the indifference of modern liturgists

These comments regarding swine flu and this past Sunday's Mass were taken from a forum at
http://www.rpinet.com/wforum/index.php?t=msg&th=4383&start=0&rid=0&S=a850bb07256abb68c72088c29197d904
their quotes are in green. I am red.


>>>Then he made a second announcement that just made me cringe. "In addition, after you receive Communion you may pick up a sanitizing hand wipe from the box on the Communion rail." WHY in the WORLD does someone need to wipe their hands after Communion? The only possible reason I could come up with was because the Priest/Deacon had Swine Flu. Well, you just ate what they gave you so it's already in your system. Why the sanitizing hand wipe?<<<

More importantly, what is to be done with the wipe after Fragments are almost certain to adhere to it? [Tossed in a garbage bin no doubt] This is a matter of 'indifference' to modern liturgists. K. C. does not understand that! K. C. does not understand why every person 'taking' Communion in the hand does not bother to purify their hands in the same way they see the priest purifying his? Why do they think the priest does it? Only for show?


>>>>I was an EM and brought some hand sanitizer with me. I used it before mass and after and encouraged the other EMs to do the same. I know that germs are passed on through touching(hands)and my concern was with folks who receive on the tongue. Sometimes you just can't avoid touching their tongue. I left the bottle of hand gel in the sacristy. soap and water is available in the sacristy as well. The EMs I trained recently know to wash their hands and/or use the gel regardless of the flu. <<<<

Calling all Ministers of the Eucharist! Extraordinary and ordinary! K. C. cannot remember the last time K. C.'s tongue was touched. I don't think it even happens once in a thousand times. so my question is, let's say you were called to distribute Viaticum Communion to a dying leper on Molokai, if you were very, very careful, could you avoid touching his tongue?

I assume the answer is yes. Naturally I have a followup: Why not just be very, very careful every time you distribute Holy Communion?

K. C.