Article I: Of the Minister of Sacred Communion

§ 1. The ordinary minister of sacred communion is only a priest.

§ 2. The extraordinary minister is a deacon, with the permission of the local Ordinary or pastor, to be granted for a grave cause, which in a case of necessity is legitimately presumed.

§ 1. Any priest can minister sacred communion within Mass and, if he celebrates privately, also immediately before and immediately after, with the prescription of can. 869 preserved.

§ 2. Even outside Mass any priest has the same faculty from at least the presumed permission of the rector of the church, if he is an outsider.

Sacred communion is to be carried publicly to the sick, unless a just and reasonable cause advises otherwise.

§ 1. The right and office of carrying sacred communion publicly to the sick, even non-parishioners, outside the church, belongs to the pastor within his own territory.

§ 2. Other priests can do this only in a case of necessity or with at least the presumed permission of the same pastor or Ordinary.

§ 1. Any priest can carry communion privately to the sick, with at least the presumed permission of the priest to whom custody of the Most Holy Sacrament has been committed.

§ 2. When sacred communion is ministered privately to the sick, the reverence and decency due to so great a sacrament are to be diligently provided for, with the norms prescribed by the Apostolic See observed.

To carry sacred communion by way of Viaticum, whether publicly or privately, to the sick belongs to the pastor according to the norm of can. 848, with the prescription of can. 397, n. 3 and can. 514, Secs. 1-3 preserved.

§ 1. A priest is to distribute sacred communion with unleavened bread or leavened bread, according to his own rite.

§ 2. But where necessity urges and no priest of a different rite is present, it is lawful for an Eastern priest who uses leavened bread to minister the Eucharist in unleavened bread, and conversely for a Latin or Eastern priest who uses unleavened bread to minister in leavened bread; yet each must observe his own rite of ministering.

The Most Holy Eucharist is to be offered under the species of bread alone.