The consecrated hosts were buried

[tuopaolo]

MooCowSteph:

If it turns out the priest knew about this, is the consecration still valid, since he would have excommunicated himself?

Yes, the power to consecrate doesn’t depend on that, only on the power of his orders and his intention and valid matter and form.

Before you do anything, I would make sure that these are actually consecrated hosts as opposed to hosts that were made to be consecrated but didn’t end up being consecrated. Maybe you’ve already done that.

 

[Pariah_Pirana]

Brendan:

Dr. C is right.

Both the GIRM and the US Norms on the Eucharist specify that any remaining Hosts not being reserved are to be consumed by the priest and deacon, if necessary with the assistance of EMHC’s.

Now certain circumstances is the Blessed Sacrament allowed to be buried.

Each church has a special sink, called a* sacrarium *that leads directly undergrount, NOT to the sewer system.

to clean calices, ciboria and purificators, they are first rinsed and the rinse water poured into the sacrarium. By definition, the rinse water would carry the Blessed Sacrament, and thus it is commited to holy ground.

While it is the norm for cleaning Precious vessels, it should NOT be the norm for the Blessed Sacrament as a whole.

Blessed items, such as broken rosaries, palm branches from Palm Sunday ect… are also to be either burned or commited to the ground, NEVER thrown in the garbage.

Incorrect.

The first time the sacred vessels are rinsed, the water (or wine) is consumed by those purifying the vessels. No Precious Blood (except perhaps at an atomic level) should be poured into a sacrarium.

 

[Mary1973]

It was my understanding that, after Good Friday’s service, all leftover consecrated hosts were to be consumed. I can remember doing this. That might be incorrect but at least we didn’t bury them.

 

[MooCowSteph]

The case still isn’t closed, but here’s an update. We’d been trying to get in touch with our priest, leaving two messages. He asked the liturgical director to email me to address our concern. He says when there are exceptional circumstances, burial is allowed. We plan to contact the archdiocese tomorrow to ask. I’m feeling really bad about myslef right now, though. I didn’t even say anything to my priest today. We were going to hang around and see if we could talk to him, but I was just too nervous. My hands were shaking and my heart pounding for the whole service. I feel like I broke my promise to God. I mean, we’re still going to call the archdiocese and follow through with it, but I really feel like dirt for not saying something direcly to father. I feel like such a chicken. I don’t know what my problem is… He said to my husband (I wasn’t there) “boy, you two have been busy”.

 

[Pug]

Steph, I understand how you feel. I’m not a very confrontational person, and it would be a huge stress for me to be trying to get my pastor to explain or do something different about so big an issue.

Most Catholics are very distressed if Jesus is mistreated or seems to be. It makes a person want to cry when He is ignored or abandoned. If you are too emotional to talk to the priest right now, that is okay (in my book, anyway). It sounds like your husband might just handle the situation anyway. Let him, if that seems best.

Please don’t feel too bad! I don’t think it is surprising that you are finding it stressful. Hope the archdiocese helps!

 

[chicago]

If nothing else, this apparently common occurance for Holy Thursday annually at your parish ought to serve for the priest to make some correction in the future, either by non using that substance or consecrating a smaller amount of those type of hosts than needed so that there will be none left over.

Hopefully, the Archdiocese wil be of some assistance. If not, I would say that it is a matter which needs to be brought to the attention of the pro-nuncio as well as the Vatican’s Office (which, of course, has just been relinquished by Cardinal Arinze for the sedvacancy).