Case XXXII: False Teeth and Holy Communion

A priest is called to a sick person, who, after making Confession, receives the Viaticum. The patient immediately shows violent agitation, pointing his finger to the inside of his mouth. The priest looks there, and, to his horror, sees that to the rubber plate in the roof of the mouth of the patient the Viaticum sticks like glued. It is a well-known fact that it is very difficult even for a person in good health to loosen with the tongue the sacred species from such a rubber plate, often a moistening with some liquid is required to effect detaching. Our patient, in his weakened condition, could not use the tongue to loosen the Viaticum from the plate, and the priest decided to let a member of the family carefully remove from the patient’s mouth the plate, which he then immersed in a bowl of water, then, after the sacred species had become separated from the plate, he washed the plate in the same water, took the entire contents of the bowl home and put it into the sacrarium, then returned to the sick man, and gave him holy Communion once more; the sick man, now relieved of the false teeth, swallowed the sacred species without difficulty. Did the priest act correctly?

In the procedure of the priest in this case may be seen his confusion, and it cannot be recommended for imitation; it was neither practical nor correct. It was at all events unnecessary to go home and get a new species. He should have saved this trouble, as well as the comment which may have been excited by his repeated visit. The simplest way would have been to remove the sacred Host by means of the finger, or with the aid of a knife, from the plate, to place it with a little water in a clean vessel (or spoon) and give water and Host at once to the patient to drink. Thereupon he should have washed rubber plate, utensil and finger in the same vasculum, and this ablutio should also have been given to the patient to drink.

The proceeding was, moreover, incorrect; it is not permissible to handle the sacred species in the way he did, and to place the same immediately in the sacrarium.

As the decomposition of the sacred species in so short a time cannot be supposed, and is at the very least doubtful, he should have placed the vasculum in the tabernacle, and only after the lapse of at least a few days might have placed the contents in the sacrarium.

Dr. John Ackerl.