Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion can "bless" children?

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At my parish, my priest seems to be very conservative, is very obedient to the Church teachings and our archbishop. He even preaches against artificial contraception & abortion unlike a few priests I know that never bring these topics up. Once during the Responsorial Psalm, a reader used a liberal translation and the word “relatives” was used in place of the word “brethren”. I brought this up to my priest, and he banned these liberal, unauthorized translations immediately and thanked me for bringing it to his attention. So I have a question before I impose again or embarrass myself by bringing this up to my priest.

On Sundays at Mass, I have observed at least two different lay Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion on two different occasions at our parish do what appears to be blessing children when their parents receive Holy Communion. Now I am only assuming that this is what is being done as they place their hand on the children’s head and seem to say a quick prayer. I thought that only priests could bless people and things. Maybe they have been told they can do this, or maybe they are just imitating our priest, I don’t know.

I suppose there isn’t anything wrong in anyone placing their hand on a child’s head and praying. Any opinions or guidance would be appreciated.

Harsalter
 
A blessing isn’t a Sacrament reserved for Priests. It is not a Sacrament. Have we not all blessed our children with a sign of the cross on their foreheards when we put them to bed or when we’ve said goodbye. Do we not bless ourselves with the sign of the Cross with holy water, and throughout the Mass. Have we never blessed our children’s foreheads with holy water? And so on. Read scripture and see how many times fathers blessed their sons.
Sometimes I am sad that people are so afraid.
 
Harsalter said:
At my parish, my priest seems to be very conservative, is very obedient to the Church teachings and our archbishop. He even preaches against artificial contraception & abortion unlike a few priests I know that never bring these topics up. Once during the Responsorial Psalm, a reader used a liberal translation and the word “relatives” was used in place of the word “brethren”. I brought this up to my priest, and he banned these liberal, unauthorized translations immediately and thanked me for bringing it to his attention. So I have a question before I impose again or embarrass myself by bringing this up to my priest.

On Sundays at Mass, I have observed at least two different lay Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion on two different occasions at our parish do what appears to be blessing children when their parents receive Holy Communion. Now I am only assuming that this is what is being done as they place their hand on the children’s head and seem to say a quick prayer. I thought that only priests could bless people and things. Maybe they have been told they can do this, or maybe they are just imitating our priest, I don’t know.

I suppose there isn’t anything wrong in anyone placing their hand on a child’s head and praying. Any opinions or guidance would be appreciated.

Harsalter
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My opinion is a lay person should not impart a blessing within a liturgical setting. When doing so even outside of a liturgical setting it should always be in the manner of mutual blessing “May Almighty God Bless us…”
 
Trishie said:
Sometimes I am sad that people are so afraid.
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What in the heck did that mean? I’m retired military from the world’s finest military. I’m not “afraid” of you or anyone else.

Back to the question at hand, but I beg to differ. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, The Church decides who has the right to give blessings. It is not for everyone!

newadvent.org/cathen/02599b.htm

*Since, then, blessings, in the sense in which they are being considered, are entirely of ecclesiastical institution, the Church has the power to determine who shall have the right and duty to confer them…
… since he acts as the representative of God. *

So hoping that my courage isn’t questioned again, my question still stands.
 
Thanks Bro. Rich, that was on the lines of what I was thinking. I’ll bring this up to my priest at the next approriate opportunity.
 
In the Diocese of Steubenville (in Ohio) the good Bishop helped clarify this situation by requesting that blessings NOT be done during communion… not by extraordinary ministers or by deacons or even by priests. The logic is that there is another place during the Mass that everyone is given a blessing. So at least in this Bishops Diocese, there is no confusion.
 
Harsalter said:
What in the heck did that mean? I’m retired military from the world’s finest military. I’m not “afraid” of you or anyone else.

Back to the question at hand, but I beg to differ. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, The Church decides who has the right to give blessings. It is not for everyone!

newadvent.org/cathen/02599b.htm

*Since, then, blessings, in the sense in which they are being considered, are entirely of ecclesiastical institution, the Church has the power to determine who shall have the right and duty to confer them…
… since he acts as the representative of God. *

So hoping that my courage isn’t questioned again, my question still stands.
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We ourselves as lay people can bless even the Lord; the question is whether or not it is “proper” to do so within a liturgical setting.

And of course you’re not afraid. 😃
 
There is a mom in our parish whose son is kinergarten age-ish. Parents don’t like leaving their kids alone in the pew (they will often do stupid things…including wander and decide to try to “find” mom if it seems to the child she is taking too long to come back) this could be VERY disruptive to mass. So the option is to take the child up the line with her. If her son doesn’t recieve a blessing from the preist or lay person, he gets very upset and will sometimes have a crying fit. I see nothign wrong and everything right with people offering each other blessings, whether in mass or not. Parents and godparents are asked to bless their child with the sign of the cross during baptism during mass.
 
TAS2000 said:
There is a mom in our parish whose son is kinergarten age-ish. Parents don’t like leaving their kids alone in the pew (they will often do stupid things…including wander and decide to try to “find” mom if it seems to the child she is taking too long to come back) this could be VERY disruptive to mass. So the option is to take the child up the line with her. If her son doesn’t recieve a blessing from the preist or lay person, he gets very upset and will sometimes have a crying fit. I see nothign wrong and everything right with people offering each other blessings, whether in mass or not. Parents and godparents are asked to bless their child with the sign of the cross during baptism during mass.
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I understand that is the reason for bringing children up… the solution is to carry them or have them walk beside you. The reason for going up needs to be clearly to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. It seems we are muddling the meaning by doing both.
 
