Q: What is the teaching on intinction? Is it permissible for a priest to do intinction for the congregation? I am told of a priest who plans to do that for his First Communicants rather than allow them to drink from the chalice. Unsure how to respond.
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A: A priest may indeed intinct the host and give it to a person as communion – even first communion. The pope gives communion to the neophytes this way every year at the Easter Vigil at the Vatican. GIRM 287 describes the procedure. Some corollaries: Neither a deacon nor a eucharistic minister may do the same thing; the rubrics seem to apply only to a priest administering communion. A concelebrant may intinct the host before consuming it for his own communion, but the presider may not. The presider must drink from the chalice (GIRM 249).