Last week, Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga decreed that it is “forbidden to distribute or to receive Holy Communion in the hands.”
The Archdiocese of Kampala is home to more than 1.5 million Ugandan Catholics served by 324 priests, yet many gather for Mass in homes rather than in parishes, leading to widespread liturgical abuses.
Archbishop Lwanga noted in his decree that “many reported instances of dishonoring the Eucharist” were in various ways associated with irreverent forms of in-hand reception. As a corrective to irreverent reception, the Archbishop also decreed that “it is fitting to return to the more reverent method of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue.”
