ASK FATHER: Are Extraordinary Ministers of Communion against the law?
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
The Congregation for the Clergy’s 1997 “ON CERTAIN QUESTIONS REGARDING THE COLLABORATION OF THE NON-ORDAINED FAITHFUL IN THE SACRED MINISTRY OF PRIEST” [HERE] says that “the habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass thus arbitrarily extending the concept of ‘a great number of the faithful’” is “to be avoided and eliminated.” This seems to go against the practice I’ve seen in most every church I’ve been too: the use of EMHCs at every Sunday Mass and often at weekday Masses. Is this against the law of the Church?
I think the questioner is onto something.
Clearly the Holy See wants the widespread use of EMHC’s to be eliminated.
However, it would be a stretch to say that the ordinary use of extraordinary ministers is “against the law”.
In the rubrics (i.e., the “law”) the determination of the usefulness of EMHC’s is left to the priest to decide. That said, the the local bishop could issue a law restricting or delimiting their use.
Is it wrong to use EMHC’s at a daily Mass with 10 people, or a Sunday Mass with 150? Yes.
Is it against the law? No.
