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jimmy
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I think it should be abolished. It is very problematic and never should have been introduced.
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whatevergirl
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I didn’t scroll through the entire thread yet…so, forgive me if it’s been answered…but why do you feel this needs to be abolished?
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ACatholicWife
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I like this term. Maybe it should be used more often.
Very true! At our cathedral, everyone has to come down the one (and only) center aisle. At my in-laws’ parish, there are three “main” aisles, which means more EMsHC needed.
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Sir_Knight
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And deny our Lord to the sick, elderly and home bound.
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palmas85
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Priests and Deacons can actually do that as well
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palmas85
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Actually this is one of the few times I can think of when you might need them to tell the truth. But in all honesty, the Priests and Deacons could handle this on most occasions.
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Sir_Knight
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Not in our parish with 3500 FAMILIES – not even close to being able to handle the homebound need for the Eucharist.
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CatholicNick
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How many of them are actually homebound and unable to recieve at Mass?
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Sir_Knight
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I can’t speak for all of them but the seven that I visit (4 weeklies and 3 monthlies) are DEFINITELY homebound.
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prv
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I think another important thing would be to have newer churches constructed such that their would not be three “main” aisles. Two, possibly, such as in the older church designs, but not three. Most certainly not that community-feel type of church where everybody can see each other. I realize that this won’t cover all of the reasons why lay people are needed to assist in the distribution of our Lord in Holy Communion, but it will make the use of them less of a problem. However, when they are legitemately (sp?) needed to distribute communion, somebody needs to make sure they are properly dressed for the task (i.e., no denim shorts, T-shirts, and tennis shoes).
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DiscerningDave
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I think a lot of this boils down to how the training is done. Some people follow by example. If the instructor is not thorough and does not emphasize reverance some people will just not get it. “It” being the importance and understanding of what they are doing and representing as an EMHC, EM, Eucharist Distrubutor, etc… (A rose by any other name is still a rose.)
In our training, we had two wonderful lay instructors as well as our pastor explain everything in detail and made sure we new just what we wre doing. Like everything, I think education is the key.
Side note about the blue jean, t-shirt thing…I think when walking into a house of worship (no matter what religion, even if it is not yours) one should wear dress attire. Meaning “chuch clothes”
Blue jeans and shorts and t-shirts are just disrespectful. Only my humble opinion, key word, opinion.
In our training, we had two wonderful lay instructors as well as our pastor explain everything in detail and made sure we new just what we wre doing. Like everything, I think education is the key.
Side note about the blue jean, t-shirt thing…I think when walking into a house of worship (no matter what religion, even if it is not yours) one should wear dress attire. Meaning “chuch clothes”
Blue jeans and shorts and t-shirts are just disrespectful. Only my humble opinion, key word, opinion.
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homewardbound
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I think EMs are useful but often overused. Yesterday at Mass there were six! And when the priest was finished with his side he went and SAT DOWN. Just sitting there watching the EMs finish. I think thats very wrong. Of course this church also has changed words in some parts of the Mass and has an RCIA teacher that believes Adoration is pointless and useless and that its just fine and dandy to worship a flower as God if we want too…meh.
This church is always packed, mainly because its a college church and caters to over 5,000 Catholic students. Size of the church has nothing to do with its quality and teaching.
Anyway, Ems definitely have a purpose. As for the details of what they do, I don’t know much about it but I would hope churches would, as they claim to do, follow Church authority and not go off on their own whims.
Also, I think it is VERY important for a lay person to at least have some knowledge of cannon law. Without knowing what the Church teaches, and why it teaches things, we’re nothing but lost souls just going along with whatever everyone else does. Puppets with strings.
I think thats a huge problem in the Church today and is why it has gotten so liberal and strayed so far from Truth and Tradition in some places. No one who practices the faith(very few I should say) ever bother to find out why it is they are taught things and why everything is the way it is. If the Catholic Church as a whole would actually care to know individually WHY things are the way they are the Church would have much more unity and also I believe there would be much more personal spiritual growth also.
EMs have a purpose and I think getting rid of them would not be a good idea. But it would be helpful if Church leaders would look into this more and give us all an idea of how to properly use this position in the Church to its fullest potential. Without abusing it and without getting rid of it.
This church is always packed, mainly because its a college church and caters to over 5,000 Catholic students. Size of the church has nothing to do with its quality and teaching.
Anyway, Ems definitely have a purpose. As for the details of what they do, I don’t know much about it but I would hope churches would, as they claim to do, follow Church authority and not go off on their own whims.
