I liked how Pope Francis distributed Holy Communion

[MaryHelp777]

Likewise. The hosts my parish uses have a great deal of what I would call “structural integrity” – they don’t shed fragments. Fragments are produced during the fractioning rite when the large host is broken into two or more pieces, but they are visible to the person distributing communion and caution can be easily taken to ensure none end-up on the ground.

I agree, a change of suppliers (or different storage/handling) is necessary if hosts readily crumble.

The use of communion patens is ceremonial, not functional.

If you read canon law you will see that patens are used to prevent the Body of Jesus from landing on the floor, be it by crumb or if the Host slips somehow,

2,000 years of catholicism developed for a reason,

Jesus Body is Precious. And deserves our respect, and when He humbles Himself to descend from Heaven and be our Bread, He deserves to be protected from sacrilege such as any piece of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist falling onto the church floor.

There are crumbs even miniscule ones from.the Eucharist, priests have strict rules about how to rinse out and clean the Chalices afterwards, lest any particles of the Consecrated Wine or Blood be left unconsumed,

 

[Phemie]

I would disagree. My parish offers communion via intinction as the general mode of Holy Communion.

I also serve at our parish early morning Mass. In the last 6 months, I have caught a Host on the paten twice, and several times where a drop of the species of wine fell from the intincted Host.

Also, in your example, you did not mention if the Holy Father held the chalice below the communicant’s chin, or if he used the Chalice to follow the intincted Host to catch any drops.

I went to youtube to watch specifically to check that out. He didn’t, although some of the priest who took Communion by intinction kept the purificator poised below the Host as they brought it to their mouths.

 

[Solomonson]

I would disagree. My parish offers communion via intinction as the general mode of Holy Communion.

I also serve at our parish early morning Mass. In the last 6 months, I have caught a Host on the paten twice, and several times where a drop of the species of wine fell from the intincted Host.

Also, in your example, you did not mention if the Holy Father held the chalice below the communicant’s chin, or if he used the Chalice to follow the intincted Host to catch any drops.

No, Francis did not put his chalice (it was the very large, sort of Byzantine looking, main chalice of the Mass with a fairly small diameter cup) under the chins of communicants.

However, others distributing Holy Communion under one species were using large diameter ciboriums which they did place under the chins of the communicants in some cases.

I stand by what I have observed over the years. Communion patens (particularity those with long handles) are more for looks than function. I’ve seen on more than one occasion where their backward use cased a dropped host, and in others where they failed to catch a dropped host.

 

[Solomonson]

If you read canon law you will see that patens are used to prevent the Body of Jesus from landing on the floor, be it by crumb or if the Host slips somehow,

Where is that in Canon Law?

2,000 years of catholicism developed for a reason,

2,000 years has absolutely nothing to do with the efficacy of communion patens. Let me ask this. If communion patens actually worked, wouldn’t Francis direct they be used – both to safeguard the Eucharist AND to set an example for their use?

Jesus Body is Precious. And deserves our respect, and when He humbles Himself to descend from Heaven and be our Bread, He deserves to be protected from sacrilege such as any piece of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist falling onto the church floor.

That’s all axiomatic, but communion patens are more for looks than function.

There are crumbs even miniscule ones from.the Eucharist, priests have strict rules about how to rinse out and clean the Chalices afterwards, lest any particles of the Consecrated Wine or Blood be left unconsumed,

I don’t notice crumbs where I receive/distribute communion. From what I have viewed, I have concluded two things:

1. Francis uses a means of intinction that appears to safeguard the Eucharist better than the traditional way I have always seen in the past.
2. Patens are largely ceremonial and not functional. Were they truly effective in safeguarding the Eucharist, I cannot imagine that Francis (or Papal MC Guido Marini) wouldn’t mandate their use at all Papal Masses.

 

[FrDavid96]

Where is that in Canon Law?

Missale Romanum, Institutio Generalis, n. 118.

Redemptionis Sacramentum n. 93

Not Canon Law, but Liturgical Law, which is equally binding.