Extraordinary Ministers of Eucharist

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Buffalo, I always find Redemptionis Sacromentum compelling đź‘Ť but the Church used even stronger language in INAESTIMABILE DONUM 1980
  1. The faithful, whether religious or lay, who are authorized as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist can distribute Communion only when there is no priest, deacon or acolyte, when the priest is impeded by illness or advanced age, or when the number of the faithful going to Communion is so large as to make the celebration of Mass excessively long.[20] Accordingly, a reprehensible attitude is shown by those priests who, though present at the celebration, refrain from distributing Communion and leave this task to the laity.
To be clear about Faithful 2 Rome’s post, Deacons are not laity. Deacons are ordinary ministers of communion and if there are times when a preist chooses to sit when a deacon is distributing communion this is not prohibited.

God Bless
 
It is disturbing that any ordianed clergy at any parish just sit in the rectory, reading the Sunday paper and drinking coffee rather than distribute communion at all Sunday and day of obligation masses. It is even worse when a celebrant sits. And many wonder why belief in the real resence has dropped to such low levels, especially when so many priests show so little respect for it.
 
Maybe I’m just tired right now…but the recent statement seems more concise than the 1980 one… however…

Since there WAS a Deacon present who DID distribute communion, even though there were lay ministers doing so as well… was the priest in violation for sitting it out? Personally, I dont think any lay ministers should be handing out communion while there is a Priest present who IS NOT doing so himself…but I need to be clear…I am going into a PPC meeting regarding other serious violations, and I wanna make sure my ducks are in order with this particular situation. Thank you.
 
Yes, I agree a priest should make reasonable efforts to always give out communion before assigning the task to a layperson.

God Bless
 
Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are permitted to distribute the Eucharist when a priest is unable…perhaps due to health reasons…
Could it be that that particular priest was “sitting it out” due to failing health?

Pax Christi. <><
 
Here is where I am considering to use my argument:

The priest had no problem performing the opening procession

He had no problem walking over to the Pulpit and reading the Gospel, then proceeding to use the homily as an attack against the Cardinal…

He had no problem standing up and doing the Consecration…

SO… to me that means he should have had no problem distributing communion. He is in his early 50s, has some knee problems…but he didnt seem to have any problems with the above mentioned.
 
But what I need to be clear on is…since the Deacon is an ordinary minister, and one was present…the priest is in the clear for sitting it out even if 3-4 lay ministers helped the deacon?
 
Faithful 2 Rome:
But what I need to be clear on is…since the Deacon is an ordinary minister, and one was present…the priest is in the clear for sitting it out even if 3-4 lay ministers helped the deacon?
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I wouldn’t say that he is in the clear. Unless there was some grave reason for the priest not to minister - a health concern, for instance, he and the deacon both should be ministering communion. Extraordinary Ministers should only be used if the number of able-bodied, capable Ordinary Ministers is insufficient.
 
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gmk:
Am I wrong in my little bit of research that Extraordinary Ministers should ONLY be used in extreme cases? In other words in the case of the Priest or Deacon being literally incapabable, or in the case of many many people being present.

It seems to me that it has become an issue of convenience and our Parishes are ignoring the Church.
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  1. Bishop, a priest or a deacon.
    If there is an “insufficient” number of these, *then *
  2. “duly instituted acolyte”
    If there is an “insufficient” number of these, *then *
  3. other lay people (deputed in accordance with can. 230)
I still don’t understand - It seems like all of the parishes discussed here use lay people who are not formally instituted acolytes.
Even if going beyond #1 above is sometimes needed,
it should never be necesary to go beyond #2 above.

Fom GIRM, Canon Law, Redemptionis Sacramentum:

*** FIRST
" 1. The ordinary minister of holy communion is a Bishop, a priest or a deacon. "

*** SECOND
“2. The extraordinary minister of holy communion is an acolyte, …”
and
“In addition to the ordinary ministers there is the formally instituted acolyte, …”

I quoted some more of the material related to this here:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=36922&postcount=107
 
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