Pope’s wrong move on giving out communion

YOU report (June 28) that the Pope is considering a ban on communion taken in the hand. To say this dismays me is to put it mildly.

For years I have been advocating the very opposite — that, on hygienic grounds, the giving of communion directly in the month should be outlawed. I am always uneasy about the germs the priest or minister of the eucharist is passing on to me from people receiving before me directly to their mouths.

I defy anyone to prove there is no possibility of transferring germs giving communion by mouth. As a friend of mine, a minister of the eucharist, said to me recently: “My God, the sights you see when some of them open their mouths.” Surely with MRSA and all the other bugs going around, I have a right to be worried.