Article IV. On the Manner of Ministering the Eucharist to the Sick

304. The Roman Ritual establishes the following. - I. Let the Parish Priest forewarn that the room of the sick person be cleaned, and that in it a table be prepared, covered with a clean linen cloth, on which the Most Holy Sacrament may be decently placed. Let lights be prepared, two small vessels, one with wine to be handed to the sick person after Communion, that he may more easily swallow the holy Host, the other with water for washing the fingers of the Priest; besides, a clean linen cloth to be placed before the breast of the one communicating. Often a vessel of holy water is added, whenever it is not customary for it to be carried with the Most Holy Sacrament. Often also wine is not used.

II. The Eucharist must be carried from the Church to the private homes of the sick in becoming habit, a clean veil being placed over it, manifestly and honorably, with all reverence, always with a light and with a little bell continually rung going before. But the Priest, vested in surplice and stole, and having first placed on each shoulder a becoming oblong veil, should receive with both hands the vessel with the Most Holy Sacrament, to be carried before his breast, and then should enter under the baldachin or umbrella, if it can be had, and should proceed with head uncovered. But while going he says the Miserere and other Psalms, and on returning Praise the Lord from the heavens and other Psalms and Hymns; but these are only of counsel.

III. When the Priest has arrived at the house of the sick person, let him say: Peace to this house. Resp.: And to all dwelling in it. Then, the Most Holy Sacrament having been placed upon the table, he adores it; he sprinkles the sick person and the room with holy water, saying: Thou shalt sprinkle me, etc., and the other prayers placed in the Roman Ritual. Afterwards, the sick person having been questioned and exhorted, he presents the Most Holy Eucharist according to custom. But if Viaticum is in question, he does not say: The Body of the Lord, etc.; but: Receive, brother, the Viaticum of the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc., as in the Ritual.

IV. When death is imminent, most of the prayers, or even all, are omitted. The Priest, his fingers having been washed and the prayers completed, if particles remain, blesses the sick person with the ciborium, saying nothing. From the Roman Ritual, the ablutions must be given to the sick person. - The Priest, having returned to the Church, the ciborium having been placed upon the altar, recites the verse and prayer concerning the Most Holy Sacrament.

305. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Whether the Eucharist can be carried to the sick at night?

Resp. No. For this is expressly prohibited, except in a case of necessity. For thus the Roman Ritual: But this Sacrament ought not to be carried at night, unless necessity urges. But when necessity urges, it must be carried at any hour of the night, but without noise and without the sound of the bell. But the cited words of the Ritual do not regard Communities which preserve the Most Holy Eucharist in a domestic Chapel, because the danger of irreverence, on account of which the law was made, is then absent.

QUESTION 2. Whether the Eucharist can be carried to the sick secretly?

Resp. No, generally speaking. This is clear from the Roman Ritual, where it is said: This holy Sacrament must be carried manifestly and honorably. Yet certain circumstances are excepted, for example places of heretics, where it cannot be carried manifestly. Likewise sometimes even in places of Catholics, if otherwise the holy Viaticum cannot be carried to the sick person without some inconvenience. Yet this ought not be done without the license of the Bishop, where he can be consulted.

306. • QUESTION 3. Whether a Priest, when necessity urges, can minister Viaticum without any sacred vestment?

Resp. The answer is affirmative. The reason is that it is not to be presumed that the Church, which is so benign a mother, wished those rites to be observed in the administration of Viaticum to the detriment of the dying. For the Sacraments were instituted primarily for the salvation of souls. - St. Ligorius, n. 241.

QUESTION 4. Whether, when necessity urges, it is permitted to run in carrying Viaticum?

Resp. The answer is affirmative, probably. The reason is that the urgent necessity of carrying Viaticum to a dying person can excuse from greater decorum in walking. - Thus St. Ligorius, n. 242. - Lacroix.

QUESTION 5. Whether it is permitted in time of plague to present the Eucharist by means of some instrument?

Resp. The answer is affirmative, probably, because so great a necessity seems to excuse from the customary rite of the Church. - St. Ligorius, n. 244.

307. • QUESTION 6. Whether it is permitted to carry the Eucharist with the head covered on the journey?

