Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article First. On the Power of Ministering the Eucharist
123. A twofold minister of the Eucharist is distinguished: the minister of consecration and the minister of distribution. In the minister of consecration, for valid consecration the power of order is required; but in the minister of distribution, for licitly distributing the Eucharist a twofold power is required: the power of order and of jurisdiction. That this twofold power in the minister of distribution is required only for licitly administering the Eucharist is clear; for validly it can be distributed by anyone.
124. On the minister of consecration. Priests alone are the ministers of consecrating the Eucharist; for to priests alone was conceded the power of consecrating by these words: Do this in commemoration of me,1 which words were spoken to the apostles and their successors in the priesthood. And the Fourth Lateran Council defines: "This sacrament indeed no one can effect except a priest who has been duly ordained."2 But this power, as cohering with the priestly character, belongs to every priest, even a heretic, schismatic, excommunicated person, suspended person, or one bound by another canonical impediment.
If several consecrate the same matter at the same time, which happens in the ordination of new priests, they should take care to finish the form at the same time. For if one finishes the form before the others and has the intention of consecrating independently of the others, he alone consecrates. Therefore it is customary to say to those being ordained new priests that they must take care either to finish the form together with the bishop, or to have the intention of not consecrating if they finish the form before the bishop.3 But this warning is superfluous. For since they are concelebrants, from the nature of the thing they have the intention of consecrating with the bishop, i.e., indeed of consecrating, but only with the bishop. They have this intention by the very fact that they wish to receive the order according to the rite of the holy Roman Church, and they need no other intention; indeed, so that anxieties and scruples may be kept away, another intention ought not to be advised to them.
1 Luke 22, 19. Cf. Council of Trent, sess. 22, c. 1 and can. 2, De sacrif. miss.; Code of Canon Law, Cn. 802.
2 C. Firmiter 1, De summa Trinitate (I, 1).
3 Cf. Lugo, De eucharist., disp. 11, sect. 8.
125. On the minister of distribution. The minister of distributing the Eucharist is one kind ordinary, another extraordinary.
The ordinary minister of distributing the Eucharist is the priest alone. For by the same words by which the power of consecrating was given, the power of distributing was also granted, since Christ consecrating and distributing said: Do this in commemoration of me. Hence the Council of Trent affirms that it descends from apostolic tradition "that laypersons receive communion from priests, while priests celebrating communicate themselves."1
The extraordinary minister of distributing the Eucharist, by delegation of the priest in a case of necessity, is the deacon. For deacons by force of ordination have the power of distributing holy communion; therefore already in the primitive Church, from the commission of bishops and presbyters, they distributed the Eucharist.
a. It seems to belong to the deacon from ordination that he can minister the Eucharist; for he is ordained to this, that he be the immediate minister of the priest in those things which pertain to the most holy Eucharist, and the chief of these is its distribution. Nevertheless, from the present practice of the Church, in order that a deacon may licitly minister it, the permission of the Ordinary of the place or of the pastor, to be granted from a grave cause, is required; this permission in a case of necessity is legitimately presumed.2
b. The cause need not be most grave, as if the sick person would otherwise die without Viaticum, but it suffices that it be grave or fitting, or that no priest be present who can conveniently distribute the Eucharist, as when the pastor is impeded by hearing confessions, giving a sermon, or other ecclesiastical functions which cannot conveniently be deferred. But in most grave necessity, namely when otherwise a dying person would die without Viaticum, the deacon can and must minister the sacrament even without express delegation.3
c. If the deacon distributes the Eucharist, he performs all things by the same rite and with the same words as the priest, except that he has the stole transverse and at the end does not bless the people. Therefore he can sign the communicant or himself with the sign of the cross at the Indulgentiam; he can bless the sick person and the people with the pyx (but not with the hand without the sacrament). For the minister of eucharistic benediction is the priest alone, nor can a deacon impart it except in the case in which he has carried Viaticum to the sick person.4
- Indeed, in the gravest necessity of a dying person, when priest and deacon are absent, even a subdeacon or cleric, and, if it can be done without scandal, even a layperson, could carry and minister Viaticum to the dying person. Several authors probably permit this, and rightly indeed, since the divine precept of receiving the Eucharist at death prevails over the human precept which forbids that the most holy sacrament be touched or carried by a layperson. And this is to be conceded all the more easily because it is established that formerly laypersons took the most holy Eucharist into their hands and afterward carried it home with them to be received.5
a. It is known that in the Parisian persecution the Eucharist was carried by women to priests detained in prisons.
b. Where in communicating the sick person particular dexterity is required, the priest can commit to a woman, for instance to a sister of charity ministering to the sick person, that she offer Viaticum with a spoon.
