“There’s no need to receive the Precious Blood in that species in that instance. The Host, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in its entirety. Also, are you saying there’s no deacon at your parish to assist?”
Thank you for the Theology lesson. However, I do believe that our church leaders, this Pope and prior Popes, have established that the Eucharist should be distributed under both species whenever possible. Even if your recommendation were followed, do you thnk it reasonable to expect one priest to distribute Communion wafers to over 1,200 people at each of 6 Masses?
In our diocese of San Bernardino, we are so short priests that quite a few parishes no longer have any priest assigned. Without the assistance of lay parishioners, our local parishes would fall apart. Quite a few of the parishes have a lay person as the administrator who handles the day-to-day business administration so that the priest is freed up to handle religious duties.
If your diocese does not have enough priests, then they should be actively recruiting for deacons and assign them to parishes to assist the priests. The use of Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers should be exactly as the title implies... extraordinary.
If the church does not have enough ordinary Eucharistic Ministers to distribute the communion, then it should be counted as a situation where it is not practical to have the congregation receive under both species. If they must use EOMs, they should be limited to a small number that can be closely observed and counseled by the priest. Sixteen is far too many people, I’ve seen communion flow quickly and smoothly to crowds like that with 3 or 4 priests & deacons.
My parish averages 5000 families a week (mostly big families too) and they manage to distribute communion very efficiently at the communion rail without any EOMs. I’ve never heard them quote individuals, but I would guess least 15K people during the course of 9 Masses between Saturday evening and Sunday.