It is not uncommon for 'traditionalists' to pass off earlier Church disciplines as uniform when they were not, and use this mythical "uniformity" coupled with their profound misunderstanding about what constitutes Tradition and what does not to complain about current practices in the Church that they do not like. This small paper will hopefully let the air out of their so-often insolent little balloons; however, not without pointing out a key point that indirectly benefits the 'traditionalist' case on this issue.
The controversy on communion in the hand started in Europe in the 1960’s and was actually practiced by dissidents before the practice was made licit by the Holy See. From this standpoint the 'traditionalist' has a point as far as objecting to the way in which this practice came about in recent times but of course they do not wish to proceed along that track which would indeed be a credible approach for them to take. No, the 'traditionalist’ chooses instead to construct a fictitious past with regards to communion in the hand as their means of fighting what they see as a great evil of our time. It stems again from the common ignorance of Church history and the 'traditionalist' feeling that the uniformity of worship, policy, devotions, etc. that prevailed after the Council of Trent was somehow the norm for Church history. In reality, the history of the Church in almost all of the realms where the 'traditionalist' gripes about was not as neat and tidy as they would like it to be. A few examples are the subjects of clerical celibacy, plural prayer forms, vernacular liturgies, active laity participation in the liturgy, sacramental norms of administration, and (of course) different procedures of communion reception. Among many other elements of note these to some extent varied from locale to locale without the strict uniformity that the 'traditionalist' insists is mandatory or "traditional".
For the rest of the story, read The Red Herring of Communion in the Hand.
Not very convincing...
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997): “Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand.”
Fr. John Hardon S.J. (1914–2000): “Whatever you do to stop Communion in the hand will be blessed by God.” Also, “Behind Communion in the hand—I wish to repeat and make as plain as I can—is a weakening, a conscious, deliberate weakening of faith in the Real Presence.”
Hmmmm...who to believe, who to trust. Difficult to discern here. (/sarcasm)
The General Instructions never once mentions the Real Presence or Transubstantiation; it refers to the Sacred Species as "host" or "bread." The only time it refers to the Body of Christ is in reference to Communion, never in reference to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. In fact, nothing is allowed to deflect attention from the congregation itself.For example, the General Instructions states "In the breaking of one bread the unity of the faithful is signified, and in Communion they receive the Body and Blood of the Lord as the apostles once did from the hands of Christ himself."
There is no mention of the breaking of the bread as an immolation. In the traditional Mass there is an Offertory in which the spotless Host is identified as the potential sacrificial Victim offered to the Father. This has been eliminated in the New Mass which refers only to the bread as become the "bread of life" and the wine becoming our "spiritual drink." Nothing about a Sacrifice to the Father. In addition, the Mass itself is called a "Eucharistic celebration" or a "Eucharistic feast." It is never called the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass."
The rubrics themselves reflect this reduction or elimination of the respect due to the Real Presence as sacrificial victim, with corresponding heightened emphasis on Christ's Virtual Presence in the Word and in the Congregation. The focus is on the congregation, not on Christ's actual presence. Genuflections have been reduced, the sign of the cross no longer is made before Communion, Communion is now in the hands, kneeling to receive has been proscribed in many places, and ordained priests no longer exclusively distribute hosts. In fact, if anything is clear it is that the Real Presence is only acknowledged insofar as the Lord is a gift to the congregation, not as an object of worship, nor in its sacrificial aspect.