Should Catholics kneel during Eucharistic Prayer?

BELLEVILLE -- A controversy about whether to stand or kneel during the high point of the Roman Catholic Mass has spread from one church in the Belleville Diocese to several others.

In a three-page letter to the Rev. Albert Kreher, pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Trenton, Belleville Bishop Edward K. Braxton said parishioners must kneel, rather than stand, during the reading of the Eucharistic Prayer. Braxton sent a similar message to Monsignor James Margason, pastor of Corpus Christi Church in Shiloh.

At St. Boniface Church in Germantown, Monsignor James A. Buerster said his parishioners have stood for years during the reading of the prayer, despite a 1969 decision by what is now known as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Buerster said many Catholics stand in other parts of the world, especially in Europe.