Never become an extraordinary minister?
Blogged by James Preece on 8th April 2011
I've been meaning to share this for a while now, this is by aelianus over at Laodicea...
I was in Westminster Cathedral the other day and I beheld a most edifying sight, something I have experienced in a number of places over the years. It was a well attended lunchtime weekday Mass, the congregation numbering several hundreds. When it came to communion the priest approached the congregation with three extraordinary ministers of holy communion. After a few dozen people had gone up to receive from the extraordinary ministers the rest of the several hundred laity resolutely refused to budge from the Priest’s communion queue and the extraordinary ministers were forced to stand there pointlessly for quite some time. I felt sorry for the EMs who are usually pious members of the laity keen to assist in their parish. But the fact is that the use of extraordinary ministers is an abuse.
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Rarely are they instituted by the Bishop, never out of genuine necessity, their use is universally habitual not exceptional and certainly not unforeseen. Most absurdly of all they are mostly used to administer the chalice which is never necessary by definition because administration under one kind is an ordinary method of administration so it is never necessary to take extraordinary measures to avoid it.
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The incident at Westminster Cathedral (and the growing number of similar occurrences) is edifying because it shows the sense of the faithful recovering from years of clericalist modernist bullying. More and more, faithful Catholics are instinctively uncomfortable with this practice and they instinctively avoid participating in it. There are a number of other practices which if the laity simply adopted or avoided would help to turn the tide.
1. Never become an extraordinary minister
2. Never receive communion from an extraordinary minister
3. Always either receive kneeling or genuflect just before receiving
4. Never receive under both kinds
5. Never read unless you are a vested server
6. Never serve if you are a woman
7. Never cleanse the vessels unless you are Deacon
8. Never touch the Eucharist or the Sacred Vessels with your hands
9. Always genuflect when passing in front of the Tabernacle
10. Always double genuflect in front of the exposed Blessed SacramentHaving been an extraordinary minister (years ago when I was unaware of the dodgy status of this practice) and having worked as a sacristan for some time (and spoken to many others) I can tell you the Blessed Sacrament is almost always desecrated when communion is administered under both kinds. Very few priests or sacristans purify the linens and the vessels properly or immediately and they are very very sensitive about it because they have often been acting wrongly their entire priestly lives and they don’t want to hear about it.
[link]
Thoughts?
Reader Comments
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Michael said...
My heart always sinks when you see EMHCs dishing out blessings. It appears they *actually* think they're priests.
Another not uncommon situation is when one kneels to receive and the EMHC has no idea what's going on. I got a bizarre blessing / Communion combo once, which would have been funny had it not been so depressing.
All that said, of the list of 10, it seems sensible to separate those that are genuine liturgical abuses - like the unnecessary use of EMHCs - from those that are allowed - like female servers - but which we might like to see change.
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Joseph Shaw said...
The use of female altar servers is an abuse which was (eventually) allowed - it is allowed as a derogation from Church law, like Communion in the Hand. In both cases these things were only allowed when they had become widespread abuses. See more here.
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Michael said...
Indeed. But they're allowed, as much as I'd like to see that reversed.
Incidentally, did you know at Fisher House they have female servers for the EF of the Mass, with the permission of Rome.
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Simon Platt said...
What or where is Fisher House?
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Sarah said...
Catholic chaplaincy at Cambridge
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berenike said...
Cannae trust a Tab.
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Richard Collins said...
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. So encouraging to hear that the laity are voting with their feet and only queuing where they may receive from a priest.
I would rather carry out a lobotomy on myself with a rusty screwdriver than receive from an EMHC!
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Chrysostom said...
This is a most important post and I recommend good people to use the link in order to read the whole of the original feature.
Two of the most common abuses are of people not genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament, and of the "extraordinary ministers" giving blessings, as if they were priests, to children and others not receiving Holy Communion.
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Policraticus said...
Whilst I agree in principle with the points being made about what is fundamentally deeper reverence for the Holy Eucharist - I find no. 5 "Never read unless you are a vested server" typical of the rampant clericalist attitude among the laity -that somehow all will be better if we have a disproportionate level of deference to the clerical caste. I don't agree with female altar servers [even though in one sense it is good that innocent children of both sexes are in close proximity to sacred things and actions] but if one were to adhere to item 5 on that list -one would never hear a perfectly faithful Catholic woman [with a good speaking voice] proclaim the Scriptures not just with dignity but with a living faith. The habit does not make the man and no amount of cassocks and cottas and lace and tassles [nice though they are for the dignity of the liturgy within reason] will add to the purity of the sacrifice unless the souls of those participating are in earnest about the search and love for God.
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berenike said...
