The Synod of Rouen

650 AD

“It has been reported to us that priests after saying Mass while they themselves consume the Divine Mysteries, hand over the chalice of the Lord to women who have made offerings for their Masses, or to some lay persons who cannot discern the Body of the Lord....
The piety of the faithful understands how contrary all this is to every ecclesiastical religion. Therefore we enjoin on all priests that no one in future presumes to act in this manner, but that the priest himself consumes the Eucharist with reverence and then hands it to the deacon or subdeacon who minister at the altar for distribution. ....
A priest should not put the holy Eucharist into the hands of any lay person or woman, but only into their mouths....
.If any one will transgress this, because he despises almighty God and dishonours what belongs to God, let him be removed from the altar”.

H. Th. Bruns, ea., Canones Apostolorum et Conciliorum saeculorum , Berlin 1839, reprint, Turin, 1959, vol. 2, pp. 268-269.

Please, credit this document
as published by www.womenpriests.org!

This website is maintained by the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research.

The Institute is known for issuing academic reports and statements on relevant issues in the Church. These have included scholars' declarations on the need of collegiality in the exercise of church authority, on the ethics of using contraceptives in marriage and the urgency of re-instating the sacramental diaconate of women.

Visit also our websites:Women Deacons, The Body is Sacred and Mystery and Beyond.

You are welcome to use our material. However: maintaining this site costs money. We are a Charity and work mainly with volunteers, but we find it difficult to pay our overheads.

Visitors to our website since January 2014.
Pop-up names are online now.

The number is indicative, but incomplete. For full details click on cross icon at bottom right.