WATCH: Irish priest equates receiving Communion on the tongue with feeding animals

DUBLIN (LifeSiteNews) — Father Pat Fitzgerald, C.P., the interim administrator of Mount Argus parish, compared during a recent homily the traditional reception of the Holy Eucharist at the altar rail and on the tongue with how wild animals are fed.

During his homily, Fitzgerald touted that the Church has progressed so far that the faithful no longer line up at the altar rail to receive Holy Communion “the same way as we feed animals.” Just seconds earlier, the priest falsely proclaimed that the purpose of Mass is not “to worship God” but to “share a meal.”

“How far we … went from that, we had people lined along on the altar rails and were feeding them the same way, and I don’t mean any disrespect to people, but… we have to say it, feeding people the same way as we feed animals,” the priest said. “Bringing the Eucharist to them, putting it into their mouths, the same way… we would feed the animals.”

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Despite Fitzgerald’s derogatory remarks, the tradition of the Catholic Church for many centuries, unbroken until after the Second Vatican Council, is that the lay faithful receive the Blessed Sacrament, the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ administered by a priest (his hands having been consecrated for the handling of the sacred Eucharist), on the tongue while kneeling.

In Memoriale Domini, the 1969 Vatican document in which Pope Paul VI granted bishops permission to distribute the Eucharist in the hand, the pontiff reaffirmed that the ancient practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue “must be retained … especially because it expresses the faithful’s reverence for the Eucharist.”

The Church explicitly stated again in Redemptionis Sacramentum that each of the faithful “always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue.”

Indeed, in 2018, Cardinal Robert Sarah, then-prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, emphasized that widespread practice of receiving the Eucharist on the hand is part of Satan’s diabolical attack on the sacrament.

“Why do we insist on receiving Communion standing and on the hand?” Sarah pondered. The manner in which the Holy Eucharist is distributed and received, he wrote, “is an important question on which the Church today must reflect.”

Furthermore, a recent study confirmed that traditional liturgical practices surrounding the Eucharist, including the manner in which He is received, increase belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist.

To Fitzgerald’s comparison, as noted by LifeSiteNews Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen, of the faithful kneeling at the altar rail and receiving Our Lord on the tongue to how animals are fed is a sign of humility and in line with Our Lord’s command that His sheep be fed.

Priest MOCKS Holy Communion on Tongue, Compares to “Feeding Animals”

John-Henry Westen addresses a deeply troubling homily from an elderly Irish priest who mocked the practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, comparing it to “feeding animals.”

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READ: Study confirms Latin Mass, Communion on tongue linked to stronger faith in Eucharist

“Christ himself chose to be laid in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals,” Westen said. “And He actually embraced that imagery himself when he told St. Peter, ‘Feed my sheep.'”

“So you can say that He did not say, ‘Let them feed themselves.’ The language of being fed is biblical, like baby animals. It speaks of dependence and humility and trust,” he added.

Just before preaching against receiving Communion on the tongue, Fitzgerald stressed to his parishioners that assisting at Mass is not primarily about worshiping God but rather about “sharing a meal.”

“We don’t come to Mass to worship God, that’s not what it’s about, it’s about sharing a meal. There’s plenty of times for worshiping Him, and so on, that’s for some other occasions,” he said. “So, it is a time for sharing a meal, taking up those words He used at the Last Supper, ‘Take this all of you and eat it.'”

The Church has clearly taught throughout the centuries that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not merely a “meal service” but the re-presentation of Our Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary. As the Catechism states, the worship of the Eucharist is primarily a way for the faithful to “express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord.”

It’s also worth noting that Fitzgerald’s comparing the Mass to a time “for sharing a meal” is similar to how many Protestants describe their services as the “Lord’s Supper” or a “memorial meal.” Indeed, Martin Luther detested the labeling of the Mass as a sacrifice at the start of the Protestant revolt.

READ: Italian archbishop scolds ‘disobedient,’ ‘prideful’ parishioners for receiving Communion on tongue

In recent years, receiving the Holy Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling has become increasingly popular among Catholics despite several clerics’ efforts to restrict this traditional method of receiving Our Lord.

In 2024, the largest-ever survey of U.S. Catholics, conducted by the Real Presence Coalition (RPC), found that the majority of Catholics want an end to Communion on the hand and a return to reverent, solemn worship.

Last summer, after Bishop Michael Martin, OFM, began discouraging traditional liturgical practices in the Diocese of Charlotte such as receiving Communion on the tongue, faithful Catholics showed up en masse to kneel to receive the sacrament on the tongue at a Mass in which Martin was present. Despite resistance from many faithful, Martin would ban the use of altar rails and Communion kneelers in December 2025, with the restrictions taking effect in January, prompting several of the faithful in the diocese to speak out against these “almost abusive” restrictions.

Jonathan Roumie, the star of the popular series The Chosen, told Father Mike Schmitz during a January podcast that he only kneels to receive the Holy Eucharist.

READ: Charlotte Catholics share their grief over bishop’s ‘almost abusive’ removal of altar rails