Last week’s post examined the principle of Ecclesia supplet, a preventive intervention the Church puts in place to protect the faithful from the ill effects of invalid acts. Today’s post focuses on the role of the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, a position established by the Church to facilitate the reception of Holy Communion.
The concept of an extraordinary minister of communion dates back to the 1917 Code, which stated that only a priest is the ordinary minister of Holy Communion. A deacon is an extraordinary minister who can exercise this role only with permission from the local Ordinary or parish priest and for a grave cause. The Second Vatican Council broadened the doctrine of the Church as communion (Cf. Const. Lumen gentium, nn. 4, 8, 13-15, 18, 21, 24-25; Const. Dei Verbum, n. 10; Const. Gaudium et spes, n. 32; Decr. Unitatis redintegratio, nn. 2-4, 14-15, 17-19, 22), restored the permanent diaconate and made deacons ordinary ministers of the Eucharist (Lumen Gentium, 29).
The significant change came in 1972, when Pope Paul VI abolished the minor orders (porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte) in the Latin Church (the major orders were the subdiaconate, diaconate, and priesthood), and established the lay ministries of lector and acolyte. Among the duties of the acolyte was to distribute Holy communion as extraordinary ministers whenever ordinary ministers are unavailable or unable to distribute due to age or illness, or when the number of communicants is much (see c. 230 §3).
As the Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of Sacraments affirmed in its 1973 instruction: “The purpose of having extraordinary ministers is to facilitate the reception of communion through having enough ministers, to prevent excluding the sick from communion, and to enable the faithful to receive it a second time on the same day” (Immensae caritatis, preamble).
The instruction also highlighted the spirituality of canon law when it said that “these faculties have been granted exclusively in favour of the spiritual good of the faithful and for cases of genuine need” (Immensae caritatis, VI).
In 1987, the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law clarified that extraordinary ministers are not to distribute communion when ordinary ministers who are not impeded are present in the Church, even if they are not participating in the Eucharistic celebration, because their function is “supplementary and extraordinary.”
The 1983 Code provided that laymen (Viri laici) who possess the age and qualifications can be admitted on a stable basis to the ministries of lector and acolyte (Can. 230 §1). Although when the need of the Church warrants it and ministers are lacking, canon 230 §3 allows lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion, they were not to be ministers in a stable manner. However, in 2021, Pope Francis, through the apostolic letter Spiritus Domini, modified canon 230 §1 to allow women to be conferred the ministries of lector and acolyte in a stable manner. Canon 230 §1 now reads “lay persons” (Laici) rather than “lay men” (Viri laici).
Similarly, while the 1917 Code prohibited female altar servers (Can. 812 CIC 17), the 1983 Code removed the restriction (canon 906), which the General Instruction on the Roman Missal reaffirms. It reads: “In the absence of an instituted acolyte, lay ministers may be deputed to serve at the altar and assist the priest and the deacon; they may carry the cross, the candles, the thurible, the bread, the wine, and the water, and they may also be deputed to distribute Holy Communion as extraordinary ministers” (n. 100). Even if there were doubts about canon 906 of the 1983 Code omitting the restrictions of canon 812 of the 1917 Code, Pope Francis’ apostolic letter above clarifies every doubt that women can be altar servers, even in a stable manner.
The theological foundation is baptism, through which all Christians—clerics, those in the state of religious life, and lay persons—are constituted among the People of God, are made sharers in the priestly, prophetical, and kingly functions of Christ, and are to carry out their own part, each according to his or her status, in the mission of Christ (Lumen Gentium, 31).
Hence, it is also connected to the spirituality of the law in the sense that lay persons are enabled to deepen their relationship with God by participating in some services, which brings them closer to the altar. It also enables their sense of belongingness, which further sustains their relationship with God.
May God continue to help us.🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
