From Monday there will again be Eucharistic celebrations in the parish community of St. Francis. There are concerns that the protective measures will limit the solemn character.
The pastoral team of the parish community (PG) St. Franziskus am Steigerwald has decided that from Pentecost Monday Eucharistic celebrations will again take place in the churches of the PG. However, due to the corona pandemic, the necessary hygiene measures and space restrictions continue to apply.
Inquiries to Pastor Stefan Mai have increased in the past few days: Why are we still not celebrating an Eucharist in the parish community of St. Francis, when it has also been officially permitted by Bishop Franz Jung since Ascension Day, May 21?
Conversely, the bishop’s permission contained no instruction that the Eucharist should be celebrated again immediately. The bishop left this open, it should be decided on the spot: It is now at the discretion of those responsible on site to deal appropriately with the situation and to implement what appears to be possible and sensible, the bishop wrote in his latest letter of May 15 where, after the initial ban, he basically allowed the celebration of the Eucharist again.
Franz Jung had justified the previous ban on the Eucharist in the Diocese of Wrzburg in a circular dated May 1: But precisely because the celebration of the Eucharist is of great value, it should be protected. Because as a bishop I am concerned with preserving the solemnity of the Eucharist. For many believers it was indeed difficult to imagine how the change and the subsequent communion would have been “solemn” under the impression of massive hygiene regulations.
More surgeon than priest
Pastor Stefan Mai also had problems with this. “Some pictures of Eucharistic celebrations on television and on the Internet go through my head and heart, where the communion donation already seems very strange and sterile, strange and not very dignified.” In some television services, the celebrant, according to Mai, reminded him more of an operator who has to comply with all hygiene regulations before going into the operating room. “It is not a worthy celebration to give communion with tongs and behind a spatula,” says Stefan Mai.
The pastoral team discussed this issue and decided to celebrate the services in a variety of engaging word services until Pentecost Sunday, May says. The offer included Easter morning and evening praise, solemn adoration, mountain hikes with Matthus, Pentecost novena and a Pentecost organ shower. “From Whit Monday, June 1st, we want to dare to start the Eucharistic celebrations on Sundays and public holidays with the necessary hygiene measures and space restrictions,” Pastor Mai now announced.
According to the episcopal announcement, there are several rules that must be adhered to: for believers only hand communion is possible, oral communion is prohibited. The donation formula The Body of Christ, which is otherwise spoken by the priest or the helpers of the communion before every believer, is no longer applicable. The priest speaks it aloud at the beginning of the communion and everyone answers together with Amen.
Mouth-nose covering
Priests and communion helpers disinfect their hands again before starting the communion service and put on a mouth and nose cover and, if necessary, gloves. Priests and helpers of communion then offer the faithful “while maintaining the distance that is as large as possible for a worthy form of communion”, “by allowing the donor to place communion as far apart as possible in the outstretched hand of the communicant”. Ideally, believers who go to communion should also disinfect their hands beforehand.
Pastor Mai on the rules: “I hope that from June 1st, even under the more difficult conditions, we will find a celebration of the Eucharist that deserves the quality attribute ‘it is worthy and just’.
No processions
Another note: The Corpus Christi and hail processions are canceled this year in the parish community of St. Francis.
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