Communion Services Discouraged

[PetraG]

It could be that when the Vatican along with the USCCB’s issued a mandate that only a priest or deacon were allowed to touch the tabernacle, communion services by the laity were stopped.

I do not find such a directive on the USCCB’s website and the Rite for Distributing Holy Communion Outside Mass refers to either a deacon or a lay leader, not a deacon only. Obviously, it would be impossible for a lay leader to distribute Holy Communion if the lay leader were forbidden by the Vatican or the USCCB from so much as touching the tabernacle.

I understand and agree that this liturgical rite was developed with the intention that it only be used in places where there was no opportunity for the faithful to get to a Sunday Mass (such as a remote location or when there were so many of the faithful who are disabled living in one place that they could not be transported to a nearby parish for Sunday Mass) and that a deacon is absolutely to be preferred to a lay leader, but are you certain the requirement that only clergy may touch the tabernacle is not particular to your diocese?

 

[PetraG]

We have a Communion Service one day a week. I have to lead it one day a month. I don’t care for it very much. There are enough Catholic churches around here it’s not difficult for me to go to daily mass some where else. When ever I’m driving to church to lead one of these services I’m so uncomfortable that I spend the drive praying for vocations. So, pray for vocations.

Me, too. I did not go to them at all until I became a sacristan and it became part of my duties to open the church and set up for them. I think it was very common for people to be leading these services who DID NOT want to do it but who felt they ought to help out if they were asked to do so. I had already had to quit for other reasons, but I was relieved when our parish discontinued these weekly services. I didn’t think they were in keeping with the reason the rite was given in the first place. (The archbishop and priests of the diocese are more educated on these matters than I will ever be, so I didn’t think it was my place to tell them how to drive.)

 

[Usige]

I know our Bishop essentially does not allow them except in places like a prison where the inmates really have no ability to attend Mass.

The reason? Basically follows what Cor_ad_Cor said; namely:

Communion Service was intended to be an option for communities missing Sunday Mass when a priest wasn’t available, not weekdays due to convenience or the priest’s hectic schedule.

Out side of the fact that Communion Services were not meant to substitute for Mass, it lead to all types of issues that kinda devalued the role of the Priest in the community to the point that people wanted Father to just come in and confect the Eucharist and offer Mass on Sundays but leave it to the laity the rest of the time.

In my area one of the issues were when people would talk about liking how Mary Jo’s did “Mass” better than Father. A couple parishes even had “reader’s stoles” made that looked a lot like a Priest’s stole. In one case it lead to issues with people willy nilly accessing the Tabernacle that perhaps were not really trained to do so since the key was available to anyone.

 

[Phemie]

The only time we have a Liturgy of the Word with Communion is if our priest has to be absent on a Sunday.

I think many bishops have revisited what they allowed after the promulgation of Redemptionis Sacramentum in 2004 where we find this:

164. “If participation at the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible on account of the absence of a sacred minister or for some other grave cause,” then it is the Christian people’s right that the diocesan Bishop should provide as far as he is able for some celebration to be held on Sundays for that community under his authority and according to the Church’s norms. Sunday celebrations of this specific kind, however, are to be considered altogether extraordinary. All Deacons or lay members of Christ’s faithful who are assigned a part in such celebrations by the diocesan Bishop should strive “to keep alive in the community a genuine ‘hunger’ for the Eucharist, so that no opportunity for the celebration of Mass will ever be missed, also taking advantage of the occasional presence of a Priest who is not impeded by Church law from celebrating Mass”.

165. It is necessary to avoid any sort of confusion between this type of gathering and the celebration of the Eucharist. The diocesan Bishops, therefore, should prudently discern whether Holy Communion ought to be distributed in these gatherings. The matter would appropriately be determined in view of a more ample co-ordination in the Bishops’ Conference, to be put into effect after the recognitio of the acts by the Apostolic See through the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. It will be preferable, moreover, when both a Priest and a Deacon are absent, that the various parts be distributed among several faithful rather than having a single lay member of the faithful direct the whole celebration alone. Nor is it ever appropriate to refer to any member of the lay faithful as “presiding” over the celebration.

166. Likewise, especially if Holy Communion is distributed during such celebrations, the diocesan Bishop, to whose exclusive competence this matter pertains, must not easily grant permission for such celebrations to be held on weekdays, especially in places where it was possible or would be possible to have the celebration of Mass on the preceding or the following Sunday. Priests are therefore earnestly requested to celebrate Mass daily for the people in one of the churches entrusted to their care.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I don’t think it was spelled out in the Vatican or USSB documents, but was always the norm and didn’t have to be explained.

Anyway, I do remember the letter in our parish bulletin.

This was back in the 1990’s BTW

Jim

 

[Tis_Bearself]

kinda devalued the role of the Priest in the community to the point that people wanted Father to just come in and confect the Eucharist and offer Mass on Sundays but leave it to the laity the rest of the time.

