5/15/2021
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| Duccio, "Agony" |
Another common reason to refuse to administer Holy Communion to someone is that it may cause harm. Let’s set aside the real and serious spiritual harm caused by receiving unworthily and focus for the moment, rather, on physical harm. Two instances come to mind: NPO orders and quarantine.
Priests often arrive at the hospital or to the sick bed after a doctor has already given the order that the patient is to take nothing by mouth (NPO is short for the Latin nil per os). Attempting, repugnant as it is even to consider, force-feeding the host to a sick person who can hardly swallow is not only not advised, but will likely result in the profanation of the Blessed Sacrament. Such a person is not in that moment to be admitted to Holy Communion, their most recent, previous Communion sufficing for their Viaticum.
Similarly, someone quarantined due to an infectious disease might be inaccessible to the priest. Or, likewise, the priest may find himself needing to quarantine thereby excluding everyone from Sacramental Communion.
Avoiding doing harm in these two instances is the perfectly reasonable and even necessary decision on the part of the minister. These are cases where the minister must refuse to give it due to the unhealthiness of the participants. No one would fault the minister for a second for his discernment in such a situation.
This past year, pastors all across the country made exactly this very discernment lasting for a period of months at a time, and in some places even longer. The minister of communion must refuse to distribute it to those who are physically unable to receive it.
Is it possible to consider that these pastors were using the administration of the sacraments to cudgel the faithful into behaving a certain way? While there were some pastors who were criticized for refusing access to confession for anyone not yet vaccinated, those pastors were corrected. Even so, it’s hard to imagine, as mistaken as those pastors were, that they were trying to weaponize or instrumentalize the sacrament for the sake of some other purpose. Rather, on the face of it, it’s simpler to understand that there are some practical circumstances involving the physical health of the faithful that call for the refusal of the administration of the sacrament.
By now it should be clear, there are times for the priest to administer the sacrament and times for him not to administer it. The timing and presentation of these circumstances is made clear by the circumstances themselves. The circumstances, while they are not intended by the minister of the sacraments, do affect whether or not he proceeds with their administration.
The choice to exclude millions of the faithful from Holy Communion through the order to suspend the celebration of Mass for the faithful was a serious one. It was done, obviously for the sake of protecting them from the harm caused by the spread of a deadly virus. But can those same pastors who so protect their faithful from harm by excluding them from Holy Communion also promise Holy Communion at the same time to the promoters of the slaughter of the innocent unborn?
Image: Duccio, "Agony"
