From Deacon Greg: Significant changes about receiving Communion

Two small but significant changes regarding Communion reception

April 27, 2013 By Deacon Greg Kandra

A website calls attention to this item in a USCCB newsletter on the new Roman Missal, from January:

What does the Missal say about the posture of the faithful when receiving Holy Communion? What about Communion in the hand?
Both of these questions are covered in no. 160 of the GIRM. It states clearly there that the “norm” established for  the United States for reception of Holy Communion is standing. In the 2003 GIRM, it stated that no one should be refused Communion if they kneel, but that afterward they should be properly catechized. In the current edition, the exhortation to catechesis is removed and the exception to the norm of standing is left to the discretion of the faithful: “unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling.” [emphasis mine] The Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 91, is then cited.
With regard to receiving Communion in the hand, there is a significant development from the 1985 GIRM to the 2003/2011 edition. Whereas in 1985, Communion in the hand was granted by virtue of an indult received in 1977, in the Roman Missal, Third Edition, Communion in the hand is now ordinary liturgical law for the United States, [emphasis mine] though every communicant retains the equal right of receiving on the tongue.