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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

How can I defend the Church’s teaching on liturgical gestures?

Catholic Answers Staff

Question:

There will be a forum held at my parish about postures and practices at Mass, like bowing before receiving our Lord. How can I defend the Church’s teaching and practice when I don’t have the formal training or education? The sister facilitating the forum has a master’s degree in liturgy.

Answer:

Whenever you find yourself in this situation, I suggest that you ask—politely—to be provided with a copy of the authoritative document from which the person is getting her information. If she cannot do this, she should at least be able to provide the name of the document, the section or paragraph from which the directive is stated, and the source from which the document came (e.g., National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Bishops’ Committee on Liturgy, the pope). In this way, you can verify whether or not the document has any authority. If you are unsure of its authority, you can contact the apologetics department at Catholic Answers for assistance.

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