The Ministry of the Eucharist and the the extraordinary Ministry of Holy Communion in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and its pastoral practice

The Ministry of the Eucharist and the extraordinary Ministry of Holy Communion in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and its pastoral practice. In view of decreasing numbers of vocations to the priesthood nowadays, the Church is facing a challenging issue of the faithful’s accessibility to the Holy Communion. Therefore, there has been a greater demand for ministers in order to distribute the Eucharistic Bread to the faithful. We need to make a distinction here between an ordinary (ordained) minister of the Holy Communion and an extraordinary one. The former can only be an ordinated priest, whereas the latter - an appropriately trained and prepared for the function lay person. In this context, important pastoral questions have been raised regarding the requirements for potential candidates and their preparation program respectively. On the other hand, it is important to take into consideration the opinion of some lay people on the purposefulness of implementation of the extraordinary ministry itself as an everyday practice in our parishes