denied Our Lord on the tongue a few times when I attended Mass at the Basilica Shrine. One of these times was several years ago in 2015 by the previous pastor who no longer is there. I had my then toddler on my hip and I was denied Communion on my tongue. In fact, the priest put a big jagged piece of the Host sideways in my mouth so I couldn’t close my mouth. I took the Host out of my mouth and I held Him in front of the priest and said sternly, “You place our Lord on my tongue properly!” I walked away in tears. Wrote a letter to our Bishop at the time with details of exactly what happened and NOTHING was done!
Last summer I attend a funeral Mass at the Basilica Shrine and the area on there denied me Communion the tongue. I wrote an email asking him about this and he stated “Father T Davis will only allow Communion in the hand.”
A beautiful, historical Basilica Shrine who attracts visitors from near and far has been overrun by weak shepherds making up their own rules to satisfy their “theology. I also blame our Bishops in the Raleigh Diocese for not putting a stop to this a log time ago!
Lord have mercy. Praying for our Bishops and priests!
Sorry for typos… that was supposed to say the Deacon at the funeral Mass denied me Communion.
Also, the Bishops should have stopped this a long time ago!
Philip, I got it. I also like to throw their gobbledygook back at them to highlight their shallowness and hypocrisy.
Terry, while I don’t kneel in the stupid communion konga line, I have thought about what would I do if and when I’m put in the situation. I would not get up until Mass was over. They would need to crawl over me to leave.
There may be covid-related rules. In my parish, we have priests / deacons with sterilizing stands for those who want Communion on the tongue. Even if there’s no contact, the minister will wash, dry, and spray his fingers after each person or family.
Pinky, that is a new ritual that has been added to Mass. Unofficially of course. It’s called the Ritual of Purell-ification. From what I seen, it’s usually performed in the most reverent and serious manner of the whole Mass.
I recall this taking communion on the tongue being a touchy subject back in the 90s. You would work out which priest got testy when you wouldn’t take communion by hand. It was pretty blatant. But to outright deny someone communion because they wanted to take it on the tongue is something else. Is he even allowed to? I wish other parishioners would have stood up for her. They were there.
JFK, I can’t complain. My parish has taken care of its people during a time when there could have been a decent argument against Communion on the tongue. I’ve noticed that the lines for receiving on the tongue are pretty long, partly because it takes longer but also I think it’s that popular. At least percentage-wise it’s become more popular (which I suspect says something about the reverence of the parishioners who attended throughout the pandemic).
In my experience, the reception in the hand peaked about 15 years ago. In recent years it’s becoming more common to see people receive on the tongue or even kneel. I personally sorely missed receiving during the worst of the shutdowns but accepted that I wouldn’t be able to receive if they didn’t allow Communion on the tongue.
Tracy Bua Smith:
You were denied Communion when going to mourn someone at a funeral????
Sounds like some folks have no problem “weaponizing” the Eucharist.
This unfortunately is has become a norm in much (not all) of the Cape Fear area of the diocese of Raleigh, where many parishes are still in full blown COVID mode.
Praying for these priests, praying for our Church.🙏
Tell @RaleighDiocese on Twitter what you think about this! Share a link to this blog post with @RaleighDiocese! Embarrass the living pi$$ out of these liberal progressive heretics! Make your voice heard! Sure, pray for this priest that he repent. But back that prayer up by tell @RaleighDiocese that the faithful know how Fr. Ortenga maltreated this tradiional Catholic, and it’s NOT right! The more bad publicity the diocese gets, the greater the likelihood that prayer for Fr. Ortega will be backed up with punishment. Yes, punishment because that’s what he deserves!
Pinky, they have separate lines for receiving on the tongue? How does that work? Signs? Announcements? Strange…
I missed out on Communion for over a year. March 15, 2020 to Easter of 2021 (April 4). First the Church abandoned it’s mission and the laity so no one received. Then I couldn’t go to confession and even if I could I refuse communion in the hand and was finally able to receive on the tongue on Easter. (I also only receive from consecrated hands.)
In 2004 the CDW under Pope St. John Paul II issued a universally binding instruction titled Redemptionis Sacramentum. In paragraph 92, the instruction states “Each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice”. On 24 July 2009 that Instruction was reaffirmed by the CDW during the swine flu epidemic.
While I am not a canon law expert, it seems clear to me that no bishop, let alone Karen from the parish council, has the authority to override the CDW on this.
Appealing to reception in the hand as mandatory because it is the ‘norm’ is based on a (deliberate?) misunderstanding of the USCCB’s description of the practice. The practice has been described as a norm because as anyone can see, it has become the most usual mode of reception. ‘Norm’ was used in its descriptive sense, not in its prescriptive sense as a binding guideline. Redemptionis Sacramentum is still universally binding.
I should be able to recite this from memory, having heard it before Mass each Sunday for a while: “If you wish to receive Communion on the tongue, please present yourself to the deacons and priests at the side of the altar. The Eucharistic ministers and priest in the center aisle will be distributing Communion in the hand.” Something like that. Traffic flow isn’t perfect, and we often get a little backup secondary line going from the center aisle to the side.
