Some experts split from Fauci on Holy Communion recommendation

Denver Newsroom, May 29, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- As dioceses across the United States start to reopen public Masses, the scientist leading the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic recommended that Catholic Churches ought not resume distribution of Holy Communion. But other medical experts told CNA there are ways that Communion can be distributed safely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told America magazine May 26 that he does not consider the distribution of Holy Communion to yet be safe— even if distributed in the hand.

“I think for the time being, you just gotta forestall that,” Fauci said regarding Communion, calling for “common sense” measures to protect worshippers and the wider community such as masks, social distancing, and prohibiting singing.

“As many times as a priest can wash his hands, he gets to Communion, he puts it in somebody’s hand, they put it in their mouth…it’s that kind of close interaction that you don’t want when you’re in the middle of a deadly outbreak,” he told America.

Fauci’s recommendation on the Eucharist came a month after he said it could be possible for Americans to connect with people through dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, or Grindr.

“If you’re willing to take a risk…you could figure out if you want to meet somebody,” Fauci told Snapchat’s “Good Luck America.”

“If you want to go a little bit more intimate, well, then that’s your choice regarding a risk,” he added.

Deacon Robert Lanciotti is a microbiologist and the former chief of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s diagnostic and reference laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado. Lanciotti told CNA that Fauci’s call for “common sense” measures to mitigate the risk of infection does not exclude the possibility of distributing Communion.

“The primary way that this virus is spread is by direct person to person contact; droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes that land on another person and then enter the respiratory tract,” Lanciotti told CNA in an email.

“Maintaining a 6-foot distance or wearing a cloth mask are both methods that disrupt this process. Utilizing one of these measures in a group setting where infected symptomatic people are not present should be a sufficient level of risk reduction.”

Lanciotti, a graduate of Loyola College, was ordained a deacon in 2017.

He took issue with Fauci’s concerns regarding Communion in the hand.

“With the use of hand sanitizer immediately prior to the distribution of Holy Communion, and being careful not to directly touch the communicant, there is virtually no risk in the distribution of Communion,” Lanciotti told CNA.

Deacon Lanciotti pointed to an April 28 document from the Thomistic Institute in Washington D.C., written by medical professionals, researchers, and theologians.

That group recommended that out of respect for the Mass, the priest ought not wear a mask or gloves during the Mass, and neither should anyone distributing Communion.

Under the group’s recommended guidelines, those who wish to receive could approach the altar, spaced six feet apart; if the priest believed he touched the hands or mouth of a recipient, he could use hand sanitizer sitting on a table next to him.

According to the Thomistic Institute’s recommendations, the Precious Blood ought not be distributed at Mass.

To date, dioceses that have developed Church reopening plans have called for suspension of distribution of the Precious Blood. The Catholic Church teaches that reception of either the host or the chalice is a complete act of Eucharistic reception.

The Thomistic Institute’s document, distributed to bishops by the U.S. bishops’ conference, also recommends— as did Dr. Fauci— that singing ought to be discouraged.

It also states that it could be possible to receive Holy Communion on the tongue “without unreasonable risk.”

The document recommends that the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions ought not attend Mass anyway, as they are at especially high risk.

“I completely agree with this statement…In the setting of a church service, the single most important safety measure is for symptomatic individuals to stay home,” Lanciotti told CNA.

“I would argue that having sick individuals stay home, followed by adopting one more measure— masks or social distancing— is a reasonable approach. Utilizing both masks and social distancing represents a safety redundancy that is excessive and counter to ‘common sense,’” he said.

At St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Masses resumed May 18, after more than two months of closure amid Italy’s coronavirus lockdown.

Visitors are advised to keep two meters apart, hand sanitizer is available at kiosks in the basilica, and, at the church’s entrance, the body temperatures of visitors are checked with scanning thermometers, by two attendants wearing hazmat suits.

The Eucharist is distributed during Masses at the basilica.

Fauci, a Catholic, attended a Jesuit secondary school and Jesuit university.

In 2015, he told C-Span that he is no longer “a regular church-attender. I have evolved into less a Roman Catholic religion person to someone who tries to keep a degree of spirituality about them. I look upon myself as a humanist. I have faith in the goodness of mankind.”

He similarly told America that he appreciates his Catholic education, and especially the values he was taught at the Jesuit institutions he attended.

