Article III: On Those to Whom the Effects Come

350. A threefold fruit of the sacrifice is distinguished. - The effects of the sacrifice, insofar as it is propitiatory or impetratory ex opere operato, are called fruits, of which a threefold portion is distinguished:

1. General, which comes to the whole Church.

For a) from the communion of Saints the individual good works of the members of the Church profit all the other members; a fortiori the fruit of the oblation of Christ, who is their head; b) Christ, who on the cross offered Himself as mediator for all, here as head of the Church offers Himself to apply the merits of the cross; whence He offers Himself directly for all the members of the Church of whom He is the head: "for all faithful Christians living and dead," and indirectly for all others, that they may become members of the Church, as the Missal says: "for our salvation and that of the whole world." - Yet not all receive the same part, but a greater part according to greater dignity, sanctity and disposition, participation or concurrence in the sacrifice.

2. Special, which comes to those for whom the priest intends to celebrate.

He can also apply this to himself, if he celebrates for no one else.

3. Most special, proper to the priest, who receives it even if he celebrates for others: for to him there comes not only fruit from the work of the one working, because he offers in his own name or in the name of the Church, but also ex opere operato, because he offers in the name of Christ, whose place he holds.

This is probably so proper to the priest that he cannot even validly renounce it (Hebr. VII, 27), and certainly it is not licitly ceded to another for a second stipend, both because from the contract the priest is obliged to a certainly valid application (n. 349), and because the Church prohibits it in the condemnation of proposition 8 by Alexander VII.¹

¹ "A priest can lawfully receive a doubled stipend for the same Mass by applying to the petitioner even the most special part of the fruit corresponding to the celebrant himself."

351. Principle I. For receiving the general or most special fruit, no application is required; contrariwise, for receiving the special fruit. - For from the very will of Christ the general or most special fruit is derived into those who, placing no obstacle, are capable of it; - on the contrary, the special portion of the fruits has been left to the free application of the priest.

This is established a) from the universal practice of the faithful, approved by the Church (C. Trid., sess. 23, c. 1; Pius VI, bull Auct. fid., n. 30), who, for example after giving a stipend, ask that the sacrifice be offered specially for themselves to a determinate end, and expect the fruit not from the work of the priest working, but from the work of Christ;

b) the sacrifice is a real prayer; but prayer is of itself indifferent and not determined to such a person; whence unless it is specially applied, it does not profit. This application must be made by the priest: for he who has the power of offering also has the power of applying the fruit of the sacrifice.

Let three things be observed:

1. The priest has the power of applying the fruits of the sacrifice by force of his ordination; whence this cannot be taken from him by mandate of a superior or by sentence of the Church, and accordingly he always validly applies it to whomever he wishes.

2. The priest can validly apply the fruits to several, indeed divide the fruit among them, so that, for example, to one the sacrifice is applied for the remission of sin, to another for impetrating grace; and if he is bound to apply it to one, he validly but illicitly divides the fruits.

3. But if he applies it to no one or only to one incapable, the fruit will remain in the treasury of the Church.

352. Principle II. For the application of the special fruit there is required and suffices a habitual will, absolute or equivalent to this, at least implicitly determined to a certain person or a certain end. - It is said:

1. Habitual, i.e., actual, once had, which nevertheless has not been retracted, even if it is so past that it does not move one to placing the present act.

For application is a donation or transfer of the fruit; but a donation, even one made a long time beforehand and interrupted by many acts, is valid, provided it has not been revoked. Whence he who yesterday promised Peter tomorrow's sacrifice, but today does not think about this, validly applies. - Nevertheless a merely interpretative intention does not suffice, which someone would have had and by which he would have willed to apply the fruits in the event that he had adverted to this or that; for in fact he did not will nor apply.

