Distributing Communion Under Both Species

25. The Oriental and Greek practice of distributing the Eucharist under both species even to lay people has been discussed at length by Arcudius in in Concordia Occidentali, et Orientali in Sacramentorum administratione, bk. 3, chap. 4, and by Leo Allatius in his first note in de Ecclesiae Occidentalis, atque Orientalis consensione, p. 1614f. In the Greek College built in Rome by Gregory XIII, observance of the Greek rite is obligatory. Leo Allatius affirms this in his treatise on de aetate, et Interstitiis, p. 21. In accordance with the Constitution of the College confirmed by Pope Urban VIII, the students must make a confession every week and receive the holy Eucharist every fortnight as well as on solemn feast days and every Sunday in Advent and Lent, following the Latin rite, But on the greater feasts, at Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, they are obliged to receive the Eucharist under both species in the Greek rite with leavened bread and unmixed wine. The wine is given to them by means of a small spoon. All other Greeks who come to Mass on those days, or who ask to receive the Eucharist according to the Greek rite on other days of the year, are given communion in the same way.

However, Our constitution 57 Etsi Pastoralis, sect. 6, no. 15, forbids the reception of Communion under both species by Italian Greeks except in places where this rite has been strongly upheld. Some Greeks and Orientals have gradually abandoned the practice of receiving communion under both species, even though it is the established custom of the whole Oriental church.

The famous Lucas Holstenius, writing to Bertoldus Nimissius, relates that he gave the Eucharist in the Vatican Basilica to an Abyssinian priest who came with others to communicate at the altar. When he had given him communion under the appearance of bread alone, he inquired of him as well as of other Ethiopians whether they in their own rite usually received the Eucharist under the appearance of bread alone, both on feast days and ordinary days and as viaticum for the dying. He declares that they answered that they always received communion under the appearance of bread alone, and that this ancient custom prevailed in the Ethiopian church (in Opusculis Graecis, ac Latinis of Leo Allatius, p. 436).

Among the statements requested by Pope Gregory XIII from the Patriarch of the Maronites is the following: "We celebrate Mass only with unleavened bread, but our laity communicate under both species." The Pope replied: "If they wish to consecrate unleavened bread, it is obvious that they should not be prevented, but the laity should be slowly discouraged from communicating under both species. For all Christ is present under one species, and there is great danger of spilling if the chalice is used" (Thomas of Jesus, de Conversione omnium gentium, p. 486f).

The fathers at the Synod of Lebanon, 1736, passed a similar decree: "Next, following the practices of the Holy Roman Church, we order and strictly command that laity and minor clerics are not to receive Communion under both species, but under one species only, that of bread" (part 2, chap. 12, no. 21). They allowed only deacons to receive the Eucharist under both species at a high Mass, first under the appearance of bread, then of wine, without the use of a spoon as We mentioned above: "But we allow deacons, especially at High mass, to receive from the priest the host dipped in the Blood. A spoon however should not be used. We decree that the use of spoons at Communion should be absolutely abolished."