What Does The Divine Worship Missal Say?

A visitor has pressed me, given the views expressed by informed visitors here that the practice of the USCCB for distribution of the Sacrament must be followed by ordinariate parishes in the US, to find out if there is some other rubric in the Divine Worship Missal that would override the USCCB policy, which is that communicants may choose whether to receive on the hand or the tongue, at their option. As it happens, I've acquired an unofficial PDF of the Divine Worship Missal, so I can even search it digitally.

The first item of note is that the canon of the mass gives no special rubric for distribution. Here is what it says on p 654:

Then the Communion Antiphon may be sung or said.

Then he distributes Holy Communion to the Ministers and to the People with these words:

The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.

Or:

The Body of Christ.

The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.

Or:

The Blood of Christ.

Or with these words, if Holy Communion is administered in both kinds together:

The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.

Or:

The Body and Blood of Christ.

While there is a reference to intinction as an option, there is no reference to whether it is to be received kneeling. nor indeed specifically on the tongue (though this could be messy on the hand).

But there's another complication, which is that although General Instructions of the Roman Missal are a separate document, available for instance here, they are also incorporated in the front matter of the Divine Worship Missal itself. Here's a screen shot from the Table of Contents:

On page 62 of the DWM, it reproduces the General Instructions, which say

In the United States of America: The Priest then takes the paten or ciborium and approaches the communicants, who usually come up in procession.

It is not permitted for the faithful to take the consecrated Bread or the sacred chalice by themselves and, still less, to hand them on from one to another among themselves. The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, no. 91).

When receiving Holy Communion, the communicant bows his or her head before the Sacrament as a gesture of reverence and receives the Body of the Lord from the minister. The consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or in the hand, at the discretion of each communicant. When Holy Communion is received under both kinds, the sign of reverence is also made before receiving the Precious Blood.

In other words, in the US it's up to the communicant to kneel, and it's up to the communicant to receive on the tongue or in the hand. A priest may not force a communicant to receive kneeling or to receive on the tongue. Since the DW Missal incorporates the General Instructions in its front matter, all celebrations are clearly under their authority, and this is recognized by the certifications of the individual ordinaries.

Naturally, I'm a Catholic of only seven years' standing, and someone may be able to clarify this for me.

And I'm not advocating anyone crash an ordinariate mass and create a problem by insisting on receiving the Sacrament on the hand and standing. (Who would want to sit through a homily from the likes of Fr Lewis to reach that point, anyhow?) What this does suggest to me yet again is that a devout Catholic used to reverent diocesan celebration could well find an ordinariate mass an uncomfortable experience, with fringe practices enforced effectively by snobby peer pressure.

The tone of Fr Lewis's March 12 letter to the Atonement parish reinforces this -- he maintains that there are theological reasons, apparently known only to him, though contradicted by the front matter of his own missal, for requiring parishioners to receive kneeling on the tongue, in both kinds. Presumably nobody will risk taking a copy of the DW Missal up to him if they choose to ask about it, although this would be like stannding up to a bully anyhow. Best not to if you don't want to get your clothes dirty.

My point throughout the time I've been doing this blog is becoming clearer to me, and it's basically that devout Catholics are best off avoiding the ordinariates, especially as they're at best just likely to meet unpleasant and narcissistic people and priests, but also because they do risk hearing error from people who resist authority.