TAS2000 said:
Parents and godparents are asked to bless their child with the sign of the cross during baptism during mass.
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The priest says he will claim the child for Christ by making a sign of the cross on his forehead and invites parents and godparents to do the same. I’ve never considered that a blessing and it is certainly different from having someone who has no mandate to bless anyone take it upon themselves to impart a blessing on a child during Communion.
 
TAS2000 said:
There is a mom in our parish whose son is kinergarten age-ish. Parents don’t like leaving their kids alone in the pew (they will often do stupid things…including wander and decide to try to “find” mom if it seems to the child she is taking too long to come back) this could be VERY disruptive to mass. So the option is to take the child up the line with her. If her son doesn’t recieve a blessing from the preist or lay person, he gets very upset and will sometimes have a crying fit. I see nothign wrong and everything right with people offering each other blessings, whether in mass or not. Parents and godparents are asked to bless their child with the sign of the cross during baptism during mass.
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Then these parents can get in the line of the priest. That is exactly what I do when I have my grandchildren with me, and I see some parents also do this. But I would give the strangest look to a ECM if they tried to touch my grandchild. IMO, it’s not their place nor have they the authority to do so.

I am so glad I asked this question as this has bothered me for some time. My priest must not have seen this going on or he would have stopped it. He is as ‘by the book’ as a priest can be. I love him for that!
Phemie said:
The priest says he will claim the child for Christ by making a sign of the cross on his forehead and invites parents and godparents to do the same. I’ve never considered that a blessing and it is certainly different from having someone who has no mandate to bless anyone take it upon themselves to impart a blessing on a child during Communion.
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Exactly, and again, not everyone has the authority to give a “blessing”, as some here have said. And for a lay person to bless the Lord sounds a little over the top. Sure, anyone can say “May God bless you”. But that’s a little different than what we are discussing.

I quote again from newadvent.org/cathen/02599b.htm ;

…blessings, in the sense in which they are being considered, are entirely of ecclesiastical institution, the Church has the power to determine who shall have the right and duty to confer them.
 
Have we not all blessed our children with a sign of the cross on their foreheards when we put them to bed or when we’ve said goodbye

If you haven’t, you should!
 
In 1997, the Congregation for Clergy released a document (in collaboration with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed, at the time, by the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) that addressed certain issues regarding the collaboration of the laity in the sacred ministry of the priest.

Here are some points to consder:
§ 2. To promote the proper identity (of various roles) in this area, those abuses which are contrary to the provisions of canon 907 are to be eradicated. ***In eucharistic celebrations deacons and non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers — e.g. especially the eucharistic prayer, with its concluding doxology — or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant priest. ***Neither may deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful use gestures or actions which are proper to the same priest celebrant. It is a grave abuse for any member of the non-ordained faithful to “quasi preside” at the Mass while leaving only that minimal participation to the priest which is necessary to secure validity.
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Now, as far as EMHCs are concerned, the documents are very specific that the only thing that we can do is to distribute Holy Communion, nothing more, nothing less, as the document states:
  1. Extraordinary ministers may distribute Holy Communion at eucharistic celebrations only when there are no ordained ministers present or when those ordained ministers present at a liturgical celebration are truly unable to distribute Holy Communion.(99) They may also exercise this function at eucharistic celebrations where there are particularly large numbers of the faithful and which would be excessively prolonged because of an insufficient number of ordained ministers to distribute Holy Communion. (100)
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Something else to consider is the fact that the line is to receive Holy Communion, not a blessing. Recall the words that the celebrant says prior to the distribution of Holy Communion:
Behold the Lamb of God. Behold He who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to the supper.
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We are called to partake of the sacrifice. Partaking means eating (and, in some cases, drinking). Yes, there are times when the parent brings up children because they have no one else to help. However, you need to remember something: everyone receives the final blessing
 
Newbie2 said:
So when we respond “Blessed be God forever” it’s merely lip service? 🙂
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No, God is blessed meaning he is “consecrated, holy, sanctified, without blemish, worthy of adoration”, etc. We are proclaiming or professing him, not conferring a blessing on him. IMO, for a lay person or any human for that matter, to confer a blessing on God seems to me anyways, a little over the top.

I as a human am very grateful for (but not being worthy) of God’s grace & forgiveness, certainly could not bestow any graces on God. But when a priest confers a blessing with the authority of the RCC, they are an instrument of God.
 
Anyone can bless anybody or anything but only someone who is ordained can extend a CHURCH blessing.
Catholictrain said:
In the Diocese of Steubenville (in Ohio) the good Bishop helped clarify this situation by requesting that blessings NOT be done during communion… not by extraordinary ministers or by deacons or even by priests. The logic is that there is another place during the Mass that everyone is given a blessing. So at least in this Bishops Diocese, there is no confusion.
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Wish ALL bishops would make the same clarification. 👍
 
My wife is an EMHC in our parish

This question came up in their training session

They were told that a lay person may not bless someone, but it is permissable for them to say “May God bless you”
 
freshwind said:
My wife is an EMHC in our parish

This question came up in their training session

They were told that a lay person may not bless someone, but it is permissable for them to say “May God bless you”
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Do you honestly think that a person coming up for a blessing realizes that the words “May God bless you” are not a blessing?

I think that this sounds like a pretend blessing and so it could be poor catechesis during Mass.
 
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