Vatican City, Mar 15, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The new and long-awaited guidelines for the celebration of the Eucharist are set to be released by the Vatican on Holy Thursday, April 8, one year after the release of the Pope’s encyclical on the Eucharist, reported London’s Catholic Herald yesterday.
The document is intended to inspire more reverence for the Eucharist, “solemnize” the mass and emphasize the significance of its universality, a Vatican source told the Catholic Herald. It is also expected to “challenge the view that the Second Vatican Council gave local bishops the authority to adapt the liturgy,” reported the newspaper.
The final draft is now being translated from Latin. The Vatican is said to have revised the initial draft and modified some of the more contentious points after it was leaked last September, upsetting some bishops in the English-speaking world.
The initial draft discouraged the reception of Communion under both species and limited the role of altar girls.