This trend must stop: the EMHC hand sanitizing procession

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bobperk

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I’ve noticed a goofy trend at my parish, as well as some others that I have visited recently. When the EMHCs approach the altar, they all make a big show of pumping a gob of Purell hand sanitizer into their palms and then continue to rub their hands together while standing around the altar. This is just so distracting and out of place. Can’t this be done out of sight? Has anyone else noticed this?
 
I as well as many use hand sanitizer before re I’ve I g the Eucharist.However not this practice you mention
 
Yes, it happens at my parish. 8 people approaching, you can smell the hand sanitizer wafting through the air.
 
At many if not most churches there is a big bottle of Purell sitting in the vicinity of the sanctuary that all the EMHCs use at some point before distributing. I cannot say I notice what they do because at that point in the Mass when they are preparing to go do what they do, I have a list of prayers that I begin to say right after the “O Lord I Am Not Worthy” or the Communion Antiphon if there is one, and I am busy focusing on getting through my prayers and not paying attention to what EMHCs are doing.

If they are doing it in full view it is probably to reassure those germophobes who are all worried about whether someone with unclean hands is going to place a Eucharist in their mouth or hand.
 
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It happens in my parish, but I have to say that I don’t watch them. I have my eyes on the priest and what he is doing. I appreciate that they use the sanitizer.
 
Well like Irishmom2 said, the odor becomes overpowering to the point of being distracting. Mass shouldn’t smell like an emergency room waiting area.
 
I have smelled many things at Mass and if I happened to smell some hand sanitizer it would be better than smelling (and hearing) the flatulence of the man in the pew in front of me, or the baby in the next row who needs a change, or the person who didn’t shower or use deodorant, etc.
 
If witnessing or smelling this event is the most distracting or troubling part of a Mass I attend, I would say its a pretty good Mass!
 
Being immune suppressed due to a stem cell transplant, and working my way through pneumonia as we speak, I appreciate any and all measures taken to reduce infection.

As to the mass, I tend to close my eyes through it, as I then listen better and am not disctracted by the movement of others. I open them at the elevation and focus on the Eucharist.
 
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Actually I find the whole EMHC procession to the altar to be a distraction. In my previous parish the EMHC’s stood at the top step of the altar but not in the sanctuary proper. The priest brought the ciboria to them.
 
bobperk said:
they all make a big show
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This is an opinion, and an uncharitable one.

If someone has been asked to use hand sanitizer, and the sanitizer is in a certain place, and the congregation can see it— they are not “making a show”. They are following the request of the priest.

And, in order to use sanitizer, you have to rub it in, that’s how it works. Even if you do one small pump.
 
I appreciate it also because I am going through chemo and radiation right now and my immune system is not up to where it should be. So it is nice that there is proof of them using sanitizer. In fact I sit in the front row and Father always has some sanitizer near him. He make sure that he uses it before he goes to give his homily and before he does anything on the altar. He lets me receive communion in my seat before anyone else just so that my immune system is protected.
 
The EMHCs in our parish used to be instructed to use the hand sanitizer in front of people for the precise reason stated above: to reassure people that they weren’t approaching their duty with germy hands. There’s no requirement or instruction, however, that anyone pay attention to it.
 
Yes I have noticed a little but not paying attention to them really. I opt for good ole fashioned soap and water myself. and running water, scrubbing. because hand sanitizier is not the best really.
but then I only receive from the priest not the ministers.
add: sanitizers like the one mentioned do have chemicals in them. there are safer to use sanitizers that are natural and do not have an odor about them. and they are effective as hs can be
 
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How kind of your priest to consider your situation and serve you first. How gracious. I too have a weak immune system from cancer and appreciate that extra level of pastoral care. My husband is an EM and as they all make their way and gather they simply pass by the small table, take a pump of sanitiser, and distribute it on their hands as they move into place. I cannot imagine getting miffed by this, let alone declaring ‘this must stop’.
 
Am following this thread with amusement because I’m a n00b EM and it never occurred to me that clean hands might be offensive.
 
Someone is going to take offense with just about anything the EMs do in front of the congregation, because a lot of people don’t like that the EMs are there anyway and will find a lot of ordinary things they do to be a distraction.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
it never occurred to me that clean hands might be offensive.
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The clean hands aren’t “offensive” to me (I agree, they must have clean hands!). The show of cleaning them and the hand rubbing around the altar is distracting.

There are other ways to inform the parish that the ministers have clean hands - a paragraph in the bulletin or an announcement for example.

But in any case, does the hand sanitizing really do that much? Say they sanitize their hands, then the first person in line takes communion on the tongue and has a cold. Or they’re touching someone’s hand that was just sneezed in. I’m not sure how long the efficacy of the cleaner lasts in the first place.
 
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