Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas will not follow the Reno Diocese in temporarily changing its communion practices to prevent the spread of the flu.
Reno Bishop Phillip Straling issued a diocese-wide mandate last Thursday that temporarily suspended or altered many communion practices, including the sharing of a communal wine chalice, until after the flu season.
In the written statement, Straling said he was implementing the changes at the request of the medical community "in order to stem the tide of what may very well be an epidemic."
In Reno Diocese parishes, the Eucharist wine is not being offered to the faithful and wafers are being placed in parishioners' hands instead of directly on their tongues. People who administer Holy Communion must also wash their hands using an alcohol-based anti-bacterial solution before serving the sacrament.
Additionally, Reno parish priests are discouraging parishioners from shaking hands during the "sign of peace" and from holding hands during the Lord's prayer.
"While I realize these measures are drastic, I have been assured by medical experts that they are necessary so that we can do our part to foster the health and safety of our people," Straling said.
Officials with the Las Vegas Diocese, however, said such measures are not yet necessary in Southern Nevada.
"We are in touch with the CDC," said the Rev. Bede Wevita, spokesman for the Las Vegas Diocese. "We are not changing anything regarding communion."
The health risks surrounding communion practices are not new to this year's flu outbreak, Katie Hoskins, a spokeswoman for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said.
The issue came up earlier in the year concerning the spread of SARS and has come up in the past because of the high possibility of spreading germs through a shared wine chalice.
"It's not something we can proscribe," Hoskins said, noting that various religious groups, even different Catholic parishes, have taken various precautions to minimize the spread of diseases.
No other denomination polled Tuesday, including Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Mormons and community or nondenominational churches, were making any changes to the way they serve communion. Most said they already utilized communion practices that minimalized the spread of germs.
Episcopalians, who also use a shared communion chalice, choose individually whether to practice intinction -- the dipping of communion bread into the wine -- or whether to drink directly from the cup.
The majority choose to dip the bread, said the Rev. Barbara Lewis, secretary to the Nevada Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Other practices, such as shaking hands during the sign of peace, are also optional.
Most other denominations said they either solely practice intinction or they use disposable cups. Most churches did say they practiced some form of hand-shaking during services, however.
"It's really up to the (organization or religious group), they can look at the recommendations and decide what they feel is best," Hoskins said.
Brother Matthew Cunningham, spokesman for the Reno Diocese, said accepting the wine is always optional for parishioners, as is shaking hands. It is the priests offering mass who must consume the full communion, Cunningham said, while parishioners are only required to take the communion wafers.
The wine chalice is usually available for parishioners who desire to partake, but Cunningham said the chance of spreading the flu was just too great to offer the chalice for the time being.
"(The bishop) just felt, especially with the crowds at Christmas, that this would be a good reminder for people to be extra cautious, because the flu can be deadly," Cunningham said.
Medical practitioners in the valley had mixed perspectives on whether the Las Vegas Diocese should follow Reno's lead in preventing the flu.
Dr. James Anthony, a physician at University Medical Center's Craig Road Quick Care, believes all Catholic dioceses should make permanent changes to the way they serve communion to prevent the spread of all contagious diseases.
"(Changes such as Reno's) have been done in other denominations and other parts of the country for years," Anthony said. "And the reason is, it's not just because of the flu, but any disease that is transmitted through saliva. The priest often can touch the tongue and then spread that to the next person.
"And they definitely shouldn't be sharing any type of cup or chalice or anything because of the potential of spreading any disease."
Anthony said disposable cups are preferable, but he cautions many churches that the way they pass communion trays down the aisles can also spread disease. This is because people often touch more than just their piece of the bread and more than just the cup they drink out of.
Anthony also suggests churchgoers wash their hands before and after services, or use anti-bacterial wipes.
"In some churches, sometimes the first couple of minutes they have everyone stand up and shake everybody's hand around them," Anthony said. "As soon as I do that I wipe my hands off with some type of handi-wipe."
Melinda Borja, a registered nurse in charge of employee health care at MountainView Hospital, said she acknowledges the health risks in drinking from a shared chalice but believes participating is a personal choice.
"It's really not a right thing or not a wrong thing, it's just preference," Borja, a Roman Catholic herself, said. "If (Reno) is going to be more careful or cautious about the flu season hopefully it is only temporarily."
Borja stressed that many of the changes in Reno's liturgy are optional practices the individual can choose whether to participate in, and some, such as placing the wafer in the person's hand rather than on the tongue, are already widely practiced in Las Vegas. She said many churches also wipe the chalice and turn it after each person drinks.
The risk of some of these activities is also not high enough to stop participation, Borja said.
"I don't think they should make a change," Borja said. "If you see a friend you are going to hug them and kiss them. It's the same thing."
archive
