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CHICAGO (OSV News) -- When the federal government completely lifted all health restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2023, churches in dioceses across the country were free to distribute the holy Eucharist in both forms, consecrated bread and wine.
But well before the government declared the official end of the pandemic emergency, Eucharist in the form of bread was readily available. And while some dioceses allowed distribution of wine in the Communion cup as early as June 2022, their churches were more deliberate about distributing the Precious Blood in the Communion cup, amid lingering fears of spreading COVID.
"I was looking forward for it to come back," said Edward Zampinella, who takes Communion from the cup along with the host at weekly Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Chicago. The pastor there confirmed to OSV News that his parish just started to use the cup again at weekly Mass in mid-May. But the Chicago Archdiocese declined a request from OSV News for an interview with the pastor.
Zampinella, 67, told OSV News, he has been receiving the Precious Blood "for as long as I've been living" but that he had to stop during the pandemic.
"With COVID people got scared and stuff. Now it's coming back. People are coming out of their shells. Some people are still a little scared, but we (should) just be an example, make people feel comfortable" receiving the Precious Blood again, he said.
During the pandemic, slow reception of Communion from the cup raised concern among church officials that it might go by the wayside. The Washington-based Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions included in a February 2024 survey, answered by 99 (arch)dioceses nationwide, a question of whether the Communion cup has been "restored to the faithful." It found 50 said "yes," 47 left it up to individual pastors to decide and two said "no." (There are 196 archdioceses and dioceses in the United States).
Rita Thiron, the federation's executive director, told OSV News in an email, "Yes, as the pandemic fears lessened, there was a fear that the distribution of the Precious Blood would be restricted, lost or forgotten. Many in the church hierarchy, diocesan leaders and parish priests were anxious to restore the cup to the faithful after the pandemic -- for theological, liturgical and pastoral reasons."
At Sacred Heart Church in Prescott, Arizona, associate pastor Father Gaspar Masilamani said his church started to use the Communion cup again at the end of December last year. He said Sacred Heart is just one of five parishes in the fast-growing Phoenix Diocese that uses the cup.
Father Masilamani, a Claretian, told OSV News that after the pandemic disrupted church life, when the Vatican (in a September 2020 letter) urged a return to in-person Mass participation as soon as anti-COVID measures permitted, the parish wanted to take part. After receiving multiple requests to return the Communion cup and seeking feedback from parishioners, the parish reinstated distributing consecrated wine from the cup.
"Honestly, I was thrilled. Especially whenever I finish Mass, people they come up and they say, 'Wow, we are really happy and are privileged that we started this,'" he said. "(To see) that emotional and sentimental satisfaction of getting both species of body (bread) and blood (wine) of Christ."
Father Michael Witczak, a liturgy and sacramental theology professor at The Catholic University of America in the nation's capital, said that receiving holy Communion under both kinds keeps the integrity of the church as the body of Christ.
"To receive Communion under both kinds is a reinforcement of the underlying unity of the body of Christ," Father Witczak explained to OSV News, "which is hierarchically organized: the bishops and the priests representing Christ the head for the local communicants and local congregations. But that all those who are baptized are members of the body of Christ and participate in their own way as … members of the church."
Father Witczak pointed to different periods in church history when the Precious Blood was not being distributed to the laity for various reasons, such as not giving it proper dignity with careless distribution and the potential for spilling, stealing the chalice, and also fears of infection from plague and disease.
In the 12th or 13th century, for example, church authorities stopped offering the chalice to the laity to prevent disrespect for the Eucharist. The Council of Constance (1415) prohibited the use of the chalice for the laity. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) restricted Communion to bread only.
In 1963, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) issued the document "Sacrosanctum Concilium" authorizing the reception of Communion under both species. In the U.S., the bishops' conference gave permission to distribute the Eucharist under both kinds during weekday Masses in 1970, and this was extended to Sundays in 1978. With the revisions of the third edition of the Roman Missal, communion under both kinds continues to be encouraged.
The church teaches in its doctrine of concomitance that the whole of Christ, his body and blood, is equally present in each form of the Eucharist and that the faithful can choose to receive the wine or not while receiving the bread. If a person receives only from one "species" of the Eucharist, from the cup or the host, they receive the full Christ, according to the teaching.
"I'm glad for those who missed that (the cup), they are able to go back and have it," said Elizabeth Watson, an extraordinary minister of holy Communion at St. Thomas the Apostle in Chicago. However, she told OSV News that when the Precious Blood was available again for the faithful, she decided to stop distributing it as a precaution.
"I don't want to spill it or anything because it's the Precious Blood. … You have to make sure to clean (the cup) off and do something extra," she said. Because she has grown physically unsteady due to declining health, she expressed concern over the possibility of not being able to carry out new health protocols of cleaning the lip of the chalice and turning it a specific way after each communicant takes a sip.In Louisiana at least two dioceses brought the Communion cup back in November 2022.In a statement sent to OSV News from the Baton Rouge Diocese, officials said since then, "those who regularly partook of the Precious Blood seem to have resumed their practice."
"They value the ability to receive under both forms," said Father Tom Ranzino, director of the Office of Worship at the Baton Rouge Diocese. "The full act of eating and drinking is in the tradition of the church the best way to do what Jesus said to do."
But even after COVID, he recognized that there is still some trepidation. "The pandemic really shook up our Communion practice."
Father Nile Gross, director of the Office of Worship at the New Orleans Archdiocese, said anecdotally as of this June, he estimated about 90% of the parishes in the archdiocese have brought back the Precious Blood for the faithful. But he suspected that not as many who used to receive it have gone back to taking the cup, likely due to fears from the pandemic.
At his church, St. Francis of Assisi in New Orleans, which started distributing the Precious Blood in June 2023, Father Gross told OSV News the Masses now have just two extraordinary ministers distributing Communion with the cup, but there used to be four before the pandemic.
"That we know of, in the year since we've brought it back … we have no even hints, or suggestions, that anyone has gotten sick from receiving the Precious Blood," he said, "which goes with what we were hearing from health officials locally."
- - - Simone Orendain writes for OSV News from Chicago.