There’s probably a sympathetic priest you could talk to, or maybe if you attend a weekday Mass they’ll be more cooperative.
Pinky creating two types of lines for Communion based on how you receive Communion is odd. It’s deliberately demeaning to the Communicants.
“Pinky creating two types of lines for Communion based on how you receive Communion is odd. It’s deliberately demeaning to the Communicants.” –> that’s how it’s done at a local Parish here in Lancaster, SC. And I detected no animosity or disrespect from the priest when he did it. And so far, I haven’t heard of any communicant objecting. In fact, he celebrates the Mass Ad Orientem instead of Versus Populum even though he uses the Novus Ordo.
What’s the reason for it?
I don’t know, Ezabelle. Why one line for in the hand and another on the tongue? I am sure there’s a reason, and I don’t attribute any malice to this priest for doing so. Maybe it’s to prevent confusion.
It would be good to know the reason. I don’t however understand why there would be confusion. The confusion, I can only conclude, is because tradition is being broken down slowly over the years. Infact, I haven’t seen a plate held under the chin of those receiving Communion in the mouth in years. It comes across as what ever is the most convenient, not the most reverent. And that’s a shame.
The other day I took my 5 year old to receive a blessing which he always does (arms crossed against his chest as I’ve taught him- to indicate he can’t receive Our Lord yet). The lady giving Communion (we ended up in her line and not the Priests) looked at him confused as to what to do. I felt like saying to her “Um…Bless him with the consecrated host in your hand”. But refrained myself. My son looked up at me slightly upset he didn’t receive a Blessing. I just did the sign of the cross on his forehead as we walked back.
Tradition being eroded. Confusion on things we have always done. Pity. Our kids will loose out.
No demeaning, Ezabelle. Trust me on this, I can get as prickly as anyone.
Ezabelle, so many know so little about the Faith while so much information about the Faith is so readily available via some really good web sites. I just don’t understand why people are so incapable of basic inquiry, research and learning.
We’re told there’s a vocation shortage, and they ordain priests who do uncomplicated things poorly
Well, and this is not so unusual, again the Comments are better than the article. Still, it is at least very strange that you cannot click on the priest’s name, or that of the pastor, and find out their entire life history – as you can on several thousand parish and diocesan sites for other clergy, especially for celebrity priests and entertainment star bishops. What’s going on here? Jesus cares for an takes care of His priests-there will be a time, or outside of time, when this priest and the other sacrament-deniers no longer refuse the sacraments to any of Jesus’s precious sheep. All: have a fullofwonder weekend, and God bless us, everyone. Guy, Texas
All of the arguments made here are absolutely fruitless. Why? Because the instructions of this church were written specifically to be ambiguous, confusing, and contradictory not only to the true teachings of the Church but themselves. You can’t argue with a counterfeit by expressing and exposing the truth but you all keep trying. What a waste of your efforts and time. Get out of this false church and come back or into the true Catholic Church.
“Get out of this false church and come back or into the true Catholic Church.”
Define “The True Catholic Church.” SSPX? Eastern Orthodoxy? Something else?
Get out of this false church and come back or into the true Catholic Church.
I’ll stick with the Church founded by Christ, thank you very much. The misdeeds of a thousand Popes would not alter the fact that the Catholic Church is the True Faith.
Elaine — The relevant rules (which are reprinted for us by Don above) are not ambiguous, not confusing, and not contradictory.
Don — Me too.
You can’t argue with a counterfeit by expressing and exposing the truth but you all keep trying. What a waste of your efforts and time. Get out of this false church and come back or into the true Catholic Church.*
This statement is ambiguous and confusing.
Dear Elaine, I think these words and arguments have, actually, borne fruit, good fruit. TY for your comment. Guy, Texas
”Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“We’ve had enough exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a thousand tongues – I see the world is rotten because of silence.” St Catherine of Siena
“He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.” St. Thomas Aquinas
“If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.” Albert Einstein
Praying for priests here in the Raleigh Diocese: https://www.cureprayergroup.org/devotions.jsp
Could a bit of pre-preparation help in this? As in, the parishoner can find the correct part of Canon Law, GIRM, etc (ESPECIALLY if it was written after V2), and print it out. Then if time permits, maybe they can approach the priest before Mass and make sure that the priest will follow such official church instruction. To possibly give the errant prelate the benefit of the doubt, maybe they were so poorly taught that they are unaware. The response of the priest will either confirm that or confirm that THEY are the ones who are rigid.
I would further put out there that many times, priests are surprised at those of us who receive the Body of Christ on the tongue and genuinely don’t know what to do. That 5 second interface with the priest really isn’t enough time to hash things out – perhaps if the meeting beforehand isn’t possible, meeting the priest afterwards is. Again, that meeting will speak volumes in his reaction.
Luckily the “worst” treatment I received was a request that I be one of the last in line due to their COVID fears. . . .while it may be silly and we all know that receiving on the tongue is the least likely way to transmit or receive COVID, it was the least I could do to ensure I can receive Christ’s body properly.
So in short, while the recipient isn’t the one to blame, it may go a long way to confer with the priest in some manner before going all the way to the bishop – which usually results in nothing being done anyway.