(LifeSiteNews) — Daily Wire host Michael Knowles has lamented the distribution of Holy Communion by extraordinary ministers as a “liturgical abuse.”
Knowles condemned on X the “now-common” distribution of the Eucharist – which Catholics understand to be the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ – by extraordinary ministers (EMs), that is, anyone other than a priest.
The term “extraordinary” derives from the fact that such lay ministers of Holy Communion, who are now ubiquitous at Novus Ordo Masses, are meant to be in fact truly extraordinary, now that the Second Vatican Council has established EMs.
Many, if not most Catholics who attend Novus Ordo Masses are unaware that priests’ hands are specially consecrated during ordination so that they may handle the Holy Eucharist, which is God Himself.
St. Thomas Aquinas has explained that this is one of three reasons why only priests are permitted to touch the Sacred Host:
… out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches It but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands for touching this Sacrament. Hence, it is not lawful for anyone else to touch It, except from necessity, for instance, if It were to fall upon the ground or else in some other case of urgency. (S.T., III, Q. 82, Art. 13)
Liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has pointed out that ordination is so important for the handling of the Eucharist because “[w]hen you hold the host, you are in contact with the Author of all life, all reality. This is not something to treat lightly, or to delegate to clerks like an office job.”
“Never in the recorded history of the Church had laymen (not to say anything about laywomen) been allowed to distribute the precious gifts, until just a few decades ago,” Dr. Kwasniewski noted. Even once EMs were permitted after Vatican II, the practice was “expressly limited to rare cases,” such as when no ordained minister is available to bring Holy Communion to the sick.
For this reason, the Vatican clarified in 1997 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 among practices “to be avoided and eliminated where such have emerged in particular Churches.”
When X user Diana Henry replied to Knowles that the Eucharist is “still the same Jesus” no matter who distributes Him, the Catholic commentator responded, “Of course, but some ways of regarding the Blessed Sacrament are more reverent than others. If one has the choice, it seems to me better to choose the more reverent and thereby to discourage liturgical abuse.”
He added the Latin phrase, “Lex orandi, lex credendi,” which means that the “law of prayer” translates to the “law of belief.” In other words, how one prays will influence what one believes.