2. Absolute, or equivalent to this, i.e., conditioned concerning the past or concerning the present.

For an application conditioned concerning the future, because it suspends the intention, makes it so that the sacrifice is not offered for that intention: thus one who applied it to someone under the condition that afterward another should will it, or that he would offer a stipend, or that he would die first.² Nevertheless he would validly apply it for him whom he knows in fact already wishes to ask for a Mass, unless it is for an effect toward which the sacrifice would not yet help.

² But if he applied under the condition: if God knows it is going to be, the application would be at least doubtfully valid, as was said in n. 84.

3. At least implicitly determined to a certain person or a certain end; otherwise no application would be made.

Thus, for example, if someone were to apply it to one out of ten Masses to be read, not determining to which, or to him to whom God or the Blessed Virgin wills to apply it, because God or the Blessed Virgin applies it to no determinate one, leaving that to the priest; on the contrary, several say that it is valid if someone were to will to apply it to him for whom God or the Blessed Virgin would rather or would prefer that he apply it. - Nevertheless it is not required that the priest explicitly know and will the person, sex, or necessity, but it suffices that he will implicitly, by intending, for example, the Mass which another priest, the sacristan, or the superior intends, - provided that he has a determinate will, - or which a foundation or stipend requires, or which he has noted for himself in a notebook, or for him who first gave the stipend, or according to the order in which stipends came to him, or for the greatest sinner, for the soul afflicted by graver temptations, for the soul in purgatory most abandoned or nearest to redemption, etc.; so also the application is valid if someone erroneously says Mass for a deceased man in place of a deceased woman, because the error is merely accidental.

But if several stipends, for example twenty, have been collected by several persons or offered by various unknown persons, for example on the altar of a church, it suffices to say those Masses according to the order established by him who distributes them, or according to the order of those who gave the stipends, which intention he is judged implicitly to have who so many times says Mass according to the intention of the giver, because he who is prior in time is stronger in right; - but also all the Masses can be said according to the intention of all, according to the proportion of the monies or Masses which belong to each, because since the fruit is divisible, it is the same to give twenty Masses together to all as to give one Mass to each one, and therefore, when the number of Masses has been celebrated, the several persons will have received what is due to them (S. Poen., Dec. 7, 1892).

353. Observations. - 1. In the case in which a priest has made a double contrary application, if he was mindful of the prior intention, the second is valid; if unmindful, one must attend to which will is predominant: it will be the former, if he willed to apply absolutely, even if afterward he intended something else; it will be the second, if there was a reason for changing, for example a sudden necessity, the offering of a stipend; if each was equally efficacious and absolute, the second seems to prevail, because it is actual and stronger toward the sacrifice. In practice there is no difficulty: for let it be offered on the next day for the intention to which satisfaction was not made.

2. An anticipated application, for him who will first ask or will give a stipend, is illicit (can. 825, 1), both because the faithful do not ask for a Mass already celebrated but one to be celebrated, and because the priest exposes the giver to the danger of being deprived of the fruit: for he for whom the Mass is offered can not yet be rightly disposed, or the cause for which it is requested can not yet exist, for example, if it is for the first person in the parish who will die, or for liberation from an infirmity not yet contracted. Whence the S. C. C. prohibited this, Nov. 25, 1605.

3. Nevertheless, if the priest foresees that Masses are to be requested for someone already dead, he would validly offer them now, because they are offered for a determinate person disposed and with the cause already existing, and the priest would incur only the danger of losing the stipend. But under the law now in force this is prohibited, and accordingly illicit (can. 825, 1); and therefore, that in the case he may licitly retain the offered stipend, he must obtain the consent of the offerer and consequently is bound to declare to him that he has already applied.

4. Founded Masses are validly and licitly anticipated when they are to be said once, twice, or three times in a week or in a month, but only in honor of God or of the Saints, or for the repose of the soul of a man already dead; on the contrary, illicitly if they are founded also for future deceased persons, as for the deceased of the parish or for those successively dying, or if they are fixed to certain days, for example Saturday in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Friday in honor of the Passion, or if they were founded for the convenience of the people lest on certain days Mass be lacking, or if in the foundation this was expressly prohibited.