Altar rails are barely surviving the impacts of the liturgical changes of the Second Vatican Council. If you see altar rails in your churches nowadays, that’s probably because your parish is rich and you need the rails to adorn the altar. Some lucky (and I mean blessed) churches, though, have been in the care of holy pastors and holy bishops in the past seven decades, and so some altar rails were preserved. But again, they are generally not serving their purpose in parishes where Masses are celebrated in the New Form. They’re but an adornment inside these churches. If your parish do have them and are being used even in Novus Ordo Masses, then you probably are ones or the most blessed Catholics on the planet.

Before I tell you why we need the rails back, here are two anecdotes that happened at the Saint Michael Minor Basilica in Tayabas City, Philippines. The first one happened with my son in 2021 when he was 6. He has autism. He loves running, especially when being chased, and so we are very careful of him when inside a church. We were entering the basilica when we noticed he was already meters away running towards the altar. I was carrying our youngest (1 year old) and was holding our second child (5 years old), so my wife had no option but to join our son in the race. Most autistic children don’t respond when called, so our portrayal of being strict and monstrous parents didn’t work. So my wife had to sprint through the 103-meter aisle of the basilica (probably still the longest in the country), hoping she’d catch our son. She did her best, but our son was faster. He effortlessly went through the aisle, climbed at the altar, and headed towards the staircase going to the tabernacle, which is located at the innermost part of the sanctuary. Our son was very happy to have won the race while his mother was catching her breath due to exhaustion. Luckily, this happened before the Mass, and so there were fewer people, and therefore, less damage was done.

But this other occasion is different. My wife and I witnessed this during a Holy Week celebration at the same basilica in 2022. A random man entered the church shouting and running towards the altar. He was drunk. He laid on the empty altar table while looking at the cupola of the church, still shouting. The scene lasted about 3 minutes as nobody dared to approach the man because of fear. Even the priests who were at the altar couldn’t do anything. Luckily, policemen in the parameters of the church were made aware, and so they dragged the person out, and the celebration resumed shortly after sanitizing the altar.

My point for sharing these experiences: Both incidents would have been avoided if the basilica had the altar rails. But this church, like most churches nowadays, has embraced a more protestantized layout of the place of worship. Catholic altars now look like a theatre whereby the artists performing the show are the main focus. For me, this is one of the reasons why the Catholic Church is in crisis. We took God out of focus and turned ourselves to the celebrants as the center of attention. This has become a culture in the Latin church, and it would be impossible to have an immediate solution to this crisis. But here are the reasons why the Church should consider the altar rails back.

1. There is not a single magisterial mandate stating that altar rails should be removed. Nobody from the Holy See suggested their removal.

2. Communion rails protect the sanctuary and maintain its distinctive character compared to the other parts of the Church.

3. Canon 1210 states that the altar is reserved for activities for promoting the Eucharist and the piety of religion. Anything that is not consonant with the sanctity of the place should be avoided. This exhortation can easily be complied with by altar rails.

4. It is a physical aid acting as a space for a reverent reception of the Holy Communion. Traditionally, it supports the communion cloth, which is used to save particles of the Holy Eucharist from falling to the ground.

5. It increases awareness of the Real Presence, and so it promotes reverence. It helps keep the rythm of solemnness.

6. It symbolizes the separation of heaven (altar) and earth (the nave). It is where we participate in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It’s where the faithful, the bride of Christ, culminates the offering of their own sacrifices and unite them with Jesus the head of the Church through the Holy Communion.

Without reconsidering the use of the altar rails, churches are deliberately participating in this worsening pandemic of lack of belief in the Real Presence of God in the Holy Eucharist, which is the main cause of the Church crisis. Instead of investing millions of dollars in catechesis, talks, social media contents, and congresses, churches should install the altar rails back and bring back the practice of receiving communion on the tongue while kneeling. They’re way too cheaper and more effective in the long term.

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Photo source: Latin Mass Photographer