People who normally have the priest place a communion host on their tongues will now receive it in their hands.
How could Holy Water and the actual Body of Jesus Christ get contaminated with a virus??? Surely there must be some Catholics wondering that as well...
Body of Christ no chance, priest’s fingers very possibly.
Actually, I'll be honest with you and say I was a bit disappointed Abp. O'Brien restricted the consumption of the Precious Blood. Not only for the reason you stated, but also because, since it has the "appearance" of alcohol the virus would find an inhospitable environment.
After all, again for honesty sakes, it's always everyone's choice as to whether or not to receive the Precious Blood for this very same reason. Some are always afraid of the possibility of contracting others' illnesses, and never partake in that species. The only reason it kind of made sense in this case was that there have been some outbreaks of the so-called "swine flu" in our diocese, so perhaps His Excellency was more concerned than usual.
What I kind of felt sorry for were people who may have had allergies to gluten. As you may very well know already, reception of one species is the same as receiving both so those people usually only receive the Precious Blood instead of the Consecrated Host. But now, they have nothing to receive. I guess they could talk to their pastor about that. Maybe be an Extraordinary Eucharist Minister so they could go up to the altar and receive the Blood there. etc.
Oh and as for the Holy Water, that’s a Sacramental, not a Sacrament, so it’s not transformed in any way into Christ’s body soul and divinity. It’s Holy, yes, but not Christ Himself.
I listened to a fascinating CD a while ago by Rosalynd Moss (I believe that’s how her name is spelled) entitled “Catholicism’s Jewish Roots” (or something like that). In it, she made an interesting point about “holiness”. “Holiness”, according to her is not being “sin free” (as the Saints of old were not “sin free” like Christ was/is). It’s a state of being “chosen” for a “task” (and accepting that task as far as humans go)
So in this sense, Holy Water is chosen to be the vehicle for dispensing God’s saving Grace during Baptism, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that the water itself is free of all biological contaminants. It means that the water has the ability to wash away sin because of the power of God, but not that it’s somehow “super filtered” by the same power.
It’s similar to the logic that is used when we call the Pope “Holy Father”. We don’t mean to imply that he is somehow “sin free”, but rather that he has been chosen to complete a (very special) task here on earth, namely being Christ’s representative (or steward) until His Glorious return.
This was mentioned earlier:
Pardon me, but I contend that some of their religious rituals in Mexico are part of their overall health problems. Sharing a cup with everyone in the community, and having someone put their hand in every ones mouth? Does not sound like a sanitary environment. Could be why they have so much hepatitis, typhoid, dysentery, and parasite issues.
238 posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 2:05:20 PM by AH_LiveRight
There was much speculation here on FR and on other forums (blogs) that the virus must be attacking a specific DNA sequence. Otherwise reasonable folks ignored Occams Razor- oftentimes the simplest answer is so obvious yet we choose to ignore it because of our own disposition to such behavior. Specifically when it comes to faith, tradition, ritual, dogma, or creed. Science and reason is clashing with religion here. With predictable results.
249 posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 3:37:06 PM by AH_LiveRight
It is also interesting to note that the New York school with the most cases is a Catholic school, where the students had traveled to Mexico.