Does your church use a clean unused purificator for each celebration of the Mass?

[stbruno]

Our pastor is quick to criticize our associate priests because they use a unused clean purificator at each mass…which means that they need to be laundered more frequently. We do not have a sacristan…and our pastor wants them to use the same purificator over and over like he does. I disagree but I cannot find the rubrics on this matter. I found how a purificator must be rinsed and the water is poured into the sacrorium prior to the final washing and ironing. But I could not find a rule on using a new purificator for each mass. Help??

 

[Phemie]

Our pastor is quick to criticize our associate priests because they use a unused clean purificator at each mass…which means that they need to be laundered more frequently. We do not have a sacristan…and our pastor wants them to use the same purificator over and over like he does. I disagree but I cannot find the rubrics on this matter. I found how a purificator must be rinsed and the water is poured into the sacrorium prior to the final washing and ironing. But I could not find a rule on using a new purificator for each mass. Help??

I’m assuming that in your priest’s case he’s the only one using drinking from the chalice and using the purificator? Then I suppose it’s up to him whether or not he wants to re-use it.

I don’t know of any rule but I’d never re-use a purificator any more than I’d reuse a napkin at the dinner table. I’d also never re-use one if more than one person had consumed from the chalice and the purificator had been used to clean the chalice after each person’s reception.

We use two purificators at each Sunday Mass and one at each weekday Mass. They are laundered once per week.

 

[japhy]

Our pastor is quick to criticize our associate priests because they use a unused clean purificator at each mass…which means that they need to be laundered more frequently. We do not have a sacristan…and our pastor wants them to use the same purificator over and over like he does. I disagree but I cannot find the rubrics on this matter. I found how a purificator must be rinsed and the water is poured into the sacrorium prior to the final washing and ironing. But I could not find a rule on using a new purificator for each mass. Help??

If you don’t use a fresh purificator, then you’re using a purificator that hasn’t been properly cleaned itself! The purificator must first be cleansed in the sacrarium before being laundered, because it has remains of the Precious Blood in it. If it hasn’t been cleansed and laundered, it’s probably a) stained with some of the Precious Blood, b) wet from drying the sacred vessels, and c) harder to use for wiping the chalice after it is drunk from.

I’d be curious to know why the pastor is so uppity about the proper cleansing and regular laundering of purificators. Does he have other peculiarities about Mass?

 

[Phemie]

I’d be curious to know why the pastor is so uppity about the proper cleansing and regular laundering of purificators. Does he have other peculiarities about Mass?

My first thought was that the the pastor is doing his own laundry or that there’s a shortage of purifiers in that parish. Otherwise, I don’t understand what his problem is – unless he feels that too frequent laundering isn’t good for the environment.

 

[LeahInancsi]

My parish always uses clean purificators for each mass and there is always a drawerful of clean ones if more are needed.

The priest in the OP’s example needs to get the women’s guild busy and have a bake sale to buy more purificators and wash them each week. Nothing to it.

I don’t think some priests realize how eager their parishoners are to help. They just need to be told what needs to be done.

 

[stbruno]

Thanks for your replies. He uses the same chalice but the associates share chalices, plus regularly we have visiting priests who also share chalices. I am indeed of the mindset that we would not reuse napkins at the dinner table either…plus they may be stained with precious blood and we need to have more reverence regarding the sanctity of the Eucharist as well.

No our pastor does not do his own laundry…we have a weekly laundress who will handle that. However, someone needs to bring the soiled altar linens from the church to the laundry area located in another building. I have offered, but our pastor says he will handle it. Which he regularly forgets to do…
We also have ample supply, we don’t need to buy more. I just don’t get it.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

There is an article published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops entitled “The Care and Cleansing of Altar Linens.” You can read it at usccb.org/liturgy/innews/032001.shtml (scroll down the page). The section on “Purificators” reads as follows:

"Purificators are customarily brought to the altar with chalices and are used to wipe the Precious Blood from the lip of the chalice and to purify sacred vessels. They should be white in color. Whenever the Precious Blood is distributed from the chalice, poured into ancillary vessels or even accidentally spilled, purificators should be used to absorb the spill. The material of purificators should be absorbent and easily laundered. The purificator should never be made of paper or any other disposable material.

“Because of their function, purificators regularly become stained with the Precious Blood. It is, therefore, essential that they should first be cleansed in a sacrarium and only afterwards washed with laundry soaps in the customary manner. Purificators should be ironed in such a way that they may be easily used for the wiping of the lip of the chalice.”

So, while nothing is said in the article about how many times a purificator is used between launderings, it is obvious that purificators can contain the Precious Blood, and should be handled with due care. If they have to be cleansed in the sacrarium for this reason, surely we should not be leaving purificators stained with the Precious Blood lying around unattended! What does your pastor do with them between uses — does he leave them in the tabernacle? I doubt it!

At our church the purificators are rinsed in the sacrarium immediately after each Mass, hung to dry, and then kept in a container to be laundered once a week.

 

[stbruno]

No, he doesn’t leave them in the tabernacle and they are not rinsed directly after mass. They are left to dry and he reuses it the next mass.

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

No, we have always used clean purificators at every mass. We have enough on hand to last one whole week of weekly and weekend masses with the expected number of Eucharistic Ministers helping according to which mass it is.

 

[benedictgal]

No, he doesn’t leave them in the tabernacle and they are not rinsed directly after mass. They are left to dry and he reuses it the next mass.

Someone from our altar society always appropriately cleans and launders the sacred linen. And, we always have a clean, unused purificator for every Mass (including Daily Mass).

Now, this seems to me more like a common sense issue. Now, if you were to ask my Dad, he’d say that when God was handing out common sense, I ducked. But, it does make me wonder how a simple issue like using a clean purificator during each Mass would not make sense? Like Phemie says, you don’t use a used napkin for dinner.

 

[AlaAnnie]

I’m on the committee that launders the purificators at our parish. And, I can assure you that clean ones are used for every mass because it seems like I have close to 100 pieces to launder on the weeks that are assigned to me.