| In the November/December 2008 issue of the journal Notitiae,
the Congregation issued an official interpretation of the liturgical
norms in response to a question posed by a bishop. Dubium:
Whether it is permitted for the Priest
celebrant to communicate only after he has distributed the Holy
Eucharist to the faithful, or whether he may distribute the Holy
Eucharist and then afterwards communicate together with the people.
Responsum: No, to both questions.
Certain practices of this kind in particular are being introduced,
namely, where the Priest celebrant communicates only after he has
distributed the Holy Eucharist to the faithful, or, by the same
thinking, he waits until after the Holy Eucharist has already been
distributed to communicate together with everyone else, namely, the
faithful, as though feasting together at the Eucharistic table.
In all the Rites of the Church, an order is found which has been
handed on for approaching Holy Communion: first, the Bishop or the
Priest celebrant communicates, and then the other ministers according to
their hierarchical rank, and finally, the people. The Priest
communicates first, not because of any human superiority, but on account
of the nature and dignity of his ministry. For, the Priest acts in the
person of Christ on account of the integrity of the sacrament and
because he presides over the assembled people: "So, as Priests join
themselves with the action of Christ the High Priest, they daily offer
themselves wholly to God, and as they are nourished by the Body of
Christ, they partake of love from the heart of him who gives himself as
food to the faithful" (Second Vatican Council, Presbyterium
ordinis, no.13).
In the edition of the Missale Romanum
promulgated by the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI, the communion of
the faithful follows immediately upon the communion of the Priest,
establishing it in this way as a unique action, different from the form
in the edition of the Missale Romanum which appeared in 1962, in
which the communion of the Priest is separated from the communion of the
faithful through the recitation of the Confiteor and of the
prayers, the Misereatur, Indulgentiam, Agnus Dei and the
Domine, non sum dignus.
The governing liturgical norm states: "A Priest must communicate at
the altar at the moment laid down by the Missal each time he celebrates
Holy Mass, and the concelebrants must communicate before they proceed
with the distribution of Holy Communion. The Priest celebrant or a
concelebrant is never to wait until the people's Communion is concluded
before receiving Communion himself" (Redemptionis Sacramentum,
no. 97).
Notitiae 45 (Nov.-Dec. 2008), p. 609
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