Case LXXV: Absolution on the Battlefield

Case.—A regiment of Catholic soldiers, doing service “somewhere in France,” is called upon to engage in active strife. Patritius, their chaplain, realizing the impossibility of hearing the soldiers’ confessions individually before the hour appointed for them to take their places in the trenches at the front, acted as follows: o

In a brief sermon he counseled them to make sincere acts of contrition, and assured them that he would pronounce over them the words of general common absolution and exhorted them to approach the altar for the reception of Holy Communion, and instructed them to go to confession in the ordinary way the first opportunity they had, should any of them survive the danger which then threatened them.

Questions.—(1) Could Patritius validly and licitly give absolution to a multitude by pronouncing the formula once only, provided that a change be made from the singular to the plural number where required? (2) Did Patritius act rightly in administering Communion to the soldiers thus absolved? (3) Should he have insisted upon a subsequent integral confession if opportunity were given them to make such a confession? (4) What should be said about the question of the fast?

Ad 1. Patritius could validly and licitly absolve in the manner described. All the requisite conditions for valid absolution are present in the case, and necessity guarantees its licitness. (Cf. Sabetti-Barrett-De Forma Sacramenti Poenit, p. 643, res. ad Quar. 50.)

Ad 2. Patritius did act rightly in exhorting the soldiers to receive Holy Communion. In the declaration of the Sacra Poenitentiaria Apostolica dated Feb. 6, 1915, it is expressly stated: Nothing prevents those thus absolved, in the aforesaid circumstances, from being admitted to receive the Holy Eucharist.

Ad 3. In the same declaratio just cited it is prescribed as follows: But military chaplains are not to omit, when opportunity is given, to teach them that absolution bestowed in this way will not profit them unless they have been rightly disposed, and that the obligation remains for them to make a complete confession in due time if they escape the danger.

Ad 4. A decree of the Sacra Congregatio, De disciplina Sacramentorum, dated Feb. 11, 1915, reads as follows: Soldiers called to battle (i soldati sul fronte) can, with the required conditions observed, be admitted to the Sacred Eucharistic Table by way of Viaticum.

Communio per modum viatici may be given to persons not fasting. In the case in question there may be no possibility, at least without a very great inconvenience, of observing the jejunium naturale. Hence the soldiers may approach Communion even though not fasting. (Noldin—De Subjecto Eucharistiae, No. 154. Sabetti- Barrett, p. 579, res. ad Quaer. 10.)