As public Masses start to return around the world, bishops are taking different policies on the reception of Communion. We asked Fr Michael Jarmulowicz and Joseph Shaw to discuss the question over email. Dear Joseph, I write both as a parish priest and previously a consultant pathologist. My preference is to receive on the tongue, because I feel in doing so I adopt the position of a dependent child being spoonfed the Body of Christ. But is reception in the hand only – as critics claim – a post-Vatican II innovation which decreases reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament? Let us go back to the writings of St Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century. In his catechetical instruction to the newly baptised he writes: “In approaching therefore [Holy Communion], come not with your wrists extended, or your fingers spread; but make your left hand a throne for the right, as for that which is to receive a King. And having hollowed your palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen.” And in his instruction on receiving from the chalice he writes: “And while the moisture is still upon your lips, touch it with your hands, and hallow your eyes and brow and the other organs of sense.” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 23.21. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 7). Is that not showing profound respect? As someone who distributes Communion daily, in the vast majority of cases my fingers do not touch the tongue or mouth of the person. But there are occasions, either because the person moves their head as you approach, or the way they open their mouth, when my fingers do touch their face. The evidence is clear – the first study from Hong Kong showed that the virus is being excreted in the saliva in 92 per cent of infected individuals, with a median load in the early stage of 3 million viral copies per millilitre of saliva, and in one patient 120 million! (Clinical Infectious Diseases, Feb 12, 2020). If that person has a subclinical infection, your fingers are now contaminated and the virus will be transferred by the subsequent host to the next communicant – and probably more. As parish priests our responsibility is to all. Should I risk transmitting coronavirus to a vulnerable parishioner in order to assuage the fully understandable desire to receive on the tongue? Best wishes, Fr Michael