From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
During Covid, the Bishop annointed my neice by means of a Q-tip. Valid?
Yes. The Congregation for Divine Worship in a response to the USCCB saying that it is valid. HERE
“The use by the minister of an instrument (gloves, cotton swab…), does not affect the validity of the Sacrament.”
This contradicts previous teaching about the use of an instrument for confirmation. However, I think we have to go with it.
That said, from the time of the Council of Trent, use of an instrument was forbidden.
In the traditional form, the bishop laid his hand on the head of the confirmand and then anointed the forehead with Chrism using the thumb of his right hand. In an emergency, another finger could be used, but an instrument could not.
Paul VI lifted the obligatory laying on of the hand saying that the touching with the thumb in anointing accomplished that gesture as well.
Manuals reflected this.
Sabetti-Barrett’s 1919 edition of Compendium Theologiae Moralis, says (in Latin):
669. Query. – Question 2. How is the [Confirmation] anointing to be done?
Response. It must be done with the right thumb of the Bishop in the manner of a cross on the forehead of the one confirmed. However, the anointing would be valid if it were done by a different digit of the Bishop, and even if it were a digit of the left hand, because it would be an imposition of the bishop’s hand. But a Bishop would sin, were he to do that without necessity, because he would be departing from the universal praxis of the Church; albeit it does not seem that an inversion of the aforementioned ceremony would reach the level of grave guilt. – Cf. S. Alphons. n. 165
Question 3. Whether anointing can be done validly by means of an instrument?
Response. NEGATIVE., and the reason is, that the immediate imposition of the hand of the Minister would be lacking, which is absolutely required from what has been said. On this in the new Code (1917):
§2. Anointing is not to be done with any instrument, but it is imposed properly by the hand of the minister on the head of the confirmand.
Prümmer in the 1953 Manuale Theologiae Moralis says:
156. 3. The anointing must be done with the thumb of the right hand, and not with a stylus or another instrument, as has already been said. If, however, the bishop has a bad thumb, he can licitly anoint with the thumb of his left hand or with another digit.
We grant that THE CHURCH gets to determine how the sacraments are to be administered.
So, an instrument such as a Q-tip can be used. The same applies to anointing of the sick whereby even a nitrile glove can be used.
Without questioning the validity of using the Q-Tip or the Church being able to change how the sacraments are administered, I can’t help but wonder where the line gets drawn? Because I saw pictures of priests during COVID “baptizing” infants with water guns . . . at what point has the process been degraded to the point where it is no longer licit or valid, or does such a point even exist?
Once the stabilizing influence of Tradition is cast off, are we just stuck in “whatever goes” land?
I thought about this before in regards to ordination. Does the glove change the laying of hands?
Beatify: glove
No. If the ordaining bishop wears gloves at the time of the laying on of hands for ordination, there is no problem. As a matter of fact, in the traditional rite of ordination, according to the older Pontificale Romanum, the ordaining bishop does wear gloves.
WVC: “whatever goes” land?
I don’t know how to answer that, other than to say that changes which cause confusion or doubts should be shelved if suggested and corrected if imposed.
I am not denialist, but there was a lot of nonsense during the covid time in the liturgy. From my perspective, the nonsense always veered towards the irreverent, never towards reverence.
Wouldn’t it have been more meaningful had the Bishop used coca leaves instead of a cotton swab?
@Fr. Reader
I will say that, if one is close enough to swab someone’s forehead with a Q-Tip, it really seems absurd to pretend that the difference of an inch or two means a hill of beans to an airborne virus. Perhaps the bishop could have put the Q-Tip on the end of a 10 foot long bamboo pole while hiding behind plexiglass, just to be safe? And I know one location in our diocese had the priest have an altar boy squirt his hands with hand sanitizer in between each distribution of the Host during Communion.
It’s what I struggle with – once this pandora’s box is open it seems like there’s a certain type that always runs to the extreme end that’s the opposite of reverence. And they never (or at least very rarely) get punished or reigned in. At most they might get a vague “y’all shouldn’t be doing that” type of message with no follow up or consequences.
The hole that has been dug for us will already take generations to climb out of. And they haven’t stopped digging yet.
@WVC,
Don’t you know that every forehead from 2020 on carried a potentially deadly dose of creepy-crawlies? Just think of all of the lives saved by using a Q-tip to avoid the icky-wickies slathered all over confirmands’ foreheads!
It is really sad how few of our priests and bishops were willing to resist the Covid craziness.