In my area one of the issues were when people would talk about liking how Mary Jo’s did “Mass” better than Father. A couple parishes even had “reader’s stoles” made that looked a lot like a Priest’s stole. In one case it lead to issues with people willy nilly accessing the Tabernacle that perhaps were not really trained to do so since the key was available to anyone.

Yup, that’s what I was getting at when I told Wannano that if you had lived through the 70s and the 80s in the Catholic Church you saw all kinds of this stuff going on. Honestly there were people in every parish, both female and married male, who just couldn’t wait to get up there and do ministry “their way”. I’ve seen breakaway congregations that basically took off and made one of their guys a priest. It was super annoying.

Like I said, the only time I’ve seen this in the last couple years has been in two parishes where the priest had a sudden medical emergency and had to be gone for an extended period of time. Even then, if they could get a substitute priest, they had the substitute come and say Mass and only resorted to the communion service if absolutely necessary. Fortunately both priests are now feeling better and have returned.

 

[Brendan_64]

When our Archdiocese issued guidance about this, they reminded parishes that the Communion Service was intended to be an option for communities missing Sunday Mass when a priest wasn’t available, not weekdays due to convenience or the priest’s hectic schedule.

Yes, the fact that a weekday Mass has to be cancelled is not really an emergency situation.

 

[Wannano]

Usige:

kinda devalued the role of the Priest in the community to the point that people wanted Father to just come in and confect the Eucharist and offer Mass on Sundays but leave it to the laity the rest of the time.

In my area one of the issues were when people would talk about liking how Mary Jo’s did “Mass” better than Father. A couple parishes even had “reader’s stoles” made that looked a lot like a Priest’s stole. In one case it lead to issues with people willy nilly accessing the Tabernacle that perhaps were not really trained to do so since the key was available to anyone.

Yup, that’s what I was getting at when I told Wannano that if you had lived through the 70s and the 80s in the Catholic Church you saw all kinds of this stuff going on. Honestly there were people in every parish, both female and married male, who just couldn’t wait to get up there and do ministry “their way”. I’ve seen breakaway congregations that basically took off and made one of their guys a priest. It was super annoying.

Like I said, the only time I’ve seen this in the last couple years has been in two parishes where the priest had a sudden medical emergency and had to be gone for an extended period of time. Even then, if they could get a substitute priest, they had the substitute come and say Mass and only resorted to the communion service if absolutely necessary. Fortunately both priests are now feeling better and have returned.

I really want to thank you all for contributing and allowing me to ask about Communion Services. I think that by reading all the posts given today I can see that my questions have been answered. I thought at first that this would be a great way to address the shortage of priests, especially like in areas where I live where one priest has up to seven rural parishes and spends a lot of time driving between them. I know that many Catholic families would like to “modernize” funeral services, for instance, having the funeral at a funeral Chapel where they could have Charlies saddles or motorcycle up front. My first thought was that would be a great way to accommodate these types of requests and still have people receive the Eucharist since Mass itself is not generally allowed in chapels. I now understand that having Communion Services are really meant only on an emergency basis and not meant to accommodate other reasonings. Thanks.

 

[PetraG]

I don’t think it was spelled out in the Vatican or USSB documents, but was always the norm and didn’t have to be explained.

Anyway, I do remember the letter in our parish bulletin.

This was back in the 1990’s BTW

Jim

Actually, that is my confusion. The rite says a layperson could be the leader, but if that is true then it is practically impossible that the layperson is forbidden from touching the tabernacle?

 

[Phemie]

JimR-OCDS:

I don’t think it was spelled out in the Vatican or USSB documents, but was always the norm and didn’t have to be explained.

Anyway, I do remember the letter in our parish bulletin.

This was back in the 1990’s BTW

Jim

Actually, that is my confusion. The rite says a layperson could be the leader, but if that is true then it is practically impossible that the layperson is forbidden from touching the tabernacle?

There is no such rule. The priest is the one who retrieves the Ciborium from the tabernacle during Mass if necessary and reposes the Hosts after Communion. Outside of that, with permission from the Pastor, anyone can do it. In a Communion service it is done by the person who will be distributing Communion. In our parish, one person leads the service, 3 different people do the readings, and an EMHC does the Communion Rite.

The Canadian “Liturgy of the Word with Communion” does not follow the same order as a Mass without the Eucharistic Prayer.

After the Sign of the Cross and the Greeting we use this introductory remark:

Today, we, the people of God,
gather to hear and respond to God’s word,
to return praise and thanks,
[and to share Christ’s sacrament.]
We look forward to that day
when we will once more celebrate the Eucharist,
as Christ commanded us to do in his memory.
Our community makes its worship
in union with the Church throughout the world,
with N. our Pope, N. our bishop,
our pastor, Fr. N. who is unable to be with us,
and with our brothers and sisters in neighbouring parishes who keep holy this day
in the celebration of the Lord’s sacrifice and supper.

Then we are given a choice of 6 different opening rites, with recommendations of which to use in each of the seasons. And we continue from there.