COMMUNION TO THE SICK - I CAN'T DO IT

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I’ve taken Communion to the sick in my parish, Holy Trinity Central Hawke’s Bay, for a few years now. I've never felt comfortable with it and I’ve reluctantly decided I can’t carry on.

I'll miss the people to whom I've taken Holy Communion, and when I'm not rostered to play the organ I'd be very happy to take them to Mass.

I should have said this when I finished up as an ‘Extraordinary’ Minister of Holy Communion at Mass. But I knew even that would mean the rest of our small team of ministers would have to take up the slack.

That was about two years ago. By then it was clear to me that the post-Vatican II innovation of Communion in the hand was a tragic mistake. It was never mandated by Vatican II. It was a deliberate manoeuvre by the Church's progressive prelates, only belatedly ‘permitted’ by the Vatican in an attempt to shut the stable door - but by then the horse of disobedience had bolted. The Church in NZ, where we love to lead the world, had the bit between its teeth.

Kneelers and sanctuary rails went to the tip, statues to garden sheds and we had the ‘New Mass’ (substantially rejected by the Episcopal Synod, never submitted to the Episcopal Conferences and never asked for by the people). Lay people, urged on by bishops and priests, were up and doing.

Handling and distributing the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is a sublime privilege  which had always been reserved, until Vatican II, to the consecrated hands of priests. “To touch the Sacred Species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained” (Pope St John Paul II). 

Church law is clear: so-called ‘Extraordinary’ Ministers of the Eucharist must be used only in cases of ‘true necessity’ or ‘cases of an unforeseen nature’, must be properly trained, and mandated by the Bishop.

There's no need to distribute the Precious Blood; in the Host we receive both the Body and Blood of Christ. Chalice bearers are unnecessary and increase the chance of desecration of the Sacred Species which commonly occurs with lay people handing out the Host - particles, each of which is the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Christ whole and entire, are often dropped, ignored, trodden on. 

“By their fruits you shall know them … the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit” (Mt 7:16,17)

Among the fruits of Vatican II, including the fruits of laity handling the Sacred Species, are sex abuse scandals, a dramatic fall-off in Mass attendance, use of the Sacraments and men in training for the priesthood.

“It has come to our knowledge that some priests deliver the Lord’s Body to a layman or a woman to carry It to the sick: the synod therefore forbids such presumption to continue; and let the priest himself communicate to the sick.” (St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae).