Liturgy and Hygiene the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Earlier Public Health
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Liturgy and Hygiene The COVID-19 pandemic, and earlier public health emergencies including the outbreaks of H1N1 influenza in 2009 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002—2004, focus attention on questions of liturgy and hygiene.1 Christian liturgy offers a variety of instances in which public liturgical praxis and what might best be termed ancillary supporting activities intersect with broad questions of hygiene. The natural materials used in the liturgy – including water, oil, bread, wine, fire, incense, salt – are loci of such discussions. As Michael Kunzler points out, “because water makes life possible and cleanses, it is also used within and apart from the liturgy […] in the form of water as an apotropaic. Fire […] purifies – e.g. in fire gold is refined, purified of dross (1 Peter 1:17). […] In ancient cultures [the use of incense] for reasons of hygiene was general and widespread. From this came the attribution of atropaic [sic] effects to incense.”2 The qualities and effects of the use of such natural materials lead to their being invested with the ability to ward off evil. This shows an ancient and holistic understanding of hygiene, seen as the preservation and promotion of health and wholeness, as a larger matter than care for the body. Hygiene is part of care for the soul: indeed, as Alan Touwaide notes, “the fathers of the Church often used the medical comparisons and the concepts of hygiene in presenting the message of salvation.”3 Types of Hygiene In the broadest sense, hygiene can include general cleanliness, and the day-to-day work which supports this: keeping vessels, fixtures, fittings, linens clean preserves them and, when done properly, prolongs their use. Moreover, “transferrable hygiene” is used in liturgical, domestic, commercial and other settings, with good reason: keeping altar-wine in good condition prevents its turning bad; dusting and polishing can add to the general appeal of a church or chapel as a place to spend time for worship, prayer, or visiting. These are as true for churches as they are for, say, restaurants, or homes. This broader notion may then have specific applications, which themselves develop as they are freighted with the significance of their liturgical context. The laundering of altar linens, for example, is necessary simply to prevent ingrained dirt damaging such cloths; it is also part of ensuring such cloths, which may be in regular use, do not become contaminated or pass on disease. And, as the example of altar linens shows, such care for hygiene can become ritualised. The first washing of used altar-linens was formerly reserved to “a priest 1 See, for example, the advice circulated in 2009 by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales URL: https://familyofsites.bishopsconference.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/07/Church_Flu_A4_portrait.pdf and by the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York URL: http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2009/07/swine-flu-archbishops-advice-on-sharing-of-communion.aspx. 2 Michael KUNZLER, The Church’s Liturgy. London, 2001. 137–139. 3 Alan TOUWAIDE, Hygiene: Christian Perspectives, in William M. JOHNSTON (ed), Encyclopedia of Monasticism, 629. A brief discussion and bibliography on the relationship between the Greek goddess Hygieia and the Roman goddess Salus may be found in: Daniel OGDEN, Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cults in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford, 2013. 319. or one in Major Orders”.4 Indeed, books may be written on the subject.5 The ritualization of such care remains part of the Catholic tradition.6 As we see at present, hygiene may also include specific measures taken during public health emergencies which may or must be incorporated into liturgical praxis for a shorter or longer period, including requirements for spatial distancing, sanitizing of hands, and wearing of face-masks. These elements will rarely be specific to the liturgy, however, but will be measures encouraged or enforced by competent authorities with which the liturgy as well as other activities is intended to comply. There are, then, three kinds of hygiene to take into consideration with regard to the liturgy: 1) transferrable hygiene, the day-to-day practices of general cleanliness; 2) liturgical hygiene, care of particular liturgical items which may become ritualized; 3) specific hygiene, in response to public health matters. In turn, practitioners of liturgy are compelled to consider whether and how such elements may be incorporated into the liturgy. Bread and Wine Transferrable hygiene, in relation to the liturgy, involves such things as using wine within a reasonable period after it has been