The hands of Deacons are not consecrated, they do not commit sacrilege by distributing communion, the faithful who in times past received communion in the hand historically did not commit sacrilege either. You must stop using the wrong type of argumentation in this type of discussion. The boarders of the two nearest Latin diocese in which I live for example say the most conservative type of NO, have Eucharistic Congresses and are relatively catechised. This type of flawed argumentation, confusing piety with fact does damage to the ability to reach people. Many traditional Catholics give these types of answers which leads people to say, They don't understand their own churches history, They don't know what they are talking about. Trust me when I say people read what is said on traditional forums, I can attest to being asked questions about what has been said. Let's not forget that
Ok, those are good points you made, but let me add some details to my original point, which was too general. I did some research also, for clarity on the matter. What I said is still generally correct.
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1. You are correct, a deacon is allowed to distribute Holy Communion, without consecrated fingers. However, in pre-V2 times, the deacon was considered an Extraordinary minister of communion,
only in times of need. Currently, canon law says he is an ordinary minister, meaning he can fulfill this function anytime. That's a big difference.
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2. A deacon is a cleric of the church, who takes vows and receives part of the ministry of the priesthood. I think he has to take vows of celibacy (in the pre-V2 rite). So he's as close to being a priest as one can get. He's not simply a seminarian. And his church office is FAR greater than any layman.
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3. In an emergency situation, a priest can be ordained very quickly, without the multiple-hours ceremony, and without the prayers/consecrations of his fingers. As one poster on fisheaters said:
The blessings at ordination and the unction of the hands, (or of the head, at episcopal consecration) are mere sacramentals, not part of the Sacrament itself, nor necessary for validity or in se for the lawful exercise of the priestly or deaconal ministry. They help and - if devoutly received and accepted - give subjective grace..
This seems logical to me. The point is, the priest's function to handle the Holy Eucharist is contained in the sacrament itself; this blessing/power does not come from the "unction of the hands" ceremony, which is a beautiful part of the rite, but not necessary. In the same way, the deacon, when he receives part of the priest's major orders, would also receive part of this priestly blessing/power, so he can touch the Holy Sacrament, but only when necessary or needed.
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Laymen have NO special blessing/powers from this sacrament, or the Church. Hence, to handle the Body of Our Lord, without an extreme necessity, is a grave sin.
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4. It is a historical lie that Christian laymen handled Our Lord with their hands on a normal basis. The early Church was fractured, unorganized and under many, many persecutions for 300 years. While it may have occurred during this time, once the Church was able to have peace and to properly function, the practice was stopped. Such an allowance was made for many reasons, mostly due to the persecutions. After the persecutions, it was not allowed at all. It was never the norm.
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Dr. Taylor Marshall has researched this subject and reports that Saint Basil (died 379 AD) had this to say on this subject.
“Communion in the hand is allowed only in two instances, 1) under times of persecution where no priest is present, 2) for hermits and ascetics in the wilderness who do not have priests.” This point needs to be stressed; it was a rare exception, and not the norm. Otherwise, according to Saint Basil, to receive Communion in the hand was considered a “grave immoderation” under normal circuмstances. This practice goes way back in Church history.
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One of the earliest references we have about it is from Pope St. Sixtus I, who reigned from
115-125 AD,
“it is prohibited for the faithful to even touch the sacred vessels, or receive in the hand”. Saint Paul himself mentions the importance of the Eucharist repeatedly in the scriptures and how one should not approach it unworthily in 1 Corinthians chapters ten and eleven.
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https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/communion-in-the-hand-grave-error/