“I identify more, much more, with that than the concept of organized churches, religions,” he told America.

Other Catholic medical professionals have weighed in on the question of whether Holy Communion can be distributed safely.

An ad-hoc committee of seven Catholic doctors and medical school professors released on May 12 a document entitled “Road Map to Re-Opening our Catholic Churches Safely.” That group of doctors concluded that the safest recommendation is to receive Communion in the hand rather than on the tongue.

The document calls for Mass to be held with social distancing, and for the use of masks and hand sanitizer. Singing should be avoided, and those who are ill or believe they may have been exposed to the virus should stay home, it says.

One member of that committee is Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, chair of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s School of Public Health.

Baccarelli told CNA that he agrees with and appreciates Fauci’s suggestions, and that there is a risk to the distribution of Holy Communion.

“Our committee wrote a plan to minimize the risk to distribute communion. That doesn’t mean that there will be no risk nor that we advised on whether it was safe to do it now or in the future,” Baccarelli added. “We just provided a document to guide masses and distribute Communion whenever it will be safe enough to do so.”

“If Dr. Fauci suggests it is not time yet to distribute communion, I think we should listen to him and wait before doing that again,” Baccarelli said.

Another member of the committee told CNA last week that he believes Catholics can attend Mass safely, and sacraments can be administered with appropriate precautions.

“I think that if we just use common sense to compare apples to apples for metrics that we know matter – like density, for example – then there’s no real kind of objective scientific reason why Mass is any more dangerous than going to the grocery store. I think the difference here is a perceived risk,” Dr. Andrew Wang, an immunobiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine and one of the plan’s co-authors, told CNA.

The plan calls for confessions to be held in outdoor or well-ventilated indoor areas, with the use of masks, an impermeable barrier between the priest and penitent, and frequent sanitization of surfaces.

Wang said that distributing Holy Communion on the hand, rather than on the tongue, represents an appropriate precaution for churches, especially while some things about the coronavirus spread are not yet completely understood.

Acknowledging that some people may object to that recommendation, Wang said that in his perspective, “it boils down to, is it better to not have communion at all – and by extension not have Mass at all?”

Ultimately, Wang said, going to church at this time is not risk-free, just as any other public activity is not without risk during a pandemic. He noted that dioceses throughout the country have granted dispensations from the Sunday obligation for those who are unable to attend or are not comfortable with the risk involved.

Deacon Tim Flanigan is a member of the Thomistic Institute’s working group, an infectious disease specialist who has battled Ebola outbreaks, and a professor of medicine at Brown University. Flanigan also told CNA that Catholics can return to Mass and the sacraments safely – if they observe CDC protocols.

“The question is: can I follow the CDC guidance just as carefully, in each setting, in order to decrease transmission of coronavirus? Can I maintain safe distancing? Can I maintain good hand hygiene? Can I ensure that I am not ill?” Flanigan told CNA last week.

If CDC guidelines are followed, “There is no reason to prohibit church services when you don’t prohibit other gatherings,” Flanigan said.

“The CDC gives us that guidance to decrease the rate of transmission. It’s just as important that guidance be followed at a house of worship, as at a conference, as at any other gathering.”

“If somebody makes an arbitrary judgment that a church is not going to follow that guidance, without any evidence, that is biased and there is no evidence for that,” he said.

Flanigan questioned the categories of some governors who classified religious gatherings as “non-essential,” compared to more “essential” activities like grocery stores.

“Being able to come together and pray together, being able to receive the sacraments, to encounter the Lord, right there in the sacraments, is so important,” Flanigan said.

Mental health is just as important as physical health, just as important as spiritual health,” he said. “We are a whole self, which has a mind, a body, a heart a soul. To be able to pray together, to be able to support each other, to be able to worship together, to be able to receive the Lord in Communion, is so important for us to be healthy and to thrive.”

“That is why our churches are essential,” Flanigan told CNA.

