Self-communication

[sma]

Please give me a reference where self-communication is not allowed. There is a religious Sister in our parish who, when there is not a daily Mass for some reason, goes to the tabernacle and gives herself Communion. This certainly doesn’t seem right. She is an extraordinary minister of communion, but I am sure this is not allowed.

 

[JimG]

Self-communication is forbidden. The issue was briefly addressed on the “Ask an Apologist” forum here and the reply gives some church documents as references.

 

[DavidFilmer]

The fact that she is a Religious Sister is also irrelevant. While Religious Sisters (and Brothers) perform an important ministry in the church, these are Lay people, and they exercise a Lay ministry.

It would be no more “proper” (which is to say, completely improper) for a Religious Sister to do this than any other Lay person. A Sister (or Brother) is a Lay person just like (presumably) you and I.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Now think about this for a minute. If a layperson cannot self-communicate. Then there would not be any Priestless Communion services! I have many times provided a Communion service for a small retreat group or nursing home residents when a priest was not available to say Mass or the resident priest was sick. I’m a lay person, I’m not Ordained, yet I receive Holy Communion from my own hand before distributing the hosts to others. So there are exceptions. A person can receive Holy Communion once a day outside of Mass. If two Sisters were available they should give Communion to each other and they should also properly conduct a Communion service with the readings of the day in my opinion.

 

[DavidFilmer]

I’m not Ordained, yet I receive Holy Communion from my own hand before distributing the hosts to others. So there are exceptions.

Yes, that is true (I didn’t know this, and had briefly posted a message challenging this statement, but am now correcting it). According to “Immersae Caritas,” (instruction of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship), “Only in a Communion Service – no priest no Mass – may an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion self-communicate”

So there is exactly one exception to the rule of lay self-communication - namely the situation you describe. But no such exception applies to the Sister who self-communicated at the Tabernacle (which the OP mentioned).

And something else I did not know (which I mention just as an item of interest) - if an ordained Deacon assists at Mass (with a priest), not even the Deacon may self-communicate at a Mass.

 

[puzzleannie]

this situation was recently addressed in Catholic Answer (the other one, that used to be edited by Fr. Stravinskas but they needed 3 or 4 priests to replace him) as to 2 lay people who were the only ones coming to Church each day, who were permitted to open the tabernacle, take the ciborium, one communicated the second, then the second communicated the first one. In the situation addressed above, the sister (or any other lay minister) would simply hand the ciborium to the next person, who would communicate her, and then she would take the ciborium and distribute to all the other people.

There is also a very distinct procedure for communion services without a priest, one for weekdays and one for Sundays. It does NOT allow for just opening the tabernacle and taking the reserved hosts. Liturgy of the Word and proper procedures must be followed. These are available from the publishers of sacramentaries and other liturgical texts.

 

[JimG]

Bring back Father Stravinskas! Was he sent into exile by the publisher or what?

 

[puzzleannie]

JimG:

Bring back Father Stravinskas! Was he sent into exile by the publisher or what?

no, I think he just retired, and at the same time the magazine took on a new format, more like TIME size instead of pamphlet size, and expaned Q&A columns into different topics, each with its own priest-editor.

 

[DeniseR]

Self-communication not allowed??? Oh, my! I’ve been talking to myself for years!!!
Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Carry on…