Self-intinction?

[Rocks_91]

I saw eons ago that a priest at a local chapel with Mass performed by Jesuits would have the people self-intinct the host. It somehow got into my mind that self-intinction was not an allowed practice, but I haven’t been to that chapel again. Recently, I went to the same chapel and saw that another priest was also having people self-intinct, I thought he was elderly and that is why, but thinking again, the first priest didn’t seem very old to me. Is self-intinction an allowed practice?

 

[InThePew]

Is self-intinction an allowed practice?

Short answer, no - we receive communion, we don’t take it so the idea of self-receiving is a contradiction in terms. Intinction (where the priest dips the host in the chalice) is allowed but that’s not the same thing.

 

[malphono]

No, the practice is NOT allowed.

From Redemptionis Sacramentum (emphasis added):

[103.] The norms of the Roman Missal admit the principle that in cases where Communion is administered under both kinds, “the Blood of the Lord may be received either by drinking from the chalice directly, or by intinction, or by means of a tube or a spoon”.[191] As regards the administering of Communion to lay members of Christ’s faithful, the Bishops may exclude Communion with the tube or the spoon where this is not the local custom, though the option of administering Communion by intinction always remains. If this modality is employed, however, hosts should be used which are neither too thin nor too small, and the communicant should receive the Sacrament from the Priest only on the tongue.[192]

[104.] The communicant must not be permitted to intinct the host himself in the chalice, nor to receive the intincted host in the hand. As for the host to be used for the intinction, it should be made of valid matter, also consecrated; it is altogether forbidden to use non-consecrated bread or other matter.

 

[Rob_Arnzen]

I saw eons ago that a priest at a local chapel with Mass performed by Jesuits would have the people self-intinct the host. It somehow got into my mind that self-intinction was not an allowed practice, but I haven’t been to that chapel again. Recently, I went to the same chapel and saw that another priest was also having people self-intinct, I thought he was elderly and that is why, but thinking again, the first priest didn’t seem very old to me. Is self-intinction an allowed practice?

No.

INSTRUCTION - Redemptionis Sacramentum

“[104.] The communicant must not be permitted to intinct the host himself in the chalice, nor to receive the intincted host in the hand. As for the host to be used for the intinction, it should be made of valid matter, also consecrated; it is altogether forbidden to use non-consecrated bread or other matter.”

The steps that should be taken should you care to pursue the matter:

• Verbally communicate with the Jesuit rector of this chapel your concern, citing Redemptionis Sacramentum.
• Communicate with the Jesuit rector of this chapel your concern, citing Redemptionis Sacramentum, in writing with a copy to the Jesuit provincial.
• Communicate with the bishop of the diocese in which the chapel resides your concern, citing Redemptionis Sacramentum, in writing with a copy to the Jesuit provincial.

Do not make accusations or be harsh. Do not go on at length. Do not call into question the motives of the people who are doing the self-intinction. Be brief, state the fact that you asked, and ask how this is permitted.

My experience is that this usually happens among older priests who simply will not correct bad habits picked up in the “whoopee” period of the 1970s. The fact that the chapel is Jesuit complicates things since the bishop usually finds it difficult to restrain religious orders in their dioceses short of a friar nailing 95 theses to the cathedral door.

.

 

[fencersmother]

When I first converted, in my parish self-intinction was practiced, and even encouraged. I have since learned, as others have noted, that this practice is forbidden. There were many things at that parish that weren’t exactly *kosher, * but I didn’t know it then.

 

[bardegaulois]

No, this is not allowed. I’m generally unfond of the practice of intinction as it is–outside, of course, of the Greek and other Oriental Churches where it is established and uninterrupted practice throughout the centuries. I love those spoons they use, by the way. In any case, intinction was revived in the Latin Church after a long lacuna, and so I’m inclined to shy away from it–not least because the abuse you describe seems rather common in those parishes where intinction is practiced.