 

 


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7 Comments

  1. Deacon Lanciotti may be mistaken or out of date in stating that the virus is primarily passed by droplets (larger particles emitted during sneezing or coughing). It is spread by droplets, but many scientists now believe the virus is also spread by aerosols, much smaller particles emitted when we breathe or speak or sing – and the aerosols may be primary. In this case, the danger to the priest or communicant comes from breathing and speaking in proximity to each other, if either are unknowingly carrying the virus. All Saints Parish, Alpena, Michigan has taken many precautions that seem sensible. The priest says “The Body of Christ” from the altar, and the people respond, “Amen” from their seat, so that there is no speaking at the Communion station in the vestibule. The priest stands behind a plastic window with an opening, lower than his face, where he distributes Communion in the hand. A small table keeps hand sanitizer available in case he inadvertently touches someone. People leave after Communion by an exit door that remains propped open and are asked to pray a prayer of Thanksgiving in the car, avoiding the necessity of remasking, and avoiding walking past others to their seat. There is also a protocol for Commuinion on the tongue. Some may think the precautions are beyond what is necessary, but considering the average age of U.S. priests is 64 yrs, many are in a high risk group, and it is important to keep priests and parishioners safe. A video showing All Saints precautions:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XLhPbEQH0&t=88s&fbclid=IwAR0YiOzWHTwM0bwNlvDQu-5EKUFdu2AO3ag28UmzVaLXDL_d-vceETTALEw An article explaining probable airborne transmission of virus: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/931320?src=WNL_trdalrt_200530_MSCPEDIT&uac=281401HY&impID=2399849&faf=1

  2. I can think of very few things that are risk-free. Last year I was driving down a road and someone pulled directly in front of me and caused a nasty accident. People hurt themselves while walking if they fall. Coal miners’ jobs are dangerous. Firemen’s jobs are dangerous.

    If they think we should wait until there is absolutely no risk whatever before we go back to Mass, what they’re saying is that we should never go back.

    Some experts split from Fauci on Holy Communion recommendation

    May 29, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

    Denver Newsroom, May 29, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- As dioceses across the United States start to reopen public Masses, the scientist leading the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic recommended that Catholic Churches ought not resume distribution of Holy Communion. But other medical experts told CNA there are ways that Communion can be distributed safely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told America magazine May 26 that he does not consider the distribution of Holy Communion to yet be safe— even if distributed in the hand.

    “I think for the time being, you just gotta forestall that,” Fauci said regarding Communion, calling for “common sense” measures to protect worshippers and the wider community such as masks, social distancing, and prohibiting singing.

    “As many times as a priest can wash his hands, he gets to Communion, he puts it in somebody’s hand, they put it in their mouth…it’s that kind of close interaction that you don’t want when you’re in the middle of a deadly outbreak,” he told America.

    Fauci’s recommendation on the Eucharist came a month after he said it could be possible for Americans to connect with people through dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, or Grindr.

    “If you’re willing to take a risk…you could figure out if you want to meet somebody,” Fauci told Snapchat’s “Good Luck America.”

    “If you want to go a little bit more intimate, well, then that’s your choice regarding a risk,” he added.

    Deacon Robert Lanciotti is a microbiologist and the former chief of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s diagnostic and reference laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado. Lanciotti told CNA that Fauci’s call for “common sense” measures to mitigate the risk of infection does not exclude the possibility of distributing Communion.

    “The primary way that this virus is spread is by direct person to person contact; droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes that land on another person and then enter the respiratory tract,” Lanciotti told CNA in an email.

    “Maintaining a 6-foot distance or wearing a cloth mask are both methods that disrupt this process. Utilizing one of these measures in a group setting where infected symptomatic people are not present should be a sufficient level of risk reduction.”

    Lanciotti, a graduate of Loyola College, was ordained a deacon in 2017.

    He took issue with Fauci’s concerns regarding Communion in the hand.

    “With the use of hand sanitizer immediately prior to the distribution of Holy Communion, and being careful not to directly touch the communicant, there is virtually no risk in the distribution of Communion,” Lanciotti told CNA.

    Deacon Lanciotti pointed to an April 28 document from the Thomistic Institute in Washington D.C., written by medical professionals, researchers, and theologians.

    That group recommended that out of respect for the Mass, the priest ought not wear a mask or gloves during the Mass, and neither should anyone distributing Communion.

    Under the group’s recommended guidelines, those who wish to receive could approach the altar, spaced six feet apart; if the priest believed he touched the hands or mouth of a recipient, he could use hand sanitizer sitting on a table next to him.

    According to the Thomistic Institute’s recommendations, the Precious Blood ought not be distributed at Mass.

