"Swiss churches put consecrated hosts in match boxes for faithful to take"

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Swiss churches put consecrated hosts in match boxes for faithful to take - LifeSite

'Consecrated hosts to take for Communion at home,' a handwritten sign states next to a bowl containing dozens of match boxes with the Eucharist.
www.lifesitenews.com www.lifesitenews.com

The original Swiss article (with photographs) is to be found in the link below.

www.kath.ch

Die Kommunion im Papierschächtelchen abholen – kath.ch

Weil das Bedürfnis nach Eucharistie sehr gross ist, ermöglichen Nidwaldner Pfarreien den Gläubigen, die geweihte Hostie abzuholen. Verpackt sind sie in von Hand gefalteten Papierschächtelchen.
www.kath.ch www.kath.ch

N.B. It is in German and contains strict guidelines regarding copyright and circulation. If you wish to read a perfectly understandable English translation of the text, use a Chromium based browser (e.g. Chromium, Google Chrome, Slimjet etc. etc.) with translation settings activated when visiting the web page or simply cut and paste the text into a translation bot.
 
If I understood well, anyone can take hosts? If that is case then it seems dangerous because of sacrilege.
 
Anyone can receive a host at every mass, we don’t screen in the Communion line.

It seems that the parish in question basically gave blanket permission for all of the faithful to be EMHCs. While using paper instead of a metal Pyx, the paper can be easily burned.
 
@TheLittleLady That is correct but with this it is like an offer in supermarket
 
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Reading the story (NOT the LSN commentary piece), it is not at all like a supermarket. The priest is present and there is a specific time following the Mass when people can approach and take a paper pyx box.
 
Then I missunderstood something, my pardon.
I am gonna read that from original Swiss source now.
An older man comes in, sits down and remains silent for a long time. Finally he gets up and goes forward. In front of the steps that open into the sanctuary, there are white boxes the size of a matchbox on a table. Inside is a consecrated host.
The man kneels in front of the monstrance, takes two boxes and leaves the church again. “Holy communion is the crowning glory for me,” he says to the journalist outside, and tells in detail about his engagement in the Solidarity Lebanon-Switzerland association, which is involved in peace work. One of the two hosts is for his wife.
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Well I was wrong @TheLittleLady, I opened now pages of that parish and they have to “order” communion and then pick it up:
House communion
The current situation does not allow us to hold any public services until further notice. However, we are aware that holy communion continues to be valued by many. That is why we would like to enable you to take home communion. If necessary, register by phone or email at the parish secretariat (tel. 041 610 92 61, email: sekretariat@pfarrei-stans.ch).
Communion can be picked up in the parish church on Saturday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m
http://www.pfarrei-stans.ch/corona-aktuell.html
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This reminds me that last year our parish priest (Japanese) had us receive communion under both kinds by taking the Host and dipping it in the chalice ourselves. Then one day I somehow mentioned on the phone with a deacon in England, who told me that was absolutely wrong. He said intincture is only allowed in the Middle East, and even so it’s supposed to be done by the priest and then fed to the parishioners, instead of letting us do it ourselves. He was totally horrified when I told him that my parish’s choir members receive the communion and immediately start singing with the Host still in our mouths. He was like this is risking accidentally spitting the Body of Christ out on the floor.
 
What LSN doesn’t mention, among others, is that :
  • the “match boxes” are not match boxes but painstakingly hand made
  • they went for paper because the virus apparently doesn’t live on it as long as on metal, and they didn’t have enough pyxes in the first place
  • a priest is present to watch over the proceedings.
 
new-kirishitan said:
He said intincture is only allowed in the Middle East,
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Intinction must be done by the Priest. It is at the discretion of each Bishop to allow or disallow in his Diocese.
new-kirishitan said:
He was totally horrified when I told him that my parish’s choir members receive the communion and immediately start singing with the Host still in our mouths. He was like this is risking accidentally spitting the Body of Christ out on the floor.
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The choir members ought to chew and swallow the host and not leave it in their mouth. That is simply decent manners!
 