Also, I think it is VERY important for a lay person to at least have some knowledge of cannon law. Without knowing what the Church teaches, and why it teaches things, we’re nothing but lost souls just going along with whatever everyone else does. Puppets with strings.
I think thats a huge problem in the Church today and is why it has gotten so liberal and strayed so far from Truth and Tradition in some places. No one who practices the faith(very few I should say) ever bother to find out why it is they are taught things and why everything is the way it is. If the Catholic Church as a whole would actually care to know individually WHY things are the way they are the Church would have much more unity and also I believe there would be much more personal spiritual growth also.
EMs have a purpose and I think getting rid of them would not be a good idea. But it would be helpful if Church leaders would look into this more and give us all an idea of how to properly use this position in the Church to its fullest potential. Without abusing it and without getting rid of it.
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jc-servant
Guest
I’m still waiting to see a viable alternative mentioned for the large parishes with insufficient priests and deacons to complete communion for our packed masses which are already filling the weekend schedule and have people passing in the parking lot. Add to that the large number of homebound who should not be denied the Eucharist on Sunday and our one older priest and one visiting priest just won’t cut it. Our list of people who are seriously ill or homebound is large each week due to more than 7,000 registered families including a goodly number of retirees.
It is easy to say let’s do away with lay people assisting with the Eucharist if you ignore the reality for many parishes in the US. Changing our parish’s architecture would not change the fact that more than 1200 people per regular mass fill the place to standing room only (5 English, 2 Spanish)! Easter morning was unbelieveable with the double doors to the outside opened on each trancept and people filling all side aisles and a crowd outside the doors!
Let’s hear it from those who don’t want EMHCs assisting the priests and deacons. I’m not in a part of the US with parishes closing and consolidating. We cannot build big enough and fast enough to keep up and RCIA is packed every year! What do we do right now in really large parishes where mass is literally “standing room only” while we pray for more priestly vocations?
It is easy to say let’s do away with lay people assisting with the Eucharist if you ignore the reality for many parishes in the US. Changing our parish’s architecture would not change the fact that more than 1200 people per regular mass fill the place to standing room only (5 English, 2 Spanish)! Easter morning was unbelieveable with the double doors to the outside opened on each trancept and people filling all side aisles and a crowd outside the doors!
Let’s hear it from those who don’t want EMHCs assisting the priests and deacons. I’m not in a part of the US with parishes closing and consolidating. We cannot build big enough and fast enough to keep up and RCIA is packed every year! What do we do right now in really large parishes where mass is literally “standing room only” while we pray for more priestly vocations?
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prv
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I did not mean to make it seem that changing architecture would make it easier, nor do I consider at all the problem is an easy one to fix. I hope you did not consider this my main statement. In fact, I consider this a very grave options. Hopefully, you read my statement that this will not solve all of our problems. I am simply throwing out options. I was, however, referring to the fact that many churches are built such that the people can see each other, and the altar is more obscure, such that the meaning is more on the people than on our Holy Lord… I’m sorry that I didn’t make that clear. Do know that I consider this a very, very grave situation.
Quote (from myself):
However, when they are legitemately (sp?) needed to distribute communion, somebody needs to make sure they are properly dressed for the task (i.e., no denim shorts, T-shirts, and tennis shoes).
I think one could also make a case that this applies to assisting the homebound as well (I am not saying that people are not doing this, just that this needs to be considered), and most certainly not a statement that lay people are not needed for the moment right now.
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jmcrae
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Most of the time we don’t even have EMHCs at Mass, and I’ve never seen more than two at any given time (Usually on Sunday, if there is only one priest saying the Mass.)
We just recently got an assistant Pastor at our parish, and it’s so nice to have two priests at most Masses, now - when both priests are there, we don’t have any EMHCs in the Sanctuary at all.
But at times when there is only one priest, he can still only be in one place at a time (our priests are very holy, but they have not yet attained to the ability to bi-locate, yet) so sometimes an EMHC has to do things that the second priest would be doing, if he were there, such as going and getting things, and helping to distribute Holy Communion.
We just recently got an assistant Pastor at our parish, and it’s so nice to have two priests at most Masses, now - when both priests are there, we don’t have any EMHCs in the Sanctuary at all.
But at times when there is only one priest, he can still only be in one place at a time (our priests are very holy, but they have not yet attained to the ability to bi-locate, yet) so sometimes an EMHC has to do things that the second priest would be doing, if he were there, such as going and getting things, and helping to distribute Holy Communion.
