The following temporary measures are to be implemented until March 2, 2018:
- Suspend the distribution of Holy Communion in the cup.
- Encourage the reception of Holy Communion in the hand.
- Do not shake hands.
- Do not hold hands during the Our Father.
- Extraordinary ministers are to cleanse their hands with alcohol-based antiseptic before and after administering Holy Communion. This also applies to those who take Communion to the home-bound.
Respectfully,
+Jaime Soto
Full text at Diocese of Sacramento website.
Thank goodness for a Bishop with good sense. What are the other Bishops waiting for???
The author failed to mention these safeguars aren’t necessary at Latin Masses.
I take the Blessed Sacrament on the tongue in the winter at traditional Latin Masses, do not get the flu shot, and I have not had the flu for so long I cannot remember when I last had it. I try to: have my throat blessed on St. Blaise Day, which is in February, and take Zicam zinc tablets when exposed to a cold or the flu. When the bishop asks us to take the host in the hand at the ordinary Mass doing cold and flu season, I do so reverently, though it is not my preference.
First of all, that is not true. Just because a mass is in Latin doesn’t mean the communion cup isn’t normally offerred. Secondly, the communion cup should ordinarily BE offerred, as Chris himself commanded. Thirdly, withholding the cup during a time of widespread disease (like now with the flu) is prudent and pastoral.
Making this about some ridiculous notion that the cup should be wittheld from the laity all of the time is absurd. It goes against Christ’s own command, against widespread practice in the Eastern Rites and Orthodox Churches, and against most of Latin rite history.
Anonymous, I never said that the Communion Cup should never be offered., but I never take it because I got colds all the time when I did take it. I have no problem taking the Sacred Blood by intinction, but that is not offered at Latin Rite Masses. I have taken it by intinction at Eastern Catholic liturgies. Some priests refuse to take the common cup when not serving because they had the same problem I did. It is Catholic teaching that one receives BOTH the Body and Blood when one receives the Host.
Continued: this was all discussed in the Homilectic and Pastoral Review many years ago as some priests were getting a lot of colds and flu when receiving at Masses they did not serve. When I saw children taking Communion from the Cup after coughing and sneezing, I figured it was not a good idea for me to take it as my immune system was not so good.
For hundreds of years the only way Communion was given to Latin Rite Catholics was by the Sacred Host — I suppose unless they were known to be allergic to wheat.
Anonymous, we receive both the Body and the Blood when we take the Sacred Host OR the Sacred Cup. Look up “EWTN Catholic Q & A, Holy Communion, Question from Karl Tojussen on 07-01-2004” to get full Catholic teaching as to why that is so.
By the way, the Anonymous post Jan. 29 at 7:08 pm was mine. I thought the other Anonymous was writing to me, but now it does not seem clear whether he was writing to me or Jeanie. Anyway, I hope I gave a clear answer as to what I meant, and now I will drip the subject. Please forgive any confusion I caused.
I distinctly remember in the late 50 to early 60s Pastors — and Bishops — preaching that ill parishoners should stay home. Contagious diseases spread easily by more than handshakes and hugs. Several hundred persons in a realtively small space is an ideal place for flu or colds to spread. Language is irrelevant here.
Better:
Suspend the distribution of Holy Communion in the cup.
Encourage the reception of Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue. .
Do not shake hands.
Do not hold hands during the Our Father.
The celebrant shall be assisted by other bishops, priests, or deacons in the distribution of communion.
Extraordinary ministers will only be called upon when the size of the congregation or the incapacity of the
bishop, priest, or deacon requires it. This also applies to those who take Communion to the
home-bound.
I find horrific the notion that we should toss aside Christ’s own command by saying things like we should “suspend the distribution of Holy Communion in the cup” as a regular norm, as you suggest.
CHRIST HIMSELF commanded that we should take and drink, just as he commanded that we should take and eat.
Who are we to say that Christ himself was wrong?
Horrific? Poor baby… sounds like anon need a safe space.
Christ entrusted the proper manner of celebrating all the Sacraments he established to the one Church He founded. Who are you, pray tell, to pretend that you have greater authority than the Church in these matters? You treat Sacred Scripture as a Jehovah’s Witness would.
It is past March 2, 2018, and here it is Palm Sunday and no cup is offered again. I find this grievous as I look forward to the complete “Remembrance” of the cross and the sacrifice of our Lord, especially during this season of Holy Week. I have found it more sensible to encourage sick people to stay home and ask for Communion to be brought to them. This is a viable and beautiful privilege for a sick person. All it takes is a phone call to the parish priest. Also in my parish, many became sick because of our priest being sick. He had a fever, a running nose, and a sore throat when he served Mass. Needless to say, I got ill and being an asthmatic it took me out for 5 weeks, and two hospital visits. Is it so unspiritual for a person to be…
Intinction.
Amen!
Except, it would be hard to serve a large amount of people that way. Eastern Rite Divine Liturgies usually have far fewer communicants.
Christ entrusted the proper manner of celebrating all the Sacraments he established to the one Church He founded. Who are you, pray tell, to pretend that you have greater authority than the Church in these matters? You treat Sacred Scripture as a Jehovah’s Witness would.