A (renewed, modest, mobile) Prie-Dieu Proposal

A year ago now, Al Matt Jr., editor of The Wanderer, made a modest proposal to ease the crisis for those desiring to kneel to receive communion:

"Now that the Vatican has made it crystal clear that kneeling to receive Holy Communion remains an inviolable right of Catholics, despite the adoption (with Rome’s approval) that standing will be the norm for the Church in the U.S., parishes must seriously consider how to accommodate those who wish to kneel...

"...There is a very simple solution to the problem. In the case of a church having no Communion rail, a simple priedieu or kneeler should be placed at the front of a Communion station. A line of those wishing to kneel would form behind the prie-dieu to await their turn... After Mass, the prie-dieu would be returned to its normal location. Problem solved. Seriously, no one except an unregenerate liturgical nazi can object to this simple and most pastoral solution to what otherwise could become an ugly and divisive situation."

This was an excellent proposal that failed to spark the support and widespread distribution it rightfully deserved.

Here then, is a (renewed, modest and mobile) Prie-Dieu Proposal.

Recall that many of the worst liturgical innovations of our day began life as illicit and disobedient local practices that became so widespread as to make it easier for the hierarchy to adopt them as licit than try to suppress them. The prudence of this Vatican approach can be debated elsewhere, but the efficiency with which the liberal liturgical innovators accomplished their goals cannot be debated.

Let us reverse this trend in this one instance.

While the disobedient liturgical innovators were scandalously undermining tradition and Euchariustic theology, we have tradition, Eucharistic theology, and the Vatican on our side (see Wanderer articles below.)

And while Al Matt Jr.'s proposal was right on target, it didn't go far enough. Obviously, after years of active suppression of kneeling, most bishops and priests are unlikely to provide the communion rails and prie-dieus neccessary to fulfill Mr. Matt's original Prie-Dieu Proposal.

Therefore, its time we bring our own.

Unlikely as it sounds, there are already numerous inexpensive products on the mass market that would fulfull the needs of a lightweight, sturdy, yet fully portable prie-dieu. Some of those among our older population who yearn to kneel once again are already accustomed to assisted mobility devices, and the rest of us have seen them. Many of us even have folding portable garden kneelers in our sheds.

Here are links with pictures of several products that would already serve well (folding gardening kneelers) or could be inexpensively re-engineered or adapted from existing products (such as assisted mobility devices and folding cane seats):

If we can spend millions designing and purchasing kneelers for our gardens and walkers and canes with seats for our infirmities, might we not spend a fraction of that developing and marketing a product with which we can cultivate our souls for our eternal destiny? If we grasp the neccessity to our prayer life of the portable material object called the Rosary, is it so much to ask that until kneeling is restored we bring our own prie-dieu? Yes, one may kneel without a prie-dieu. Likewise, one may pray the Rosary without the physical Rosary itself. But both give tangible witness to and reinforce our Faith.

Given the entreprenurial spirit and keen insight of many orthodox lay Catholics, I'm certain one of them will look at the suggestions above and design a new, purpose-built, lightweight, sturdy, portable and inexpensive prie-dieu. This would help fulfill the needs of what should become a growing movement to restore the respect, reverence, and posture due Our Lord, at whose name once again "every knee shall bow, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2: 10-11)

See the December 12, 2002 article in The Wanderer, The Prie-Dieu Proposal.

Brian J. Kopp, DPM, is vice president of the Catholic Family Association of America, officer of the board of the Polycarp Research Institute, a member of the Catholic Media Coalition, and freelance Catholic writer.