From a reader:
Every year we attend a youth conference held in a local hotel.
Ever since I can remember, they have everyone stand during Mass. They have even had announcements before the Masses saying that “we will follow the stance of the community and all stand”. When asked about the issue of standing during the Eucharistic prayer, they told me that there is a rule in the Church (universal) that if you are holding Mass in an unconsecrated space, then everyone should stand for that portion. I have never heard that, but it is what they go by. Are they right? If so, where does it say this?
Piffle.
If people are genuinely impeded from kneeling, they don’t have to kneel. The lack of kneelers, by the way, isn’t necessarily a genuine impediment.
In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, people everywhere are to kneel at least for the consecration. In the USA, people are to kneel from after the Sanctus to the end of the Great Doxology after the Eucharistic Prayer.
This doesn’t have anything to do with the place being consecrated or not consecrated.
That said, be of good cheer! Given the way things are going, if that is a youth conference, they will soon have to have the Extraordinary Form to get young people to come.
