Communion Services

 

Q. Due to the terminal illness of our deacon, the weekly Communion services of our parish are being conducted by extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion? Is this permissible? I feel very uncomfortable seeing my friends standing behind the altar, elevating the Holy Host and delivering a homily. By the way, thank you for saying in a recent reply that extraordinary ministers should not carry home the “left-over” Hosts after a visit to a nursing home. I did it on the instruction of the deacon in charge of our ministry, but now I have stopped it. -- J.M., Ohio

A. Yes, it is permissible for extraordinary ministers to conduct Communion services in the absence of a priest or deacon. However, the EM is not to deliver a homily since preaching is reserved to a member of the clergy. According to the Vatican document Redemptionis Sacramentum, “it is necessary to avoid any sort of confusion between this type of gathering and the celebration of the Eucharist .... It will be preferable, moreover, when both a priest and a deacon are absent, that the various parts [of the service] be distributed among several faithful rather than having a single lay member of the faithful direct the whole celebration alone. Nor is it ever appropriate to refer to any member of the lay faithful as 'presiding' over the celebration” (n. 165).

The document also says that, “if Holy Communion is distributed during these celebrations, the diocesan bishop, to whose exclusive competence this matter pertains, must not easily grant permission for such celebrations to be held on weekdays, especially in places where it was possible or would be possible to have the celebration of Mass on the preceding or following Sunday. Priests are therefore earnestly requested to celebrate Mass daily for the people in one of the churches entrusted to their care” (n. 166).