A more sanitary communion?

[Jea9]

I say this as someone working in a hospital where we have and have had several cases of H1N1, also as someone who receives on the tongue but not from the chalice (for other reasons, not germs), one is far more likely to get the virus from banisters, pews, railings and especially ANY surface in a bathroom. Generally speaking, priests wash their hands before starting Mass, and they aren’t touching a lot of areas where they can pick anything up. I agree with a previous poster who said that the germophobic mentality of society today is making a much bigger deal out of this.

I will say that I think holding hands during the Our Father, and the Sign of Peace, should be omitted during this outbreak. I think that receiving on the tongue is a much more sanitary way to receive Holy Communion, assuming the priest and communicant know the proper way to do so.

In general I think that people’s hands are gross, most people not in food industry and healthcare do not wash their hands often enough, and even those that do work in those industries don’t always at the appropriate time. I also think that the people who use hand sanitizer every five minutes are doing so to their own detriment.

OK…off my soap box now!

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Why does the distributor need to touch the wafer at all?

How is it going to get from the ciborium to your mouth? You can’t have everyone’s hand in the ciborium, that would even be worse.

 

[workingman]

In my opinion nothing should be changed with communion. Do not remove any options from the lay faithful. The challis if it has been removed should be given back to the lay faithful. In my parish all is still a option(and I will continue to partake of bolth). I know the Church teaches both elements are present in the body or the blood but we were commanded to eat and to drink not one or the other regardless of what is present.

Sorry my own little rant. I just think this whole H1N1 while a very real danger is blown up by our lovely media terrorist.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

In my opinion nothing should be changed with communion. Do not remove any options from the lay faithful. The challis if it has been removed should be given back to the lay faithful. In my parish all is still a option(and I will continue to partake of bolth). I know the Church teaches both elements are present in the body or the blood but we were commanded to eat and to drink not one or the other regardless of what is present.

Sorry my own little rant. I just think this whole H1N1 while a very real danger is blown up by our lovely media terrorist.

I believe that removing the Chalice from the laity will help curb the misunderstanding that is a growing error among many that Communion is somehow incomplete when a person receives only the Host.

 

[SFisher]

How is it going to get from the ciborium to your mouth? You can’t have everyone’s hand in the ciborium, that would even be worse.

The wafer could get dropped into your hand.

 

[Phemie]

The wafer could get dropped into your hand.

How, with tongs? The priest or EMHC still has to pick it up.

I keep thinking that I’m safer now than I was several years ago when our pastor had a nasty habit of picking his nose, his scabs, his hair & his ears as he listened to the readings. Many of us used to just close our eyes to avoid seeing what he was doing. We still received from him.

 

[MusicMan]

I believe that removing the Chalice from the laity will help curb the misunderstanding that is a growing error among many that Communion is somehow incomplete when a person receives only the Host.

Are you sure this has occurred? We’ve only had the cup available to the laity for the past 40 years. Has that been enough time for such an error to crop up and be a threat?

 

[Phemie]

Are you sure this has occurred? We’ve only had the cup available to the laity for the past 40 years. Has that been enough time for such an error to crop up and be a threat?

We see evidence of it on these boards all the time, people who get indignant when the Cup is not offered to the laity because as far as they’re concerned they’re not receiving “full Communion”.

 

[SFisher]

How, with tongs? The priest or EMHC still has to pick it up.

I keep thinking that I’m safer now than I was several years ago when our pastor had a nasty habit of picking his nose, his scabs, his hair & his ears as he listened to the readings. Many of us used to just close our eyes to avoid seeing what he was doing. We still received from him.

I’ve heard rumors of a dispenser of some type. Nobody touches the wafer at all except the person receiving it…maybe just a rumor though…

 

[Jea9]

Are you sure this has occurred? We’ve only had the cup available to the laity for the past 40 years. Has that been enough time for such an error to crop up and be a threat?

This has been a problem before, the reason that the laity have only been able to receive under both species in the last 40 years is precisely BECAUSE there’s been a problem. Read this article by Karl Keating catholic.com/thisrock/2007/0701lw.asp and you’ll see it’s been a problem before.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I’ve heard rumors of a dispenser of some type. Nobody touches the wafer at all except the person receiving it…maybe just a rumor though…

I don’t think that we should treat Christ like a Gumball, some “lick” Him off their hand as through He were a piece of popcorn as it is now.

 

[MusicMan]

Intinction, on the tongue, priest/deacon distributing only. Problem solved. Down, set, hike.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Intinction, on the tongue, priest/deacon distributing only. Problem solved. Down, set, hike.

Except for the fact that some priests and deacons do not know how to give communion on the tongue as some have stated in this thread.

Even with this, the hosts are still handled and not only by the priest and deacon but by the sacristian before Mass.

 

[MacNeill]

When used properly you can not clamp down. You would tilt your head back and open your mouth. The priest places the spoon over your open mouth and dumps the contents into your mouth. The spoon should not enter your mouth.

Not that I am aware of.

I don’t believe I have ever witnessed communion in a Byzantine parish where at least 6 per 50 did not “clamp down”, be they kids, babies, visitors, etc.

The saving grace of this means of communion is the alcoholic (disinfectant) content of the sop being distributed.

 

[MacNeill]

Except for the fact that some priests and deacons do not know how to give communion on the tongue as some have stated in this thread.

Even with this, the hosts are still handled and not only by the priest and deacon but by the sacristian before Mass.

Even if they do, odd movements by communicants often lead to “wet fingers.”

 

[MusicMan]

I believe that we have discovered, as my fellow Star Trek fans and I would say, the Kobyashi Maru. Or the “no win scenario.”

 

[monicatfp2]

Hi all,

With all the recent concerns about H1N1 and public health in general, do we need to think about implementing new procedures that make the administration of the sacraments more sanitary? Any thoughts or concerns? Thanks,

SF

I think that we are trying to have it both ways: We Previously said that there were no health problems from receiving from the cup .(The wine has alcohol in it, The cup was wiped after the previous person recieved from it.) Now we are saying that there might be germs in it. Which way is the truth?