- One who is not a priest cannot licitly communicate himself except in a case of necessity; nor can a priest do so, with another priest present, except in Mass.
a. Both priest and deacon, when another priest is absent, can minister this sacrament to himself not only from necessity but also for the sake of devotion. For a priest and deacon are prohibited from communicating themselves only if another priest or deacon is present.
b. A layperson can in a case of necessity, namely if in danger of death no priest or deacon is present, minister Viaticum to himself. For the divine precept of communicating urges; therefore the ecclesiastical law, if any stands in the way, ceases in these circumstances.
2 Cn. 845, 2.
3 Cf. Bucceroni, Casus consc., n. 117.
4 S. C. R., 14 Aug. 1858, n. 3074; Cn. 1274, 2.
5 Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 237; Burghaber, Casuum consc. centuriae tres, Centur. III, cas. 69.
126. On the power of jurisdiction. For licitly administering the Eucharist there is required, besides, jurisdiction, either ordinary or delegated; for feeding the flock of Christ is the proper right and office of pastors, and it is fed chiefly by the administration of the sacraments. Therefore he who without any faculty or jurisdiction distributes the Eucharist sins gravely, because he violates the right of the pastor in a grave matter; and clerics below the diaconate who without any faculty at all distribute the Eucharist contract, besides, irregularity because of abuse of sacred order.
Ordinary jurisdiction of distributing the Eucharist belongs: a. to bishops in their diocese; b. to pastors in their parish; c. to regular prelates with respect to their subjects, of whom they themselves are quasi-pastors.
- The power of a priest. a. Within Mass any priest, and if he celebrates privately even immediately before and after Mass, can distribute holy communion both in a church or public oratory and in a private oratory, unless the Ordinary has prohibited distribution in a private oratory.1
b. Even outside Mass any priest has this faculty, with the at least presumed permission of the rector of the church, if he is a stranger.2
This faculty is not to be presumed where there is question of communion to be received from obligation: concerning paschal communion or concerning holy Viaticum, nor if there is question of the first communion of children.
- The right of the pastor. a. To carry holy communion publicly to the sick, even to non-parishioners, within his territory belongs to the pastor. Therefore other priests can do this only in a case of necessity or with the at least presumed permission of the pastor or Ordinary.3
b. To carry Viaticum, whether publicly or privately, to the sick belongs to the pastor.
Nevertheless, if a sick person had to be refreshed with Viaticum and the pastor, being absent, could not administer it, or, being present, unjustly refused to administer it, any priest, whether secular or regular, and in their absence even a deacon, could licitly carry Viaticum to the dying person from the reasonably presumed power of the pastor, or of the bishop, or of the Church. The canons minister the sacraments to a bishop lying ill.4
1 Cn. 846, 869.
2 Cn. 846.
3 Cn. 848.
4 Cn. 397, 3.
127. On the power delegated to regulars. 1. Regulars, by force of the privilege of the supreme pontiffs, can in their churches or oratories, both by themselves and through other priests, distribute the Eucharist to any of the faithful, even on the day of Easter; for the old law by which the administration of holy communion in their churches was prohibited to regulars on this day1 has now been abrogated.2
a. On that day there had been prohibited not only the distribution of the Eucharist by which the faithful would satisfy the precept of annual communion, but also that which they received for the sake of devotion. The prohibition remains of receiving prescribed holy communion in churches of regulars, whether on Easter day or on any other day, unless by contrary custom the prohibition has been removed. But it is permitted to receive holy communion for the sake of devotion in non-parochial churches, especially those of regulars, on any day whatever, even on Easter day.
b. Religious can provide prescribed holy communion, both on Easter day and on other days, to all the faithful in those regions where the precept of receiving paschal holy communion in one's own parish has been derogated by contrary custom. Moreover, they can provide it to all those who participate in the privilege of exemption, such as, besides novices, familiars, i.e., those laypersons "who are of the family of the regulars and their continuous table-companions," among whom resident students are to be numbered.