This comment is exactly the kind of clericalist attitude that you think you are criticising :)
Being on the sanctuary is not better than not beng on it. Men are only on the sanctuary as deputies of God. Those in the pews are those for whom those in the sanctuary are serving. And even that, not in virtue of anything about them themselves, but only on secondment. God created us man and woman as an image of the relation between Christ and His church. Christ does everything for His church, represented by the people who are NOT on the sanctuary, and in a way most perfectly by women. The point of Christianity is not doing things. It's that something is done for you. Don't go dragging women down from the place in which God has put us. You get off your bum and do the readings. And vest to do so, if it won't give your PP palpitations.
:)
love
a p*ssed-off lay woman
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Salisbury John said...
"a p*ssed-off lay woman"
mmm? very lady like and feminine!
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berenike said...
My character and indeed psyche have been deeply wounded by years of immersion in an educational system and mindset formed by and for men.
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Vincent said...
While I would like to discourage EMHCs in general, I'm not sure a boycott is the best approach. I think of Jesus on the Cross; Mary and John stayed with Him in his sufferings. If we were there, would we choose to 'boycott' the crucifixion, or would we choose to suffer with him? Does the same apply when he is abused by EMHCs?
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epsilon said...
What is one to do when they see lay people taking the Blessed Sacrament out of the Monstrance to put it back in the Tabernacle after Eucharistic Adoration even though a priest is still in the Church?
You can call these practices any sort of ism you like but whether it's laity or priests or both they only serve one purpose - to exalt humans over God, and we see the result everywhere, in and outside The Church.
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JARay said...
I confess to being a something which you in the UK do not have. I am an Instituted Acolyte. I have been one since 1975 when I was formally instituted by the late Archbishop Lancelot Goody along with about 100 other men in his cathedral in Perth, Western Australia. I have served the Church in this capacity ever since.
In my capacity as an Acolyte I am permitted to cleanse the sacred vessels. It is one action which we Acolytes do have, peculiar to our ministry and, once Instituted we remain so for life.
Archbishop Goody is on record as stating that he was only going to have men on his altars, hence his institution of the Acolytate. He would not permit EMHCs at all. After his death that all changed and we now do have them. There are even some women in a neighbouring parish who consider themselves to be Acolytes since their parish priest instituted them and called them acolytes but we know better.
As with the priesthood and the diaconate the acolytate is only open to men.
When we are acting as Acolytes we wear an alb and cincture and we are present at the altar all throughout Mass. We do not just come up out of the congregation to distribute Holy Communion.
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Kate said...
I don't know, I'm from a very underserved diocese and am an EMHC for one of the local nursing homes/rehab centers. Our local priests do not have enough time to visit the centers often -- a priest says Mass at the chapel once a week, but with all of the lay volunteer EMHCs, we are able to make sure that each Catholic resident/patient receives Holy Communion every day.
I'm not thrilled with tons of EMHCs at Mass, but I think there are legitimate reasons/situations where it's acceptable.
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Lancaster MC said...
Oh come on people!!!
I think several hundred people attending mass is first and foremost something which we should be grateful for and thank GOD for that wonderful blessing in the diocese of Westminster.
Now for EMHC's - In the case mentioned I think it would be perfectly safe to say that this would be a circumstance in which it would be acceptable (in the absence of those who have the legitimate 'ordinary' permission to distribute communion) to accept that an 'undue delay' would occur if only the priest were to distribute (even only under one kind)
At the end of the day I agree that EMHC serve a very wonderful purpose in visitation and in assisting in extreme circumstances but also that we need to encourage vocations so this situation does not arise on a regular and habitual basis!
Finally, I think everyone needs to understand that what Jesus is really bothered about is people treating his beloved body with the utmost respect and receiving him as he asked us to.
I love the liturgy, I love candles and incense and rubrics and I follow them to the letter where I can but Jesus doesnt want people debating EMHC to the end of time, he just wants us to get on with telling his story and bringing people to share in his love.
SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - Whenever you see a EMHC and 500 people queueing for the priest leaving the EM looking like a spare part, have the courage that St Thomas did, and stand out in the crowd, accept that while everyone else is queueing up in 'disgust' you can be back in your pew kneeling, praying and thanking God for the very gift of his Son and praying for more workers in his vineyard!
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Sarah said...
Which St Thomas are you suggesting here Lancaster MC?
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Petros said...
Indiscriminate needless use of Extraordinary Ministers goes directly against Rome.
Surely this abuse evolved as part of a sop to female catholics who seem to be in the majority in the EM ranks.
As a former Anglo-Catholic I am not impressed by the matriarchy which pervades our parish councils and other organisations.
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