Can a priest de-consecrate the host?

[Madaglan]

I know that when the priest prays over the bread and wine that it becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. My question is, just as the prist can consecrate the bread and wine so that they become the Body and Blood, can he also de-consecrate the Body and Blood through prayer so that they become, once again, only bread and wine?

Say, for example, that a priest is offering mass, when all of a sudden a number of Anabaptists (just to use an extreme example) come with pitchforks into the church and openly declare that they are going to steal the consecrated hosts and abuse them. Would the priest be able to de-consecrate the Body and Blood to thwart those who deny the Real Presence?

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Madaglan:

I know that when the priest prays over the bread and wine that it becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. My question is, just as the prist can consecrate the bread and wine so that they become the Body and Blood, can he also de-consecrate the Body and Blood through prayer so that they become, once again, only bread and wine?

Say, for example, that a priest is offering mass, when all of a sudden a number of Anabaptists (just to use an extreme example) come with pitchforks into the church and openly declare that they are going to steal the consecrated hosts and abuse them. Would the priest be able to de-consecrate the Body and Blood to thwart those who deny the Real Presence?

No, the Blessed Sacrament remains as long as the outward appearances of bread and wine remain. He would need to protect the Blessed Sacrament by consuming the elements or otherwise.

 

[sparkle]

It’s just so weird to me how so many churches think the Eucharist is a lie! An invented phenomenon, and that we “Catholics” make the whole thing up! Why I just read an article put out by “Grace Community Church” that stated just this! Unbelievable! They also said we have “another gospel” a “false one” and we think we are “saved by ceremonies, rituals and good works”. This is actually going around, and people are believing it!

 

[tuopaolo]

Madaglan:

I know that when the priest prays over the bread and wine that it becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. My question is, just as the prist can consecrate the bread and wine so that they become the Body and Blood, can he also de-consecrate the Body and Blood through prayer so that they become, once again, only bread and wine?

Say, for example, that a priest is offering mass, when all of a sudden a number of Anabaptists (just to use an extreme example) come with pitchforks into the church and openly declare that they are going to steal the consecrated hosts and abuse them. Would the priest be able to de-consecrate the Body and Blood to thwart those who deny the Real Presence?

I don’t think so, but I also don’t think the Church has ever specifically addressed this question as I don’t think someone has had the creativity to ask it before I don’t see any basis for there being a power to de-consecrate.

 

[JimG]

No. A priest has no power whatever to “de-consecrate” what has become the body and blood of the Lord at the consecration of the Mass.

It is Christ, acting through the person of the priest, who accomplishes the consecration of the Eucharistic species, to make present his one holy sacrifice. It is not a magic trick that can be undone at will. It is Jesus Christ. That is why we have a locked tabernacle in which to keep the consecrated species.

 

[michaelgazin]

Priests were given the power by Christ to perform the miraculous consecration. Priests were not given the power to perform a miraculous de-consecration. Both would be miraculous, as both would require transubstantiation, though Christ only instituted the one miracle, not two.

 

[Bobby_Jim]

Br. Rich SFO:

No, the Blessed Sacrament remains as long as the outward appearances of bread and wine remain. He would need to protect the Blessed Sacrament by consuming the elements or otherwise.

I’m curious, what happens to the Real Presence if the consecrated hosts remain in the tabernacle so long as to become moldy, rock-hard, or otherwise inedible? Obviously this is a bad thing and should be avoided, but it has happened by oversight at my church. There are of course implications for the proper way to dispose of such inedible hosts. I guess there’s no scientific answer here… I would assume the presumption would be to treat them with reverence as if the Real Presence still remained. But I’m curious if anyone has a more definite answer.

 

[gelsbern]

Bobby Jim:

I’m curious, what happens to the Real Presence if the consecrated hosts remain in the tabernacle so long as to become moldy, rock-hard, or otherwise inedible? Obviously this is a bad thing and should be avoided, but it has happened by oversight at my church. There are of course implications for the proper way to dispose of such inedible hosts. I guess there’s no scientific answer here… I would assume the presumption would be to treat them with reverence as if the Real Presence still remained. But I’m curious if anyone has a more definite answer.

From newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm

The permanence of Presence, however, is limited to an interval of time of which the beginning is determined by the instant of Consecration and the end by the corruption of the Eucharistic Species. If the Host has become moldy or the contents of the Chalice sour, Christ has discontinued His Presence therein. Since in the process of corruption those elementary substances return which correspond to the peculiar nature of the changed accidents, the law of the indestructibility of matter, notwithstanding the miracle of the Eucharistic conversion, remains in force without any interruption.