Resp. No, on account of the reverence due to the Sacrament. Therefore in carrying the Most Holy Sacrament to the sick, whether this is done by day or by night, neither under the pretext of any infirmity nor under another pretext can a biretta or even a small skullcap be used. - Sacred Congregation of Rites, March 5, 1633; January 23, 1695; January 23, 1700.

Wherefore a Priest laboring under catarrh or another infirmity must abstain from carrying the Most Holy Sacrament, or commit that office to another, or nevertheless proceed with uncovered head, unless the use of the skullcap has been granted to him by indult. - Sacred Congregation of Rites, May 23, 1846. Yet the use of the skullcap is not conceded with so much difficulty on a journey, although less within a city or town. According to several, the Bishop can concede license of carrying a skullcap on a journey; but the faculty of using a skullcap through the city or town is of apostolic right. - De Herdt, Practice of Sacred Liturgy, tom. 1, part 1, n. 50. The Holy See conceded dispensation from that law for the diocese of Cologne, especially in winter weather. November 3, 1862. - See Analecta Iuris Pontif., 53rd delivery, November and December 1862.

St. Ligorius, Homo apostolicus, tr. 15, n. 12, has these things: Pasqualigus says, probably, that the Bishop can dispense that Viaticum be carried with a skullcap on the head, when one must proceed far and through villages.

QUESTION 7. Whether a Priest can carry the Holy Eucharist sitting on a horse?

Resp. The answer is affirmative if it must be carried to a sick person far distant, or through an arduous journey, or if there is danger in delay. But the horse must be gentle, so that danger of fall and irreverence is absent. But it is never permitted to give the pyx to a layman to be carried, however much the priest is fatigued; but then he must carry it in a burse suspended from the neck. This is clear from the Roman Ritual on the Eucharist, and also from the decision of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. And previously: That Viaticum, because of distance of places, difficulty of journeys, and roughness of roads, may be carried by the Parish Priest riding, the Sacred Congregation of Rites grants, yet with the consent of the Bishop. January 23, 1740, in Laudensis. - See St. Ligorius, n. 242, 243.

308. • QUESTION 8. Whether the Eucharist can be carried several times to the sick who are not fasting, or by way of Viaticum?

Resp. The answer is affirmative, and not only if a new danger of death recurs, but also if the same danger endures. - Thus the common and true opinion, says St. Ligorius, n. 285. It is confirmed by the authority of Benedict XIV, who in De Syn., lib. 7, c. 12, testifies that no Theologian of any name denies this opinion; and he adds, ibid., n. 5: Let the Bishop intimate to Parish Priests that Viaticum can and ought to be administered again and a third time in the same infirmity, especially if the sick person asks; and if he wishes, let him decree a penalty against Parish Priests who refuse to carry the Eucharist again and a third time to sick persons devoutly asking, under false pretexts.

QUESTION 9. Whether the Eucharist can frequently be carried to those lying sick?

Resp. The answer is affirmative per se. Yet this depends on circumstances, namely on their particular dispositions and on the greater or lesser frequency with which they previously approached the Eucharistic table ¹. The Parish Priest must, as far as lies in him, exhort the sick to frequent Communion. - Gousset, n. 235.

¹ That someone, while he enjoyed good health, was accustomed to approach the Most Holy Eucharist less frequently would not indeed be a sufficient reason why more frequent Communion should seem to be denied to him when sick, if indeed he desires it.

QUESTION 10. What must a Priest do if, arriving at the sick person with the Most Holy Sacrament and hearing his confession, he finds him indisposed?

Resp. First the Confessor must strive, as best he can, to bring the penitent to better fruit. If the matter does not succeed, and for example the sick person does not promise either to break off the proximate occasion of sin, or to make grave and certainly owed restitution, he certainly cannot be absolved. But what about Communion? The penitent must earnestly be induced, after the confession has been completed, to declare publicly that he does not yet wish to receive the Holy Eucharist. But if he makes this declaration, the difficulty now vanishes; for it is clear that the Eucharist is not to be ministered to him. But if he refuses to declare this, and wishes to communicate, the Eucharist must be ministered to him, although indisposed, namely in order to preserve intact the seal of confession. - Gousset, n. 237, and others.