38. Fourthly and finally, the Congregation for the Correction of the Euchologion at its meeting on September 5, 1745, discussed the question of whether the rite of the greater entrance which We have been describing should be abolished or corrected. After full discussion, it decided that no innovations should be made; we subsequently confirmed this decision. No different, of course, were the opinions of the Congregations which examined this very question in the time of Urban VIII. However they advised that Bishops and others who have the care of souls should be sure to teach the uninstructed laity that the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ are not present under the appearances of the sacred gifts while these are being carried in solemn rite from the prothesis to the main altar, since they have not yet been consecrated. Therefore, the extemal acts of reverence displayed towards the still unconsecrated gifts are not performed to offer the service of Latria, which is due to God alone, but to render a lesser service directed to the approaching transubstantiation of those gifts into the Body and Blood of the Lord.

A similar measure was employed by the fathers of the Council of Trent when they discussed the veneration and service of sacred images. They decided, that while no change should be made in the ancient practice of the Church in this matter, it was incumbent on the bishops and on others who teach to instruct the Christian people on the relevant points (session 25, Decreto de invocatione, et veneratione, et Reliquiis Sanctorum, et Sacris Immaginibus). With more immediate relevance to Our subject, Goarius in the passage mentioned earlier likewise advised that the rite of the greater entrance should not be abrogated, but that the people should be taught with appropriate proofs: "Certainly the faith of that simple people should be instructed, but their devotion should never be quenched nor their external cult wholly abolished." So too, Philipus de Carboneano in his Appendix ad Tract. P. Antoine de Eucharistia, sect. 3, concludes that "there are no grounds for blame in this case, but the simple people should be taught not to reverence those gifts as the Body and Blood of Christ."

But if you take this measure, as We are confident you shall, you will wholly escape the accusation levelled by Arcudius at the Greek bishops of his day. He stated that while the people then lived in the darkest ignorance, the bishops could easily have cured their blindness by means of appropriate teaching, if they had not refrained from undertaking this task through fear of worldly censure. "The Greek bishops could and should carefully advise the people, and if they worked together they could achieve much. But perhaps they themselves are afflicted with the same disease and live in the same error on account of their ignorance. Or if some of them indeed understand, these few fear the majority because they fear to lose earthly glory and human regard and they dread that their name will be trodden underfoot by the mob like the heretics'. And so they give an excellent imitation of the others' error, at least outwardly, and they ignore these matters in deep silence, pretending they do not exist. So the blind lead the blind and they all fall into the ditch" (de Concordia, bk. 3, chap. 19).