(LifeSiteNews) — In a recent interview with Matt Fradd on his podcast Pints With Aquinas, Father John Perricone described how Mother Teresa had once told him that receiving the Holy Eucharist on the hand was the worst evil she had seen in her decades as a religious.

During the podcast, which first aired April 13, Perricone recalled having breakfast with Mother Teresa, who had attended his Mass on several occasions, and how he had asked the nun about the most evil thing she had seen in her work with the most vulnerable across the globe. The priest emphasized how, without hesitation, the sainted nun said, “Communion in the hand.”

“I remember once I said, ‘Mother, you’ve been in the worst areas, sectors of the world imaginable, and you’ve seen the greatest evils. Tell me, of all the things that you’ve seen, what can you tell me is the worst evil you’ve come across?” he recalled. “I suspected she was going to say abortion or euthanasia, (but) she looked at me without missing a beat and she said, ‘Communion in the hand.’”

Perricone continued: “I said, ‘Mother, truly.’ She said, ‘Absolutely, Father, what dishonor to Our Blessed Savior.’”

St. Mother Teresa told this priest the greatest evil she’d ever seen was Communion in the HAND https://t.co/ztfhHO7ULF

— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) April 16, 2026

The tradition of the Catholic Church for many centuries, unbroken until after the Second Vatican Council, is that the lay faithful receive the Blessed Sacrament, the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the tongue while kneeling.

Indeed, in Memoriale Domini, the 1969 Vatican document in which Pope Paul VI granted bishops permission to distribute the Eucharist in the hand, the pontiff reaffirmed that the ancient practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue “must be retained … especially because it expresses the faithful’s reverence for the Eucharist.”

WATCH: Irish priest equates receiving Communion on the tongue with feeding animals

Several prominent Catholic clerics have slammed the now widespread practice of receiving Holy Communion on the hand.

In 2018, Cardinal Robert Sarah, then-prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, emphasized that widespread practice of receiving the Eucharist on the hand is part of Satan’s diabolical attack on the sacrament.

“Why do we insist on receiving Communion standing and on the hand?” Sarah pondered. The manner in which the Holy Eucharist is distributed and received, he wrote, “is an important question on which the Church today must reflect.”

Furthermore, a recent study confirmed that traditional liturgical practices surrounding the Eucharist, including the manner in which He is received, increase belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist.

In 2024, another study, the largest-ever survey of U.S. Catholics, conducted by the Real Presence Coalition (RPC), found that the majority of Catholics want an end to Communion on the hand and a return to reverent, solemn worship.

In recent years, despite the newfound popularity of receiving Communion on the tongue, several clerics have attempted to restrict this traditional method of receiving Our Lord.

Last summer, after Bishop Michael Martin, OFM, began discouraging traditional liturgical practices in his Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, such as receiving Communion on the tongue, faithful Catholics showed up en masse to kneel to receive the sacrament on the tongue at a Mass in which Martin was present.

Despite resistance from many faithful, Martin would ban the use of altar rails and Communion kneelers in December 2025, with the restrictions taking effect in January this year, prompting several of the faithful in the diocese to speak out against these “almost abusive” restrictions.

READ: Charlotte Catholics share their grief over bishop’s ‘almost abusive’ removal of altar rails