The pandemic is officially over, but will Communion chalices make a comeback at Mass?

CHICAGO (OSV News) -- After the federal government declared a health emergency in 2020 over the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic churches in the U.S. scrambled to figure out how to provide the Eucharist, the sacrament that is the "source and summit of the Christian life" while keeping people safe from contagion.

In that process, most Catholic churches decided to suspend the Communion chalice at Mass, while allowing people to receive just the host. That prudential judgment by church officials to restrict holy Communion to just one kind only was possible for Catholics, because the church teaches Jesus Christ is "wholly and entirely present" -- body, blood, soul and divinity -- in the Eucharist. Whether one receives either the host, the body of Christ (which retains the appearance of bread), or the blood of Christ (which retains the appearance of wine) at holy Communion, that person receives the same Christ and can "receive all the fruit of Eucharistic grace."

But the Catechism of the Catholic Church also teaches "the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly."

By the time the federal government completely lifted all health restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2023, Catholics were routinely receiving the host, the body of Christ, at holy Communion.

While some dioceses allowed distribution of the blood of Christ from the Communion chalice as early as June 2022, residual fears about the virus have left their mark long after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established the risk of COVID-19 contagion from surfaces was actually low and that vaccination was the most effective protective measure against contracting the airborne disease.

With the exception of Eastern Catholic churches (where Catholics receive the Eucharist under both kinds commingled from the priest), the return of the faithful routinely receiving the blood of Christ in Communion chalices has proceeded far more slowly in parishes of the Latin Church.

"I was looking forward for it to come back," said Edward Zampinella, who receives Communion under both kinds at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Chicago. The pastor there confirmed to OSV News that his parish started to distribute the blood of Christ again at weekly Mass in mid-May.

Zampinella, 67, told OSV News he has been receiving the Eucharist from the Communion chalice "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 blood of Christ again, he said.

During the pandemic, hesitant reception of the blood of Christ raised concern among church officials that the practice of offering holy Communion under both kinds to the faithful might go by the wayside in churches. The Washington-based Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions included in a February 2024 survey, answered by 99 (arch)dioceses nationwide, a question of whether offering the Communion chalice has been "restored to the faithful." It found 50 said "yes," but 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, "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 offer Massgoers the blood of Christ 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 offer Communion under both kinds.

Claretian Father Masilamani told OSV News that after the pandemic disrupted church life, when the Vatican in September 2020 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 to offering the Communion chalice to communicants and seeking feedback from parishioners, the parish reinstated it.

"Honestly, I was thrilled. Especially whenever I finish Mass, people come up and they say, 'Wow, we are really happy and are privileged that we started this,'" he said. The priest noted seeing in the faithful "that emotional and sentimental satisfaction of getting both species" in holy Communion.

Father Michael Witczak, a liturgy and sacramental theology professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, said that receiving holy Communion under both kinds speaks to 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 the Latin Church's history when the blood of Christ was not distributed to the lay faithful for various reasons, such as for 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.

At times in the Middle Ages, for example, Latin Church authorities stopped offering the chalice to the laity to prevent disrespect for the Eucharist. The Council of Constance in 1415 prohibited the use of the chalice for the laity. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) limited Communion for the faithful to reception of the body of Christ only.

But in 1963, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) issued the constitution on the sacred liturgy "Sacrosanctum Concilium" authorizing the reception of Communion under both kinds by the faithful. 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.

"I'm glad for those who missed (the Communion chalice), that they are able to go back and have it," said Elizabeth Watson, who assists in the distribution of holy Communion at St. Thomas the Apostle in Chicago. However, she told OSV News that when the blood of Christ was available again for the faithful, she decided to stop being involved in its distribution 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 chalice) off and do something extra," said Watson. 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 receives the blood of Christ.

In Louisiana at least two dioceses brought back offering the Communion chalice 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 diocese's Office of Worship. "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 there is still some trepidation.

"The pandemic really shook up our Communion practice," he said.

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 blood of Christ for the faithful. But he suspected that not as many who used to receive it have gone back to receiving from the Communion chalice, likely due to residual fears from the pandemic.

At his church, St. Francis of Assisi in New Orleans, which started offering the chalice at Communion in June 2023, Father Gross told OSV News the Masses now have just two persons offering the blood of Christ to Massgoers. There used to be four at Communion 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."