Case LXIII: Communion on Holy Saturday

A parish priest was called up early in the morning on Holy Saturday and told that a strange gentleman wanted to go to confession. He hurried to the church and heard the confession, and then, seeing no one else about, prepared to go home again. The stranger, however, who was certainly not well acquainted with the rubrics of Holy Saturday, went up and asked the priest to give him Holy Communion. The latter, being well versed in all the rules of the rubric, knew that on Holy Saturday Communion may be given only after the High Mass (S. R. C. die 7 Sept., 1850), or during it, after the celebrant's Communion (S. R. S. die 22 Mart., 1806, die 23 Sept., 1837). (Canon 867 of the new Code states that on Holy Saturday Holy Communion cannot be given except at the Holy Mass or immediately afterwards.)

He drew the stranger's attention to these regulations and said he could not give Communion before ten o'clock. The man replied that he was obliged to leave by the next train, and if he could not receive Communion at once, it was very doubtful whether he would be able to do so at all that Easter.

The priest soon made up his mind. On the one hand was the strict obligation of Easter Communion, that is quoad substantiam a divine command, and a general law of the Church, and on the other the decisions of the Congregations. He went into the sacristy to put on his rochet and stole, in order to give the stranger Communion, but meanwhile an old woman went up to the Communion rail and knelt beside the man. She knew well enough that it was not the custom in that church to give Holy Communion on Holy Saturday. What was the priest to do?

Simply to pass her by and behave as if she were not there would be a very delicate matter. People would be apt to think that the priest was willing to give Communion to the elegant stranger but not to the poor old woman. It would not do to admonish her, for both the place and the occasion were much too sacred. To give an explanation to the people who might be present and to the old woman, to draw their attention to the rules of the Church, and to state the reasons urged by the stranger in support of his request for Holy Communion,—all this would be a quite unusual proceeding, and not one to be recommended.

We must of course respect the decisions of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, but like any other laws they may per epikiam lose their binding force. The reasons enumerated above, to which one or two might be added, make an epikia at least probable.

The priest ought therefore to give Holy Communion to the woman, but take care to give subsequently a thorough explanation so as to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.