Q: In Let Us Pray #107 you wrote: “When the vessels are cleaned after Communion at the credence table, they rest on another corporal (183).” 

But the only mention of the corporal in GIRM 183 is for another situation: “Nevertheless, it is also permitted to leave vessels needing to be purified on a corporal, suitably covered, on the credence table, and to purify them immediately after Mass, following the Dismissal of the people.” The corporal communicates that the vessels have not been purified.

In GIRM 279 it says that the vessels are purified “insofar as possible at the credence table.” But there is no mention of a corporal in the description of the purification.

Do you agree that the vessels are not placed on a corporal, when they are cleaned at the credence table after Communion?

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A: GIRM 163 and 183 expect the corporal to be on the credence table when purification takes place after Mass, but they do not exclude the possibility of a corporal beneath the vessels during the purification at the same table. A corporal typically remains on the altar when the purification takes place there.