Should a priest distribute communion when he is obviously ill?

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to get back on track here…

I think if the priest is sick enough where he’s obviously been coughing into his hand, or has been handling a snot rag, then he absolutely should not be handing out communion.

as far as using hand sanitizer goes, that stuff only works if it’s got a minimum alcohol content of at least 60% (dollar store brands often contain less), and enough of it needs to be used so that the hands are wet completely and it takes a good 20 seconds of rubbing to dry them. I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of people do not use the stuff properly. in addition, hand sanitizer only works against bacteria. colds, and a good portion of other upper respiratory illnesses (like bronchitis and pneumonia) are caused by viruses. not only that, but people spread the virus before they show symptoms. so yeah, the alcohol will kill any bacteria on your hands, but if you’re incubating a cold, it won’t help a bit. as far as passing colds back and forth, that generally doesn’t happen. there are so many different cold viruses out there that pretty much each time you get a cold it’s a different strain - once someone passes it to you, you can’t pass it back to them.

the last parish I attended put a ban on the sign of peace/distributing the cup for all of “flu season.”

actually, the priest is the first one to drink from the chalice. which ties in with my first point; if the parish distributes the cup to the congregation, and there’s not more than one available, he should not be drinking from it while sick.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was, reading that people think being a priest is a “get out of life free” card… oy vey…
 
insideitall said:
actually, the priest is the first one to drink from the chalice. which ties in with my first point; if the parish distributes the cup to the congregation, and there’s not more than one available, he should not be drinking from it while sick.
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In this scenario then the Cup couldn’t be offered to the laity since the priest MUST drink, we don’t have to.
 
is he not allowed to dip the host in, as someone else said they observed?

if he’s not allowed, then yes, I agree with you.
 
larsenl1 said:
The priest is always the last person to drink from the cup, after an entire congregation. If the chalice passed illness, and statistically at least one person in the parish will always have something, bronchitis, strep throat, a cold, etc. So the priest would constantly be severly ill if the cup truly was responsible.
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Yes, the priest is the first to drink but he is also the last to drink if the purification of the chalice is done properly. He drinks the last of whatever is left.
 
When ill our priest does not distribute communion. After Mass he usually explains and will even apologize.
You should have been there the day he was recovering from food poisoning:eek: He stopped in the middle of his homily and took off running…Poor guy, threw up and came back to finish Mass.
 
larsenl1 said:
Yes, the priest is the first to drink but he is also the last to drink if the purification of the chalice is done properly. He drinks the last of whatever is left.
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That depends on whether or not there are EMHCs. They usually consume what’s left in their chalice. True, the priest should be doing the purification.
 
insideitall said:
happymommy, that sounds so awful and embarrassing!!
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I know! Some of the men of the parsih helped him get his robes off as he was running into the bathroom! I guess he had been sick all night ( bad shrimp :o) But couldn’t find anyone that could fill in for him.
At least he didn’t barf on the altar
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Yeah, that would have been so much worse!

I can’t even imagine the chain reaction that he could have set off with a Church full of kids:eek:
 
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