Communion for Alzheimer's Patients

Growing Together in our Catholic Faith

Each week we explore an aspect of our Catholicism to grow a deeper understanding of our faith

Communion for Alzheimer�s patients

By Fr. John Diezten

I am the major care-giver for an Alzheimer�s patient in our family and need to know whether he can receive Communion.� I get conflicting answers; one priest is reluctant to bring him the sacrament because �he doesn�t really know what is going on.�� My brother is, as they say, in the later mid-stages of the disease, and of course is regressing regularly.� But I am convinced he is sometimes more aware of �what is going on� than we think.� Is there a rule about this?� I think that, even in his condition, receiving Communion would be a big help.

Your instincts and experience agree with all that is known about Alzheimer�s sufferers, especially in the later and final stages.� The loss of memory and cognitive abilities, which so distresses and frustrates care-givers like yourself, is not the whole story of what can be going on deep inside.

Even when they cannot speak intelligibly or rationally, or grasp verbal communications, many, perhaps most, of these patients can experience through their senses much that seems to open up parts of their lives that seemed loss in permanent darkness.

Just before a recent Christmas, a group of 60 Alzheimer�s patients attended a church service in California.� Many of them could not say their own names, but from somewhere inside they found the words to sing �Silent Night� and �Joy to the World.�

Experiences that reach the senses of hearing and touch sometimes seem especially able to surface memories long lost to consciousness.� In my own experience, Catholics in the later stages of the disease may unexpectedly remember the sign of the cross, or accompany someone praying the Our Father or Hail Mary.� Visiting familiar places like their church, hearing stories of where they may have been and what they have done is often a big help.

In light of all this, it seems presumptuous to refuse Communion to Alzheimer�s patients as long as they are physically able to receive.� There is no way one could legitimately presume that the patient is incapable of receiving the Eucharist with sufficient awareness and spiritual benefit.

When it comes to the sacraments, the church�s position is, and has been, to always give people the benefit of any doubt, and leave it to God to sort out.� We are ignorant of too many factors to take that judgment on ourselves.�

Finally, I hope you are taking advantage of every opportunity to keep yourself fed, spiritually and emotionally.� Caring for Alzheimer�s patients is arguably the most draining and exhausting task one can have, and it cannot be done without a load of continuing help and support.

Fortunately, varieties of printed and other resources are available for such assistance.� Most larger communities today list an Alzheimer�s Association in the phone book.� National headquarters are at 919 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60611-1676.� Their website is www.alz.org.