Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article First. On the Application Itself
174. The Mass must be applied. The application of the Mass is the intention by which the priest wills that the ministerial fruit of the sacrifice come to some determinate person. Now this fruit can and must be applied by the intention of the celebrant to those for whom the sacrifice is offered.
a. For the priest by ordination is constituted dispenser of the mysteries of God and receives the power of offering the sacrifice and of applying its fruit both for the living and for the dead.1 Since, therefore, application has been committed to the priest, according to the opinion of many the Mass profits no one, and its fruit remains in the treasury of the Church, if the priest himself does not apply the fruit of the sacrifice, or if the one to whom the fruit is applied is not capable of it.
b. There are, however, those who think that, if the application is null or if it is made to one incapable, in gratuitous Masses the ministerial fruit comes to the celebrating priest, but in Masses owed from a stipend this fruit comes to the relatives of him who gave the stipend.2 For they think the priest always has the implicit and habitual intention that the fruits of the sacrifice come to himself, unless they are applied to another; and that the faithful founding or asking for Masses have this implicit and habitual intention, that if the Masses do not profit them, they profit those to whom they are joined by some relation.
c. Nevertheless, the practice is altogether to be recommended of explicitly applying the fruit under condition either to himself or to another, if at any time there is doubt whether he for whom the sacred action is offered is capable. And in gratuitous Masses fruits can indeed be applied under the condition: if he is not capable; but in Masses owed: if it can be done without prejudice to him who gave the alms.
d. From these things it is understood that the second intention, for which the sacrifice of the Mass is offered, is an application which, besides the first, whether from some title owed or made from free choice, is elicited. This second intention can be made in two ways: either conditionally, so that the fruit comes to another if he to whom it is applied in the first place is not capable of it; or absolutely, so that besides him to whom the Mass is applied in the first place, from the same Mass the fruit also comes to another. A conditional second intention is usually made by those who fear lest the fruit of the Mass remain wholly or partly in the treasury of the Church, because the subject of the first intention is not capable of it. An absolute second intention is usually made by those who think the fruits of the Mass are infinite and therefore that the second intention profits equally as much as the first. But since this opinion is scarcely probable, the absolute second intention belongs only to the particular Memento.
e. Application, or the offering of the Mass for determinate faithful, is called public if the faithful are publicly advised for whom the sacrifice of the Mass is offered; semipublic if the priest and he who offered the stipend know for whom the sacrifice of the Mass is applied; occult or secret (others say private) if only the priest knows for whom he wishes to apply the fruit of the Mass; it is called private when the priest gives to another the fruits which he himself, as a private person, receives from the sacrifice of the Mass (n. 176, 3).
1 Cf. Hebr. 5:3.
2 Lugo, disp. 19, n. 225; Ballerini-Palmieri, IV, n. 1042.
175. For whom the Mass can be offered. Generally it must be said that the sacrifice of the Mass can be offered for all who are capable of some fruit, unless it is prohibited by the Church. But the saints in heaven, the damned in hell, and little children who have died without baptism are not capable of fruit; besides these, however, all, both living and dead, can receive some fruit from the sacrifice of the Mass. Wherefore the Mass can be offered and applied for all, even sinners, infants, the possessed, heretics, infidels, unless a peculiar prohibition of the Church stands in the way.
a. That the sacrifice of the Mass can be offered in general for the dead detained in purgatory, and that it profits them, is certain from faith;1 nevertheless it is not established whether the fruit of the Mass is applied to that soul in particular for whom the Mass is offered: for it can happen that divine justice prevents the hidden reasons why the fruit of the Mass should come to it. Likewise it is not established in what measure it is applied to it: for God determines these things according to the disposition of the soul and its merits. Finally, it is not established in what way the sacrifice of the Mass aids the dead: for although it is certain that the Mass, by reason of the satisfactory fruit, immediately obtains the remission or mitigation of their punishments, nevertheless it is not equally certain whether the Mass, by reason of the impetratory fruit, obtains remission of punishment immediately or only mediately by obtaining graces by which the faithful are moved to pray and offer satisfactions for the same soul.
b. It is clear that those for whom the Mass is offered receive from the sacrifice applied to them only those fruits of which they are capable, but the rest, unless they are applied to another, remain in the treasury of the Church. Only an adult Christian existing in the state of grace is capable of all the fruits; to infants there can come only the impetratory fruit; to sinners only the propitiatory and impetratory fruit; to the dead directly (as it seems) only the satisfactory fruit can come.
c. In honor of the saints the sacrifice of the Mass is offered: alpha. to God, in order to honor Him in His saints; beta. for giving thanks to God for the gifts of grace and glory given to those saints themselves and for the gifts of grace conferred upon men through the intercession of the saints; gamma. for obtaining from God, through the merits and intercession of the saints, goods both spiritual and temporal; delta. finally, that the worship of the saints here on earth may be increased.
d. For little children who have died after baptism the sacrifice of the Mass is offered for a latreutic and eucharistic end, so that God may be worshiped and thanksgivings offered to Him because they, through the mystery of redemption, without merits of their own, have been made participants in eternal salvation.
