Cardinal: No Communion in the Hand!

It is rare that I find good news in the The Tablet (aka the bitter pill). They do however try to make the worst of a a good situation.

The Tablet reports that Peruvian Cardinal Cardinal Luis Cipriani Thorne has banned communion in the hand in his diocese.

I have received on the tongue for about the past 12 years. It was not long after my reconversion and my deepening love
for the Blessed Sacrament that I saw that I could no longer receive this way.

Yet I have been an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion since in my 20s. I no longer serve at Mass but did for years. I saw grubby hands reach out in boredom for the Sacred Host. We would find Hosts in the missals and in the Church. Reverence had taken flight to a large extent.

Now I still take communion to the hospitalized and homebound for we do not have priests who wish to do this.
If the laity did not step up here, our sick would not recieve Holy Communion. But I will be willing to let this go if our priests and deacons would visit the sick.

For Communion, I like a rail the very best of all.

The Priesthood was instituted at the Last Supper. Therefore the Apostles could self-communicate.

Interesting point. However, I simply see nothing wrong with receiving on my hands, unless my hands were dirty.

Speaking of which, I sometimes am not too keen on having just shaken hands with someone who has a cold or worse and then take the host in my hand.

So, for that practical reason, I would be willing to go back to the old way.

If the priest places the Host on the communicant’s tongue properly, his fingers will never come into contact with the person’s mouth.

If he were giving Communion in the hand, he would almost have to touch the person’s hand to make sure the Host was securely placed there. It’s much easier to place the Host on the tongue without actually touching it.

I’ve received many times where it felt as if the Host just floated onto my tongue. So you see, if done properly, there’s much more chance of catching a virus with Communion in the hand.

Thank you so much for the ping and post! (St. Magdalene is one of my patron saints :-)

I saw grubby hands reach out in boredom for the Sacred Host. We would find Hosts in the missals and in the Church. Reverence had taken flight to a large extent.

Not surprising at all. I recall one of the male EMHCs at my previous parish would douse himself with cologne; the hosts he distributed bore that fragrance.

You are absolutely correct when you say that reverence took flight. In the Maronite Catholic Church, there are NO EMHCs. Communion is distributed by intinction and only by the priest with the words: "The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be given to you for the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life." Infants and young children who have not yet received the Sacrament of First Communion are blessed when Father touches their heads with the base of the ciborium. This is reverence!

At one time I had considered becoming a EMHC but I was raised by the good sisters who told us only the priest may touch the host. Our pastor is bi-ritual (Maronite & Latin Rites). He assists the RC diocese by saying mass at priestless parishes in order to consecrate enough hosts for their weekend lay run services. Like you, he has shared stories about people receiving in the hand. He actually had to chase down one communicant when he noticed they had dropped the host into their jacket pocket.

If the laity did not step up here, our sick would not recieve Holy Communion. But I will be willing to let this go if our priests and deacons would visit the sick.

Absolutely right!! Last year I was hospitalized twice. My pastor came to administer the Sacrament of Healing on both occasions. Hospital staff were surprised to see a priest in the hospital. Like you, he often visits the sick and says Mass at a local Catholic hospital. When he approached one bed ridden Catholic woman, to bring her communion and chrism, she turned him away. Essentially, she turned Christ away.

We need to come up with a better way to catechize Catholics in this country.

My understanding is that communion on the tongue prevents any part of the Body of Christ from winding up on the ground, which would be a big problem.

It is probably the main reason why churches choose to use the circular wafers as opposed to the crumbly bread. After all, Christ and His Apostles didn’t use circular wafers at the Last Supper, did he?

The priest used to keep his thumb and forefinger together, for this same reason, to prevent any particles from the Host (seen and unseen) from falling on the ground. It is also the reason why the altar has a corporal cloth on it. Priests after communion would wash their thumb and forefinger with water into the chalice when he cleaned it, and corporals would be carefully folded and placed into the burse to prevent any particles from falling.

Of course, some churches don’t use circular wafers, and some priests don’t keep their thumb and forefinger together, and some altar servers don’t stand off to the side holding a paten to catch the Host if it is in danger of falling to the ground, and some priests don’t clean their thumbs or forefingers, or their chalices after communion, and some parishes don’t know what the heck a burse is.

So I can see why some people wouldn’t understand the whole communion on the tongue thing.

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