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palmas85
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3500 is not a prticularly large parish from what I’ve been told by others on this forum, where Parish size seems to progressively increase depending on the subject being siecussed.
Would you have any idea how many homebound and ill you have that require this? Just a rough estimate would do. I know that many parishes that have say for instance retirement homes, as we do, usually have Holy Communion distributed there once or twice a week, and that the homebound usually either have a schedule set up or call in. I do have several friends who do this and was wondering what the need was in your area, as opposed to ours, where we do have a fairly large number of homebound and elderly.
Just wondering for comparison purposes.
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paulah
Guest
Back to the original question…
IMHO - No, I dont think it needs to be abolished. But I DO feel that this position needs to be tweeked with having more classes that teach a deeper understanding, better knowledge and mostly - proper respect for what they are Touching!
Whoever said that having a yearly evaluation of these folks - has my vote.
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Sir_Knight
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3,500 Families (families NOT individuals) is not a large parish?
It’s the largest parish that I’ve ever been a part of.I can’t even begin to guess that the number of homebound individuals. If I were to make an educated guess, here’s how it would go …
We have six week-end masses. There are between 4-6 EMHC per mass. Assume 5 which is right in the middle and assume there are 30 EMHC on week-ends. Now, that is a subset of the total EMHC because I am an EMHC and I do not distribute at mass. So how many EMHC’s are there? Well, AT LEAST 31
I’ve got 7 people that I visit. Three weekly and four monthly which worked out to 16 visits a month.
NOTE: I noticed a typo above where I said “Four weekly and Three monthly” – that was a typo and incorrect but I can’t edit it now to fix it.
Assuming the other 30 EMHC have the same number of people, that would be 217 home bound people. Assuming they visit them in the same frequency as I do, that would be 496 communion visits a month.
This is pure speculation. It could half as much or it could be twice as much. I honestly can’t tell you. All I can say is how many I visit and how frequently.
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jonfan
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palmas85
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I/ve seen posters claim up to 15 and 16,000amilies. I’m sure its exagerration but hey, it;s the internet right, who can ever really knowt?3,500 Families (families NOT individuals) is not a large parish?
I can’t even begin to guess that the number of homebound individuals. If I were to make an educated guess, here’s how it would go …
We have six week-end masses. There are between 4-6 EMHC per mass. Assume 5 which is right in the middle and assume there are 30 EMHC on week-ends. Now, that is a subset of the total EMHC because I am an EMHC and I do not distribute at mass. So how many EMHC’s are there? Well, AT LEAST 31
I’ve got 7 people that I visit. Three weekly and four monthly which worked out to 16 visits a month.
NOTE: I noticed a typo above where I said “Four weekly and Three monthly” – that was a typo and incorrect but I can’t edit it now to fix it.
Assuming the other 30 EMHC have the same number of people, that would be 217 home bound people. Assuming they visit them in the same frequency as I do, that would be 496 communion visits a month.
This is pure speculation. It could half as much or it could be twice as much. I honestly can’t tell you. All I can say is how many I visit and how frequently.
Well lets see, I once read of a parish that claimed 21,000 members of which they had a posted wekly Mass average attendance of 6,3000, or a little less than 33%. math is not my strong suit. So lets check your figure. 3500 families, good Catholic families so lets figure 5 to a family, umm 17,500 people sound about right? OK and lets use the same average of Mass attendance of 33% OK, just for argument. So we have a normal weekly Mass attendance of about oh lets say 5,000, because we know that a lot of people and I mean a whole lot only show up for Christmas and Easter. Using your quote of 6 weekend Masses that works out to about 850 per Mass. Lets say that 50 don’t receive. That leaves 800 to receive per mass. .Lets figure that it takes about 5 seconds, and that is a very liberal estimate believe me, to distribute in the hand, standing per person. Thats 12 per minute or 720 per hour per person distributing. My guess is your parish would need two people, a Priest and a Deacon to commune the faithful in less than 30 minutes.
Of course since speed is the issue in these things, you know Holy Communion has to be over quickly so we can make it over to IHOP before the crowds get there, or to the stadium before kick off, you may need to use more extraordinary ministers to get communion time down to 10 minutes or so which is probably what most churches aim for, and what is probably the real reason for the swarms for Extraordinary Ministers that normally appear.
We have about 400 elderly who canot be moved, but since most of them are Filipino, their families tend to bring the Host to them in most cases. Lucky I guess. The homebound figure fluctuates but I’d say an average of 15-20 per month. But Father takes care of those saying he feels it is his responsibility as the pastor. Again, I guess we’re lucky.
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