Posted on Mar 2, 2008 by admin
For longer than a thousand years receiving on the tongue has been mandatory, and for two millennium a multitude of Church apologists believed that only those fortunate few who were ordained had the right to touch the Body of Christ. In the 1960’s the Catholic Church in Belgium embraced the Protestant idea that anyone could touch communion. Somehow they failed to take into consideration that Protestants had nothing to lose: only those ordained in the Catholic Church are capable of turning bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Our Savior, which we call transubstantiation. Protestants don’t believe in the Real Presence, never have, and have nothing to lose by touching “communion.” It is merely bread and wine. On the other hand, Catholics have everything to lose by treating the Real Presence carelessly or irreverently. Roman Catholicism is the cradle of the Holy Eucharist, a gift from Jesus Christ Himself at the Last Supper to his people – an incalculable treasure available to all those who believe in and adore the Real Presence, which is God Himself, within the Catholic Church. From Belgium the practice of laypeople receiving communion-in-the-hand soon spread to other countries. Pope Pius VI, apparently with a desire not to correct a wayward bishop of the Church, issued Memoriale Domini in 1969 allowing communion-in-the-hand under specific limited circumstances. By 1973 the practice of communion-in-the-hand was successfully sponsored by Cardinal Bernardin in the U.S. By then Rome had introduced and allowed “extraordinary ministers,” laypeople who could distribute Holy Communion under extraordinary circumstances. The document authorizing the introduction of extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist is an Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, issued on January 29, 1973, entitled Immensae caritatis. It authorizes the use of extraordinary ministers in “case of genuine necessity.” What were, and are, those circumstances of genuine necessity? They are listed as whenever… <!–[if !supportLists]–>(a) <!–[endif]–>there is no priest, deacon, or acolyte;<!–[if !supportLists]–>(b) <!–[endif]–>these are prevented from administering Holy Communion because of another pastoral ministry or because of ill health or advanced age;<!–[if !supportLists]–>(c) <!–[endif]–>the number of the faithful requesting Holy Communion is such that the celebration of Mass or the distribution of the Eucharist outside Mass would be unduly prolonged. The Instruction stipulates that: Since these faculties are granted only for the spiritual good of the faithful and for cases of genuine necessity priests are to remember that they are not thereby excused from the task of distributing the Eucharist to the faithful who legitimately request it, and especially from taking and giving it to the sick. A major problem quickly surfaced with the wording in Immensae caritatis – “unduly prolonged,” which could be 5 minutes or 105 minutes, and is completely arbitrary. Latching onto this loophole, some clergy flooded churches worldwide with volunteer extraordinary ministers. To soften any criticism, the title “extraordinary minister” was eventually dropped in favor of the more acceptable term “eucharistic minister.” Yet even this euphemism cannot hide the simple fact that the practice is reserved for “extraordinary circumstances,” and not for everyday usage. Thus the abuse of communion-in-the-hand was mirrored by laypeople who – in the vast majority of cases – should never be allowed to touch the Real Presence for the simple reason that circumstances seldom, if ever, demand it. Their hands, simply put, are not ordained. Here are a few thoughts on the practice of laypeople touching the Body and Blood of Our Savior, and why none of us ever should, except for extraordinary circumstances… Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise, San Luis, Argentina, 1997: “With Communion in the hand, a miracle would be required during each distribution of Communion to avoid some Particles from falling to the ground or remaining in the hand of the faithful…. Let us speak clearly: whoever receives Communion in the mouth not only follows exactly the tradition handed down but also the wish expressed by the last Popes and thus avoids placing himself in the occasion of committing a sin by negligently dropping a fragment of the Body of Christ.” Michael Davies, A Privilege of the Ordained, 1990: “The introduction of Communion in the hand was invariably followed by the introduction of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Unlike the practice of Communion in the hand, which was accepted in the Church for some centuries, the use of extraordinary ministers during the Mass has no historical precedent. Not a shred of evidence can be brought forward to prove that Holy Communion has ever been distributed during the liturgy by anyone but a bishop, priest of deacon.” Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, 1980: “To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained…” “But one must not forget the primary office of priests, who have been consecrated by their ordination to represent Christ the Priest: for this reason their hands, like their words and their will, have become the direct instruments of Christ. Through this fact, that is, as ministers of the Holy Eucharist, they have a primary responsibility for the sacred species, because it is a total responsibility: they offer the bread and wine, they consecrate it, and then distribute the sacred species to the participants in the assembly who wish to receive them. Deacons can only bring to the altar the offerings of the faithful and, once they have been consecrated by the priest, distribute them. How eloquent therefore, even if not of ancient custom, is the rite of the anointing of the hands in our Latin ordination, as though precisely for these hands a special grace and power of the Holy Spirit is necessary!” Cardinal Heenan, in common with so many bishops, gave way on the question of allowing lay ministers of Holy Communion. On February 2, 1974, he used the occasion of commissioning a group of these ministers to lament the decline in reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament:“At one time it would have been unthinkable for anyone without anointed hands to touch the Sacred Species. In this century there has been a steady diminution of outward signs of respect for sacred objects. When I was a boy there was a scale of values. It was understood that anyone could handle a ciborium or monstrance, but only the priest could touch the chalice because it was consecrated. Until recent times we priests kissed each sacred vestment as we put it on, we genuflected before and after touching the Sacred Host. The new rubrics abolished the kissing and reduced genuflections to a minimum. . . the loss of outward marks of respect lead the simple-minded to lose their sense of reverence. Some have begun to ignore the Blessed Sacrament. They do not genuflect to the Blessed Sacrament and do not kneel in adoration when they come into church.”
The Council of Trent, 1545-1565: “The fact that only the priest gives Holy Communion with his consecrated hands is an Apostolic Tradition.” St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Summa Theologica, Volume III, Q. 82, Art. 13: “The dispensing of Christ’s Body belongs to the priest for three reasons. First, because He consecrates in the person of Christ. But as Christ consecrated His Body at the Supper, so also He gave It to others to be partaken of by them. Accordingly, as the consecration of Christ’s body belongs to the priest, so likewise does the dispensing belong to him. Secondly, because the priest is the appointed intermediary between God and the people, hence as it belongs to him to offer the people’s gifts to God, so it belongs to him to deliver the consecrated gifts to the people. Thirdly, because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it but what is consecrated, hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this sacrament. Hence it is not lawful for anyone to touch it, except from necessity, for instance if it were to fall upon the ground, or else in some other case of urgency.”
<!–[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–>
<!–[endif]–>The Council of Rouen (650): “Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layman or laywoman but only in their mouths.” St. Sixtus I (circa 115): “The sacred vessels are not to be handled by others than those consecrated to the Lord.”
