Re-consecrating A Host?

[Kylie Spinelli]

Hello!

 

I participate in a ministry that caters to a Hispanic group that works at the Back Stretch of a racetrack. We celebrate Mass, pray the Rosary, and then give the workers food after Mass. This evening we celebrated Mass for the workers. Because many of them had not been able to attend Confession, very few received the Eucharist, so there was some left over. The priest placed them reverently in a corporal to bring back to the Church and place in the Tabernacle, and a bag of un-consecrated hosts was put in Father's bag. One woman was helping to clean up after the celebration and she took the consecrated hosts out of the corporal and put them in the bag with the un-consecrated hosts, not knowing that they were different. This was brought to my attention when, after hearing one man's confession and then deciding to give him Eucharist, Father asked me where the consecrated hosts were. I had seen the woman put them in the bag, and I had just assumed that Father had instructed her to do so, so there was no need for me to stop her. 

 

I'm not sure what Father did regarding giving the man Communion, but what should be done with the Hosts in this case? Should he take them all and consume them, or dissolve them, or can you "re-consecrate" them? 

 

Just wondering, as I love to know the logistics of all of this stuff, and I am genuinely curious and I really want to know. I don't think this is in the Book of Canon Law, but if it is please let me know! I would love to find it in there!

 

Thank you and God bless!!

 

~Kylie

[phatcatholic]

I consulted with a priest who is a canon lawyer and who has a very high reverence for the Mass, and he said that, knowing that not all of the hosts are consecrated, and that there is no way possible to separate the consecrated hosts from the unconsecrated ones, he would place them all in a ciborium and place the ciborium on the corporal at the next Mass to be consecrated. The priest in this situation knows that some are already consecrated, but he also knows that some of them are not and that there is no way to tell which ones are and which are not. He should form his intention at that Mass to consecrate those hosts in the ciborium which are not already consecrated, the end result being that you end up with a ciborium of entirely consecrated hosts. Reserve in the tabernacle, and go on with life having learned an important lesson, namely, that more care should be taken to safeguard any consecrated hosts. Simply wrapping them in a corporal and leaving them where someone may do what that woman did is not acceptable.