opened, as well as the fortification of Eucharistic wine (up to a specified percentage) so that it lasts longer. This is usually less of a problem when the faithful also consume the Precious Blood, since more wine is needed. When that does not happen, and if perhaps Mass is not celebrated often in a given church, the difficulty become more acute. Keeping Eucharistic bread in a suitable container to avoid it going soft, or mouldy, or being eaten by mice or other pests, is another example. And, in relation to the bread and wine for Mass, we have an example of the intersection between transferrable and liturgical hygiene. The most extensive exploration of this is found in the document De Defectibus, which discusses various problems which might arise in the celebration of the Mass. The most important paragraphs, for our purposes, are as follows: 5. If the bread has begun to mould, but it is not corrupt, or if it is not unleavened according to the custom of the Latin Church, the Sacrament is valid but the celebrant is guilty of grave sin. 6. If the celebrant notices before the Consecration that the host is corrupt or that it is not made of wheat flour, he is to replace that host with another, make the offering at least mentally and continue from where he left off. 7. If he notices this after the Consecration, or even after having consumed the host, he is to put out another host, make the offering as above and begin from the Consecration, namely from the words Qui pridie quam pateretur. If he has not consumed the first host, he is to consume it after taking the Body and the Blood, or else reserve it somewhere with reverence. If he has already 4 William O’BRIAN, A Handbook for the Sacristan: in sacristy and sanctuary. A Guide for the Sacristan with Detailed Instructions Accompanied by Directive Schedules and Diagrams Showing how and what to Get Ready for the Proper Carrying Out of Liturgical Functions Generally, According to the Roman Ceremonial. Catholic Research Institute, 1933. 5 Handbook for Laundering Liturgical Linens, Angelus Press, 2008. 6 See GIRM 120. consumed the first host, he is nevertheless to consume the one that he has consecrated, because the precept of completing the Sacrament is more important than the precept of fasting before Communion. 8. If this should happen after the Blood has been consumed, not only should new bread be brought, but also wine with water. The priest should first make the offering, as above, then consecrate, beginning with the words Qui pridie. Then he should immediately receive under both species and continue the Mass, so that the Sacrament will not remain incomplete and so that due order will be observed. 10. In the cases referred to in paragraphs 5-9 above, the elevation of the Sacrament is to be omitted, and everything is to be done so as to avoid, as far as possible, any scandal or wonderment on the part of the faithful. 11. If the wine has become mere vinegar, or is completely bad, or if it has been made from sour or unripe grapes, or if so much water has been mixed with it that the wine is adulterated, there is no Sacrament. 12. If the wine has begun to turn to vinegar or to become corrupt, or if it is souring, or if it is unfermented, being made from newly pressed grapes, or if it has not been mixed with water, or if it has been mixed with rose-water or some other distillation, the Sacrament is valid, but the celebrant is guilty of grave sin. 35. If before the Consecration a fly or spider or anything else falls into the chalice, the priest is to pour out the wine in a suitable place, put other wine into the chalice, add a little water, offer it, as above, and continue the Mass. If after the Consecration a fly or something of the kind falls into the chalice, he is to take it out, wash it with wine, burn it after the Mass is over, and throw the ashes and the wine which was used for washing into the sacrarium. 36. If something poisonous falls into the chalice after the Consecration, or something that would cause vomiting, the consecrated wine is to be poured into another chalice, with water added until the chalice is full, so that the species of wine will be dissolved; and this water is to be poured out into the sacrarium. Other wine, together with water, is to be brought and consecrated. 7 There are many other points covered by the document, but these show concern for the state of the matter, the bread and wine, both in terms of practical hygiene (if the bread is mouldy, or the wine sour), and of liturgical hygiene (how, for example, a fly falling in to the chalice is to be dealt with). Removing a fly and dropping it on the floor would have the same effect, in ridding the wine of the fully, but the way in which it is to be removed has a ritualised component, including being thrown into the sacrarium, the drain in the sacristy which is to be plumbed so as to go not into a drain but directly to earth.