Q. 1. During the renovations of our Church, the kneelers were removed to stop the faithful from kneeling during the Holy Mass. What is the Church teaching on this matter?

A. 1. Even if no kneelers are present, the faithful are still required to kneel during the Consecration of the Holy Mass, unless there is not adequate physical space to do so. (DOL 1411) Such are rare and exceptional cases.

The "General Instruction of the Roman Missal" states that "Unless other provision is made, at every Mass the people should stand... from the prayer over the gifts until the end of the Mass, except at the places indicated later in this paragraph... They should sit,... if this seems helpful, during the period of silence after communion. They should kneel at the Consecration unless prevented by the lack of space, the number of people present, or some other good reason. [SC Divine Worship, General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 4 th edition, 27 March 1975,no. 21 (DOL 1411) [hereafter cited as GIRM].]

Additional information is provided in the journal Notitiae. The phrase "kneel at the consecration," was interpreted as follows:

"They also stand throughout the eucharistic prayer, except the consecration. The practice is for the faithful to remain kneeling from the epiclesis before the consecration until the memorial acclamation after it." [Notitiae 14 (1978) 300-301, no. 1.]