    To date, dioceses that have developed Church reopening plans have called for suspension of distribution of the Precious Blood. The Catholic Church teaches that reception of either the host or the chalice is a complete act of Eucharistic reception.

    The Thomistic Institute’s document, distributed to bishops by the U.S. bishops’ conference, also recommends— as did Dr. Fauci— that singing ought to be discouraged.

    It also states that it could be possible to receive Holy Communion on the tongue “without unreasonable risk.”

    The document recommends that the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions ought not attend Mass anyway, as they are at especially high risk.

    “I completely agree with this statement…In the setting of a church service, the single most important safety measure is for symptomatic individuals to stay home,” Lanciotti told CNA.

    “I would argue that having sick individuals stay home, followed by adopting one more measure— masks or social distancing— is a reasonable approach. Utilizing both masks and social distancing represents a safety redundancy that is excessive and counter to ‘common sense,’” he said.

    At St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Masses resumed May 18, after more than two months of closure amid Italy’s coronavirus lockdown.

    Visitors are advised to keep two meters apart, hand sanitizer is available at kiosks in the basilica, and, at the church’s entrance, the body temperatures of visitors are checked with scanning thermometers, by two attendants wearing hazmat suits.

    The Eucharist is distributed during Masses at the basilica.

    “Fauci, a Catholic,”

    Judging by what he says next, no, he’s not. He’s a post-Christian humanist. You know, the old (and moronic) “I’m spiritual, not religious” routine.

    “I have faith in the goodness of mankind.”

    If my eyes roll any farther I’m going to be looking at my own brain.

    • Oh, gosh, I’m sorry, I thought I cut out all that other stuff! My comment was supposed to say,

      I can think of very few things that are risk-free. Last year I was driving down a road and someone pulled directly in front of me and caused a nasty accident. People hurt themselves while walking if they fall. Coal miners’ jobs are dangerous. Firemen’s jobs are dangerous.

      If they think we should wait until there is absolutely no risk whatever before we go back to Mass, what they’re saying is that we should never go back.

      “Fauci, a Catholic,”

      Judging by what he says next, no, he’s not. He’s a post-Christian humanist. You know, the old (and moronic) “I’m spiritual, not religious” routine.

      “I have faith in the goodness of mankind.”

      If my eyes roll any farther I’m going to be looking at my own brain.

  3. Soap and water are more effective than hand sanitizers at removing certain kinds of germs, like Cryptosporidium, norovirus, and Clostridium difficile. Although alcohol-based hand sanitizers can inactivate many types of microbes very effectively when used correctly, people may not use a large enough volume of the sanitizers or may wipe it off before it has dried (CDC). After the celebrant’s hands are sufficiently sanitized and dried [that requires a given length of time] they can be recontaminated as Deacon Lanciotti knows. Apparently ‘humanist’ Dr Fauci understands the high risk of no precaution with an exceptionally transmittable virus, as well as precautionary measures that are not risk free especially when there’s continuous contact. After speaking with my niece secretary at a L I hospital she cited the loss of four medical personnel. Considering this data I’m inclined to accept Dr Fauci’s long standing scientific medical opinion as a reliable guide for distribution of holy communion. Let’s keep in mind also Saint Charles Borromeo when Archbishop Milan adhered to the governor’s order to close churches during the Plague. Nonetheless Borromeo allowed outdoor services and personally risked hands on ministry. We can devise intelligent ways of reducing risk inside a church however inevitable [example parishioners could cup both hands allowing the priest to dispense the host without touching and without requirement to continuously sanitize].

  4. I still have not returned to church for the reason of Holy Communion, so for now still doing a ‘spiritual Communion.’ Even before the pandemic I always thought touching the hand of the communicants could spread cold or flu germs to the Host for the next person. I used to try to be the first one on line to receive or just not attend during the winter months due to certain health issues. I had a wonderful pastor years back who agreed to give me Eucharist in my pix (I used to be an EM) before the Mass. He said I could receive it during Communion in the pew. At the time I was on steroids so hesitant to receive. A Jewish psychologist I went to told me he’d visited Rome and watched one of the Masses and was upset over how people were drinking from the same cup. Unless the alcohol is over 40% it will contain germs and wine is usually about 12%. Wiping the cup after each person drinks is not going to prevent germs from person to person. So this is a difficult dilemma for some people. I understand not receiving during a pandemic and believe that God does too.

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