A reader writes:
This question has been asked to me and I did not know the answer, so I am going to ask you. During the Mass if the Priest invites people to come around the altar during the consecration would this make the consecration invalid, I know that only Clergy is allowed in the sanctuary during the consecration.
The presence or absence of anyone from the sanctuary has no bearing on the validity or invalidity of the consecration. What is required for validity is the required intent, form, and matter. The required intent is the intention to do what the Church does (i.e., to celebrate the Eucharist). The required form is that the priest express “This is my Body” and “This is . . . my Blood.” The required matter for hosts is matter that in the reasonable estimation of men would be regarded as wheat bread and, in the case of the cup, matter that in the reasonable estimation would be regarded as grape wine (with the caveats that unleavened wheat bread counts as bread and mustum counts as wine). Additional items are required for liceity, but not for validity.
That’s a pretty minimal list of requirements for validity, which is how God intended it. He didn’t want it to be easy to invalidate a sacrament.
Who is in the sanctuary has nothing to do with the subject.
Dumb question: what is mustum?
It goes on hot dogs, just like ketchum.
No, seriously, according to the “Norms For Use Of Low-Gluten Bread And Mustum” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “mustum” means “fresh juice from grapes or juice preserved by suspending its fermentation (by means of freezing or other methods which do not alter its nature).”
In other words, it is valid (though not licit without episcopal approval) to celebrate communion with non-fermented, non-alcohol grape juice rather than fermented alcohol wine.
Presumably, such permission might be given in the case of a priest afflicted by alcoholism or severe alcohol intolerance, just as a priest with celiac disease might be given permission to use low-gluten bread.
“Mustum, which is grape juice that is either fresh or-preserved by methods that-suspend its fermentation without altering its nature (for example, freezing), is valid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist.” Letter of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, 24 July 2003. See
http://www.nccbuscc.org/liturgy/innews/1103.htm for the letter and more on this.
It is not correct that only clergy are allowed in the sanctuary during the consecration. There should be altar servers at Mass and they should be in the sanctuary. Also the reader, according to the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal n. 195: “Then the lector takes his own place in the sanctuary with the other ministers.”
But only clergy should be standing around the altar during the consecration. The altar servers will be further away and normally kneeling (at least in the U.S.A.).
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