[NYer]

One thing that really bothered me this past Feast of St. Blase, and on Ash Wednesday, was lay people blessing throats, and distributing ashes. I immediately got into the line where the priest was as I didn’t want lay people doing the functions that I believe only priests should do.

It's gone too far in some dioceses (like mine). You did the right thing. Pray ... pray for vocations and pray that for strong bishops.

[Miss Marple]

I have a question. Our parish has 4 priests, although now one is on a sabbatical and one is retired and only does the Spanish mass and subs once in a while in the English masses. We also have a permanent deacon.

Normally there are 4 priests available. We have 1 mass on Saturday evening and 5 English masses and 1 Spanish mass on Sunday. All of the English masses have 6-8 extraordinary ministers of communion.

So my question is, have all of these lay people just sort of appeared, or was there a need for them? (Our parish is huge and all masses are heavily attended.) I know our monsignor is sort of reluctant to tell people no, but it seems to me that the priests could serve communion even if they weren’t celebrating mass. But maybe I am just being over-picky.