We’ve waited over a year to hear these words. Finally, a priest apologizes for withholding the Eucharist from his parishioners during the lock-down in 2020. It is a beautiful yet simple confession, an example to clergy everywhere. Click here to hear the priest’s words: Humble Priest Begs Forgiveness for Withholding the Eucharist – YouTube
Here are some highlights:
GILBERT, Arizona, April 6, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest during his Holy Thursday homily begged the faithful for forgiveness for having left them without the Eucharist during COVID-19 lockdowns the previous year.
“I feel the need to publicly apologize for the events of the past year,” Fr. Sergio Muñoz Fita, pastor of St. Anne Roman Catholic Parish in Gilbert, Arizona, said during his April 1 homily (watch video at 1:11:35). “I ask for forgiveness for having left you without the Eucharist for many weeks last year.”
“Many of you, in the most difficult moments of the pandemic, turned to your father for bread, and we gave you a stone. We failed you by denying you the only Food that could sustain your hope. We abandoned you when we should have been closest to you. For this, at this holy Mass, I ask your forgiveness,” he said.
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Fr. Muñoz Fita, who was ordained in his native Spain in 2004 prior to coming to the U.S. in 2012, and who is a member of the Secular Institute of the Servi Trinitatis, went on to promise his flock that he would never be a party to such a betrayal again.
“What I can promise you is that I will never again be a party to something similar, and that if obedience places me in such a situation again, I will withdraw so as not to be a responsible and guilty party to something that, even today, weighs on my conscience, as the act of which I am most ashamed in my entire life,” he said.
Catholic author Leila Miller, who broke the story on her blog, called the priest’s apology “balm for the soul.” “Fr. Sergio, a humble, holy priest of God, has said the words that so many of the faithful have waited to hear,” she said.
The priest continued his homily in Spanish, telling the faithful how the Lord must have suffered during the lockdown by being treated “as if he were not important” and being relegated “to the category of things that are ‘non-essential.’”
“I ask forgiveness from Christ in the Eucharist for all that He has had to suffer this past year,” said Fr. Muñoz Fita.
“In the Eucharist we find a living Heart that is sensitive like ours, more sensitive than ours. He has suffered this year from many of the decisions that have been made. We have made Him the target of innumerable offenses, contempt, and disrespect. We have treated Him as if he were not important. We have relegated Him to the category of things that are ‘non-essential,’ when in reality there is nothing more necessary for us than Jesus in the Eucharist. We have alienated the Eucharist from the people who now turn their backs on us because we have turned our backs on them. Christ has suffered in silence in the way we have treated Him, as if He were something we had to protect ourselves from,” he added.
Muñoz Fita concluded his homily with a call for Catholics to take a stand with the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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I am finally glad to hear a priest apologize because the faithful have had to go a long time without being nourished by the body of our Blessed Lord
My thoughts are that there were a few different ways that the dispensing of Holy Communion or a Mass could have been offered that would have allowed safety in the pandemic, using outside facilitation with social distancing, though acknowledging the difficulty it could pose in conditions of snow and ice and frigid conditions.
Basically, priests exercise their priestly duties under the direction and authority of their local ordinary, which is the bishop of that diocese. If a priest went against the direction of his local bishop, or had not obtained permission to conduct services in an alternative method which would be deemed safe according to COVID 19 protocols from his bishop, that priest could find themselves disciplined with possible removal by their bishop.
That priest then would not be asset for his parishioners any longer if they were removed. And I cannot think it easy for that priest to be admitted to another diocese and under another bishop, if it was known, and it would be, that he had been dismissed by his former bishop for going against his authority and directive, by conducting services to his parishioners independently, without the knowledge and approval of his bishop.
Basically, priests exercise their priestly duties under the direction and authority of their local ordinary, which is the bishop of that diocese. If a priest went against the direction of his local bishop, or had not obtained permission to conduct services in an alternative method which would be deemed safe according to COVID 19 protocols from his bishop, that priest could find themselves disciplined with possible removal by their bishop.
Correction: That priest would not be asset for his parishioners any longer if he were removed. And I cannot think it easy for that priest to be admitted to another diocese and under another bishop, if it were known, and it would be, that he had been dismissed by his former bishop for going against his authority and directive, by conducting services to his parishioners independently, without the knowledge and approval of his bishop.