Unfortunately, the priest here wants us to remain singing for as much as possible during the communion. So we were instructed to keep singing, and once the guy who took the Host upstairs (where the choir is), we line up to receive the Host without stopping to sing. Each individual is only allowed to stop when he/she puts the Host into the mouth, and then that person needs to immediately starts to sing again. The churches here aren’t really squared away. Kneeling during transubstantiation was completely abolished throughout the country a few years ago, followed by the parading of the cross at the beginning and the end of a Sunday Mass. Now we aren’t supposed to say “Thanks be to God” any more after the 1st and 2nd readings.
 
OddBird said:
What LSN doesn’t mention, among others, is that :
  • the “match boxes” are not match boxes but painstakingly hand made
  • they went for paper because the virus apparently doesn’t live on it as long as on metal, and they didn’t have enough pyxes in the first place
Click to expand...
The LIfesite article does however make mention the GIRM article regarding materials to be used in transportation and a very pertinent reference (and link) to the relevant Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum section(s) pertaining to this.
 
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New-kirishitan: have you considered attending Mass at a different parish, in order to see if things there are done properly? Here in the US it is often feasible to seek a different parish if one observes too many issues at the nearest parish.
 
So far there’s only one parish in Tokyo that does things better than the other ones, and it’s probably because that church is under the Salesians, instead of being directly under the diocese, and the parish priest is an Italian guy. But now he’s being transferred to another city, and his replacement is a Japanese priest, so I don’t know how things will go. Other churches are even worse. Now my experience with American Catholic churches is a mixed bag. Some are almost as traditional as the European churches, others could be very similar to the Japanese Catholic churches. Personally, I prefer my original parish in London the most, where I wen through RCIA and got baptized & confirmed. It’s very traditional and people still receive communion kneeling at the altar rail, and I find the Catholic Church in England stricter than those in both Japan and USA, where you are still required to refrain from eating meat every Friday, while in Japan it’s only required 2 days out of the year. They also have more Holy Days of Obligation than the other two countries.
 
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The concern I didn’t see addressed (or did I miss it?) is that all these folks are self-communicating, which isn’t permitted. Did I miss that dispensation or something somewhere?
 
It takes, maybe 3 seconds to consume the Host.

Heck, if that 3 seconds means they kick me out of the choir, then, I did not need to be in the choir anyway!
 
That use of the word ‘match box’ by LSN is so very wrong and has made me resolve never to read anything from that source again.

It’s such a loaded word, almost implying grubbing in trash cans to get enough boxes and therefore irreverence.

What it have hurt LSN to say ‘little paper boxes especially made for the purpose’?

Shameful manipulation.
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
The concern I didn’t see addressed (or did I miss it?) is that all these folks are self-communicating, which isn’t permitted. Did I miss that dispensation or something somewhere?
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That was my first thought also. Even if it’s person A communes person B and then they reverse roles, that flies in the face of numerous other instructions against those type of practices (e.g. bride and groom are not allowed to communes each other, EMHCs are not to hand off sacred vessels to each other, etc)

This seems like a short sighted pastoral solution that will just open up a huge can of worms.
 
new-kirishitan said:
Now we aren’t supposed to say “Thanks be to God” any more after the 1st and 2nd readings.
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That’s strange. Never heard of that before.

I know what the priest may be doing in Switzerland is probably against the GIRM and other rubrics. However, the early church used to give Communion to be taken home by the laity to be eaten throughout the week. Not entirely sure when that practice was abolished. I am not saying that this practice should be practiced today without the appropriate approvals from the appropriate authorities. I am not in an expert in these matters hence someone else can comment on what must take place for such a practice to be permitted.
 
That was actually my first thought - I’m all for pastoral solutions to the (temporary) issues we’re dealing with, but the potential (permanent) problems that could be introduced are why I think we haven’t seen more “solutions”.
 
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