- a. "In every clerical religion the right and office belongs to superiors of ministering Viaticum and extreme unction to sick professed members, novices, and others staying day and night in the religious house by reason of service, or education, or hospitality, or ill health."
b. In houses of nuns the ordinary confessor, or the one who takes his place, has the same right and office.
c. In a lay religion this right and office belongs to the pastor of the place or to the chaplain whom the Ordinary has substituted for the pastor.3
Although it is not licit for regulars publicly to carry holy communion to the sick, because publicly carrying the Eucharist through the streets is a proper parochial right, nevertheless they can licitly give holy communion to them privately, as it is licit for priests (n. 132).
1 S. C. C., 31 Jan. 1682.
2 S. C. C., 28 Nov. 1912.
3 Cn. 514.
128. Renewal of the species. Consecrated hosts are to be renewed frequently,1 i.e., every fifteen days or at least every month, unless the circumstances of place and time require more frequent renewal. Therefore on each occasion no more particles should be consecrated than will be consumed within the space of fifteen days or at most of one month. As regards renewal, the same holds also concerning the larger host exposed in the monstrance.
a. Considering the letter of the law, the particles are to be renewed every week;2 nevertheless provincial councils have been approved at Rome which do not require anything except that renewal ordinarily be done every other week, and nowhere be delayed beyond a month. Namely, the species are to be renewed as often as is necessary according to the condition of places, so that every danger of corruption may be avoided. But with this rule observed the danger of corruption is sufficiently avoided, provided the hosts are not found in a humid or warm place. But if the place in which the hosts are reserved is very warm or humid, more frequent renewal, at least every week, is necessary, because it is established that in places of this kind the species already after a few days begin to become moldy.3
b. These statutes suppose that the hosts which are consecrated are fresh. Therefore he sins gravely who delays renewal for a long time (to two months, and, if the place is humid, to a month). Likewise, he sins gravely who consecrates hosts which are no longer fresh and delays their renewal beyond a month for a long time.
Article Second. On the Manner of Ministering the Eucharist
By the prescription of the Church the Eucharist must be administered: a. at the due time; b. in a fitting place; and c. according to the customary rite of the Church.
1 Rituale rom., tit. 4, c. 1, n. 7.
2 S. C. R., 12 Sept. 1894, n. 3621.
3 Cf. Olfers, Pastoralmedizin^3, p. 219.
129. The due time. 1. It is licit for no one to receive the most holy Eucharist several times on the same day, except the case of Viaticum for one who on the same day has already received holy communion from devotion1 (n. 138).
- The Eucharist can be distributed on all days except Friday of Holy Week, and in part also Holy Saturday,2 and the night of the Nativity of the Lord,3 unless a privilege is present.
To religious institutes, pious places, and seminaries of clerics where the most holy Eucharist is habitually reserved, the privilege has been granted of distributing the Eucharist to those asking even on the night of the Nativity, together with the celebration of Masses.4
- It is not licit to carry the Eucharist by night unless necessity urges.5
It is licit, if there is need, to carry the most holy sacrament by night to a sick person lying within the domestic walls of a monastery or seminary, etc., who cannot remain fasting longer without grave inconvenience; for the prohibition of the Ritual refers only to public carrying through the streets of the place.
The bishop, if there is need, can permit by dispensing that the Eucharist be carried by night through the streets to a sick person who has not communicated for a long time and cannot remain fasting longer. Indeed, unless a special prohibition stands in the way, the pastor himself can do this by his own authority; for there is a sufficient cause excusing from this prohibition, lest the faithful be deprived of holy communion for a long time.
If there is need: because now, from the privilege of the Church, holy communion can for the most part be ministered to the sick even when not fasting.
On Friday of Holy Week it is licit to carry only holy Viaticum to the sick, which can be administered on any day and at any hour, whether of day or of night.
On Holy Saturday holy communion cannot be administered to the faithful except during the solemnities of Masses or immediately after they have been completed.6
By these things there does not seem to have been removed the permission of receiving holy communion granted to those (for the most part workers) who perform spiritual exercises during Holy Week and bring them to an end on the morning of Holy Saturday itself.7
- Holy communion is to be distributed only at those hours at which Masses can be celebrated, unless a reasonable cause suggests otherwise.
Therefore on days of great concourse, of plenary indulgence, of jubilee, of missions, and similar days, it is licit to minister holy communion to those fasting even one or another hour after noon; indeed, scandal being excluded, even in the evening.
