Excluding pre-communicants from Mass
            QUESTION from Smith on May 19, 2004

The pastor's decision to exclude these children from Mass is inappropriate to say the least. The Church has never, under any circumstances except grave, public, and manifest sin exlcuded the Baptized from participation in the Holy Eucharist Even lepers were provided with either a private chapel or a window into the parish church so that they could join in the Eucharist. As Baptized members of the faithful they have the right under Canons 213-214 to receive from the sacred treasury of the Word and Sacraments and to worship God in the liturgy To exclude them from a parish liturgy or even a "school Mass" (the only exception would be a separate Liturgy of the Word as allowed for by the current rubrics) would, in my opinion, be a denial of their Baptismal participation in the Priesthood of Christ. To quote a deceased priest I knew --- "He's wrong, dead wrong, never been more wrong in his life"