Diocese mandating Communion in hand due to epidemic

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In China…over 40,000 cases, 20 percent mortality. Parse it as you like.
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
Wine does not disinfect a cup. Wiping the cup after each person with linens only spreads any bacteria on the surface.
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Our Lord suffered greatly through his passion, he had many opportunities to avoid the cross. Jesus said, take this all of you and drink. We are asked to do very little in return.
 
The source I used was flagged as fraud and I stand corrected. Fake news!
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
McDonalds salad bar
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I’ve never seen one of those before!

Our priest always says if you have the sniffles please don’t receive the Blood of Christ from the chalice. I also remember during the swine flu situation that the sign of peace went from a handshake to that raised hand that you see during weekday Mass when people are far away from you.
 
I dont believe this is comparable in any way. Any of you seen the map of the spread of this virus?
 
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TMC said:
I would add that Communion in the Hand was the norm for hundreds of years in the early Church.

I don’t understand all the vitriol over a bishop making what seems to be a reasonable pastoral decision to deal with a (hopefully short-lived) crisis.
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So, the Church tried it that way and found that way wanting. That hardly enshrines it as an ideal. More to the point, it is not the norm now. More to the point, the Church has told the faithful that they have the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. Suspending a right is a big deal, and I don’t blame anybody who says that it is.

From a strictly epidemiological standpoint, the pastoral decision would be more appropriate in dealing with influenza, which is much more widespread and has already taken far more lives. That is not a “short-lived crisis.” It is an annual fact of life.

This health crisis is being given different treatment because it is new and unknown, even though there really isn’t evidence or a medically-based reason to believe that this strain poses a threat to human life that is as great than the strains of influenza that go around and around the globe on a continuous basis every year.

That’s the problem. A right the Church has said the faithful always have is being suspended over a health threat that is, if we are honest, on par with a health threat that routinely arises for two months or so and an annual basis. It is being done even though there isn’t evidence that disease is actually spread by distributing Holy Communion on the tongue instead of in the hand. The mode of reception that is actually the most dangerous in theory–that is, drinking from a common cup–hasn’t even been associated with a measurably higher risk of communicable illness. It probably makes a difference, but probably because people in an atmosphere of charity do some self-policing if they think they have something catching, there is no evidence that it makes a difference often enough to pose a greater threat than standing next to someone who coughs and sneezes into the air everyone else has to breathe.

What if the bishop made the pastoral decision that nobody would be allowed to come to Mass if they hadn’t been immunized against influenza? That would probably make more of a difference, but I think the faithful would protest that this crosses a boundary and violates their right to discern whether or not they want to get a flu shot or not.

Well? Should bishops be able to require a record of immunization against influenza, if that would be the best response to that annual health crisis? No, I think bishops would see it is more appropriate to highly recommend that everyone get their flu shot, rather than requiring them to do it “for pastoral reasons.”
 
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I think by the end of next week the true capacity of this virus will be more understood.

I am a little concerned given the chaos in certain places it is causing. On the positive side , China will have a new hospital built within a very short time frame to deal with the influx of people sickened by this virus.
 
CatholicSooner said:
Sounds like semantics to me…
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As I have said many times here, words matter.

…a lot.

In any case, I think all here must concede the general point that there are a lot of lackadaisical, poorly catechized and secular Catholics. More to the point, many cling to that Catholic label long after they have left the Church for all but an occasional visit.

However, as this measure being taken is temporary, it is possible to even use the change as a teachable moment that the grace we receive is not dependent upon how we receive, nor does our manner of reception diminish the presence of Christ. Furthermore, perhaps some can even learn that humility of heart is more important that posture, our interior predisposition more important than our exterior. Or at least, there is the lesson to stop judging those who are different.
 
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