- That the Eucharist be distributed to communicants within Mass is very fitting both to the nature of the matter and to the will of the Church. But from custom, which has already long prevailed everywhere, it is licitly distributed also outside Mass and immediately before or after Mass.
1 Cn. 857.
2 Cn. 867.
3 S. C. R., 7 Dec. 1641, n. 78.
4 Holy Office, 1 Aug. 1907 and 26 Nov. 1908; Cn. 821, 3.
5 Rituale rom., tit. 4, c. 4, n. 10; Cn. 867, 4.
6 Cn. 867, 3.
7 Gury-Ferreres, II, n. 297.
130. A fitting place. The Eucharist can be distributed in a church and in all oratories in which the sacrifice of Mass can be offered, even in private oratories.1
1 S. C. R., 8 May 1907; Cn. 869.
131. On the prescribed rite. The Roman Ritual accurately describes the rite to be observed in distributing holy communion;1 here it must be noted what sin is committed by one who departs from the liturgical prescriptions.
- To distribute the Eucharist without any sacred vestment, unless necessity excuses, is a grave sin. To carry the Eucharist to another altar without a sacred vestment, to omit either the stole alone or the surplice alone, to administer it without a light, or to omit the prayers, either preceding or following, is venial.
When necessity urges it is licit to minister the Eucharist without a light and without a sacred vestment. For it is better that the external apparatus with which the most holy sacrament ought to be administered be omitted than that a dying person depart without Viaticum, all the more because scandal of the faithful ceases when the cause is known.
As regards the prayers which are contained in the Ritual after the distribution of holy communion, it must be noted that there is an obligation of saying the antiphon O sacred banquet with the verse and prayer, since the Ritual corrected and augmented by Pius X has: the priest, having returned to the altar, says.
To touch the host with the last fingers without cause is venial. Nevertheless, he who has the index finger and thumb of the right hand impeded can, from a grave cause (lest the faithful be deprived of communion or the dying of Viaticum), use other fingers in distributing communion; for although only the first fingers are anointed, nevertheless the whole hand is consecrated.2
The long-disputed cause concerning giving communion in black vestments the Holy See finally defined in this way: that from a reasonable cause it can be distributed both before and after a Mass of Requiem; and a reasonable cause is always judged to be present when holy communion is asked.3
But if holy communion is distributed in black vestments, the blessing at the end is to be omitted, and in paschal time the Alleluia is to be omitted; but the prayer fitting paschal time is to be said.4
- It is not licit to give the faithful either the larger host, such as the priest receives in Mass, or several small hosts.5 But it is licit, if there is need, to divide hosts, but only into two or three parts. It is also licit, if necessary, for Viaticum or for communicating one or another person who cannot wait longer, to take a part from the priest's host. But the host which was used for exposition of the most holy sacrament ought not to be given divided into parts to communicants except in a case of necessity.
The famous Innocentian decree, in general words indeed, prohibits that several particles be handed to anyone. Nevertheless, from the circumstances which gave occasion to that decree, it is licit to infer that this is prohibited only to the extent that it would be done for fostering false devotion.6 Therefore nothing prevents several being handed to one from a reasonable cause, as if the priest celebrating could not consume all the particles which remain.7
If there is lacking someone to serve the priest, the one about to communicate himself, if he is a man, can recite the Confiteor and respond to the priest, or the priest himself can respond to himself to all things. If no man is present, the priest himself should say all things rather than that a woman (unless she is a nun within the cloister), even standing at a distance, answer anything in the church.
Concerning the order to be observed in distributing holy communion among those to be communicated, whether the distribution takes place within or outside Mass, it is established that the ministers of the altar or of the sacrifice, by reason of ministry, are to be preferred to others, although more worthy. This is to be understood of any minister, whether cleric or layman; nevertheless, clerics are to be preferred to a layman serving, and clerics constituted in major orders to clerics in minor orders.8
1 Rituale rom., tit. 4, c. 2.
2 Cf. Lacroix, l. 6, pr. 1, n. 490; Ballerini-Palmieri, IV, n. 896.
3 S. C. R., 27 June 1868, n. 3177.
4 S. C. R., 26 Nov. 1878, n. 3465.
5 Decree of Innocent XI Cum ad aures, 12 Feb. 1679; Holy Office, 17 May 1636.
6 Cf. Benedict XIV, De sacrif. miss., l. 3, c. 20, n. 1.
7 Cf. Genicot, Theol. mor. inst., II, n. 189.
8 Rituale rom., tit. 4, c. 2; S. C. R., 13 July 1658, n. 1074; S. C. R., 30 Jan. 1915.
132. On communion of the sick. 1. Holy communion is to be carried to the sick publicly and honorifically, i.e., with the solemnities used which the Church prescribes.1
The reverence due to the most holy sacrament and at the same time the statutes of the Church demand that the Eucharist be carried to the sick with uncovered head.
