Go-ahead in ten countries for Communion in hand

FROM OUR ROME CORRESPONDENT
CATHOLICS in ten countries have applied for and received Vatican permission to receive the Sacred Host in Holy Communion in their hands, instead of by the priest placing it directly on their tongue. Announcing this, the Vatican Press Office said the ten countries were Austria, Belgium, Canada, France,
French Somaliland, Germany, Holland, Japan, South Africa and Yugoslavia.
In granting their request, the Holy Sec had done so subject to rules for the distribution of Holy Communion laid down in a document issued since Vatican II. The Vatican said the practice of receiving Holy Communion by hand had been in use, unofficially, in other places, including Rome. (It had also been in use in Holland before the recent official permission was granted.) The reform could ultimately be applied throughout the world — this depending on individual Episcopal Conferences applying to the Vatican for approval.
A main reason for the desire in many places for the placing of the Host in the communicant's hands is that it reenacts the Last Supper — the founding of the Eucharist — far more authentically than the centuries-old custom of the priest placing the Host in the mouth, which Christ never did.
LAST SUPPER He broke the bread, consecrated it, and placed it in the hands of his disciples. The priest, taking Christ's place and following this ritual, makes Communion, it is contended, much more the sacred, communal meal Christ intended it to be.
Under Church Law only priests can consecrate the Host, but the Eucharist can be administered by deacons and, for exceptional reason, by others.
The Vatican's Sacred Congregation of Rites granted special permission in 1968 to Mother Mercedes, of the Servants of the Incarnation, to distribute Communion at a remote sanatorium she heads. She was the first woman in Europe to be allowed to distribute the Sacrament of Communion when there is no priest to do so.
Last September, the Vatican announced the relaxation of other rules and made it possible for Catholics to receive Communion under both species of bread and wine, instead of bread only.