((((Shudder)))) Oh brother! Thanks for proving the point that most catholics have lost all concept of the Real Presence. Once something sacred is manhandled, reverence is lost. (BTW - laypersons who distribute communion are not eucharistic ministers but extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. On the priest can properly be called minister of the Eucharist because he is the only person who can confect the Eucharist.)
But in years of observation, I have yet to see any abuse at a Traditional Latin Mass.
This is also true in the Eastern Catholic Churches which prohibit distribution of communion in the hand and the use of EMHCs. In all of these churches only the bishop, priest or deacon may distribute communion and only on the tongue.
**On the priest can properly be called minister of the Eucharist because he is the only person who can confect the Eucharist.)**
Absolutely. lay ministers are not to be called Eucharistic ministers -- the only Eucharistic minister at any Mass is the priest.
Actually, I'm glad nobody has replied saying that it's not the diocese's or the bishops' fault that individual Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence, or that their concept has changed over the past 40 years. Please go ahead and check with anyone who has been to one of the training programs for so-called Extraordinary E.M., and ask them what is taught there. The problem is that the people running the training sessions have lost their faith, and the bishops continue to let them teach. Does this mean the bishops have lost their faith?
I'll let you answer that question for yourself.
I know they are called "Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers," but if that were an honest title, they would be usually absent at mass. They're not. They are the norm. In fact, at some local parishes now, the person standing behind the altar saying the liturgy is one of these, not a priest. They call the service a "communion service" not a mass. Under the excuse that there "are not enough priests to go around," laymen are now standing in for the priests, and they are not necessarily deacons, either. One venue had this person in white vestments like the priests wear, without any colored sash or mantle or anything on top of the white, raising arms and saying all the words of the liturgy for the mass that day, except for the Eucharistic Prayer. Most of the scattered congregation was not in the least interested, nor did they seem to approve. The celebrant was a woman.
Another parish had the usual eucharistic ministers mulling about behind the priest during the consecration, acting a bit like circling vultures, come to think of it. When communion began, the women ministers were eager to first share the corruptible stemware with each other. They were diligent not to just take one and drink from it, but to only take one and hand it to someone ELSE for her to take a sip. Immediately after each one took her sample, she smiled at the woman that handed her the glass cup, nodding her approval, apparently like a wine tasting party, as if to compliment the choice of vintage or whatever.
At each of these events, the moment I describe is the last one I can honestly relate, because at those points in time I walked out in disgust, never to return.