The Church is difficult in conceding a dispensation concerning this matter; nevertheless, if sometimes because of inclemency of the air danger to health is truly to be feared, the Holy See has permitted that the bishop according to his prudence concede the carrying of a small hat both in fields and in towns.2 And if somewhere the dispensation of the bishop could not be obtained, the priest, rightly fearing danger to health either from the heat of the sun or from cold, could by epikeia take for himself that permission which was conceded to the priests of Cologne "of walking, especially in winter weather, with the head covered with a woolen small hat, which, if necessity requires, can be of such amplitude that it also covers the ears,"3 or that which the bishops of Birmingham and Moulins can indulge, that pastors in circumstances of this kind may be able to carry Viaticum with the head covered by a hat (Hut, Mutze).4
It is licit from a grave cause to carry the Eucharist on horseback or sitting in a carriage, just as also from grave necessity (e.g., in time of plague or if the sick person otherwise cannot swallow the host) it is licit to offer it by means of some instrument, for instance with a spoon together with wine or water.
- From a just and reasonable cause it is licit for any priest to carry the Eucharist privately or secretly to the sick. But reverence and decency due to so great a sacrament should be consulted, the norms prescribed by the Apostolic See being observed.5
a. By common law this is now conceded, which formerly Ordinaries could permit. A cause for secretly carrying the most holy sacrament is certainly present both in places of heretics, where it cannot be carried without danger of irreverence, and in places of Catholics, if it cannot be carried without great inconvenience. In other circumstances it is committed to the prudence and conscience of the priest to judge concerning a sufficient cause.
b. The manner of carrying the most holy Sacrament is different in various regions, according to different external circumstances. Since not so long ago the Holy See conceded to Ordinaries the faculty of permitting that holy communion be carried secretly to sick persons who ask it from devotion, especially if in some parish several ask or someone asks frequently, the rite prescribed by Benedict XIV is to be observed,6 the same which the Roman Ritual also has (Appendix, p. 19). The priest is always to have a stole covered by his own garments; he is to place the pyx in a little sack or burse, which, suspended from the neck by cords, he is to place in his breast, and he is never to proceed alone, but is to be accompanied by at least one of the faithful in default of a cleric.7
c. But when the faculty was conceded to bishops in America of permitting priests to carry the most holy sacrament secretly to the sick, the Holy See wished that the bishops establish in their dioceses a common norm of carrying, in which these three things must be altogether observed: alpha. that priests carrying the most holy sacrament avoid useless conversations; beta. that they carry the consecrated host upon the breast; gamma. that the carrying take place only in a case of necessity and in the actual exercise of priestly ministry.8
- If a sick person vomits the host received, so that the sacred species appear, these are carefully to be gathered in a clean vessel, carried to the church, and kept in a becoming place until they are wholly corrupted, so that they can be cast into the sacrarium without irreverence. But if the sacred species, entirely mixed with filth, cannot be discerned, whatever has been ejected is to be gathered with tow, and when these have been burned the ashes are to be cast into the sacrarium.
1 Cn. 847; Rituale rom., tit. 4, c. 4, n. 6. This requires at least that, if it is carried manifestly, it be carried with at least one cleric or sacristan accompanying with a lighted lamp.
2 S. C. R., 22 Apr. 1871, n. 3246.
3 S. C. R., 13 Nov. 1862. Cf. Lehmkuhl, Theol. mor., II, n. 140; D'Annibale, III, n. 407.
4 S. C. R., 23 May 1846, n. 2909; 12 Sept. 1857, n. 3057.
5 Cn. 849.
6 Inter omnigenas, 2 Feb. 1744.
7 S. C. de Sacram., 20 Dec. 1912.
8 S. C. de Prop. Fide, 25 Feb. 1859. Cf. Sabetti, Compend. theol. mor., n. 691.