1 Cf. Council of Trent, sess. 22, c. 2 and can. 3, De sacr. miss.
176. Whether for infidels, heretics, and excommunicated persons. 1. The sacrifice of the Mass can be offered for living infidels, both generally for all and for individuals, not only for obtaining their conversion, but also (with a stipend accepted, if one wishes) for their other intentions, provided scandal is absent and it is established that nothing evil, or of error, or of superstition underlies it, because infidels are capable of the impetratory fruit and are not excluded by the Church from receiving it.1
For excommunicated persons not to be avoided, to whom heretics, schismatics, and apostates also are reckoned, the sacrifice of the Mass can be offered privately and with scandal removed, not only for obtaining their conversion, but by the new law (with a stipend accepted, if one wishes) also for their intention.
For excommunicated persons to be avoided it is not licit to offer Mass even privately, except for their conversion.2
But because the Church deprives excommunicated persons to be avoided only of her public and common suffrages, nothing prevents the priest, as he is a private person, from offering Mass for them and, in the Mass, especially in the Memento, from praying for the same. For the sacrifice of the Mass, insofar as it is offered by the priest as a private person, produces ex opere operato the most special fruit, which the priest can give even to an excommunicated person; and ex opere operantis it has all the effects which any work of virtue has (n. 170). Now, just as with other good works, so also the effects of the Mass produced ex opere operantis the priest can give and apply to another, even to an excommunicated person. The Memento, of which we speak, is indeed itself also a public prayer of the Church; yet insofar as it is made by the priest as a private person, it has the impetratory effect of prayer, which can be given to all without discrimination.
The sacrifice of the Mass can be offered publicly for all the dead who died in external union with the Catholic Church, and who therefore also were endowed with ecclesiastical burial.
It can be applied privately for all the dead remaining in purgatory,3 even for excommunicated persons, to whom heretics, schismatics, and apostates are reckoned, excluding only those who died in the act of sin and before death gave no signs of penance.
a. It is very doubtful whether dead infidels or non-baptized persons are capable of the satisfactory fruit. For theologians think that those effects which are conferred through visible signs cannot be communicated except to those who visibly adhere to the Church.4 Nevertheless for dead catechumens the sacrifice of the Mass seems able to be applied, because by faith and the desire of baptism they already in some way pertain to the Church.5
beta. Those who are enumerated in n. 5, if before death they gave signs of penance, are to be absolved from excommunication after death; if they did not give signs of penance, the priest who secretly celebrates for them must above all avoid the scandal of the faithful. For this reason he should be advised to tell those asking for Mass that he wishes to celebrate for the dead of this family, and not specifically for this deceased person, if they can be helped through the Mass.
Note 1. For the faithful who died in the act of sin, as drunkards, suicides, etc., the sacrifice of the Mass can be offered publicly, unless they have been deprived of ecclesiastical burial; in that case it is licit to celebrate Mass for them only secretly.
For the faithful who notoriously died in a state of mortal sin, the sacrifice of the Mass can be offered under condition: if before death he repented - if perhaps he was in the state of grace. But by reason of scandal, an application of this sort cannot be made publicly.
Note 2. An application made against the law of the Church is indeed illicit, but nevertheless is not invalid; hence if a priest accepted a stipend for an application of this sort, once the application has been made, he is not bound to restitution of it. If someone, however, against the prohibition of the Church, offers Mass for an excommunicated person to be avoided, the fruit which corresponds to the Mass insofar as it is offered in the person of Christ is validly applied to him; but the fruit which corresponds to the Mass insofar as it is offered in the name of the Church is neither licitly nor validly applied to him.
1 Holy Office, 12 July 1865; Cn. 809.
2 Cn. 809; Cn. 2262, 2, n. 2.
3 Cn. 809.
4 Cf. Lugo, disp. 19, sect. 10.
5 Cf. Aichner, Compend. iuris. eccles., sect. 51.