Article Second. On Receiving the Sacraments Licitly

42. Required conditions. 1. For receiving the sacraments licitly and fruitfully, at least that disposition is required without which the sacraments cannot produce their principal effect, namely sanctifying grace, either first or second; therefore generally it must be said:

a. For receiving the sacraments of the dead licitly and fruitfully, attrition concerning committed sins is required: for no remission is granted by God without conversion and sorrow for sin.

b. For receiving the sacraments of the living licitly and fruitfully, the state of grace is required, as is evident from the nature of the thing.

There exists a twofold way by which the state of grace can be recovered: perfect contrition or sacramental absolution; although this latter is not always necessary, nevertheless it is always to be recommended as more certain and more secure.

2. He who knowingly receives a sacrament without due disposition commits the most grave sacrilege of irreverence, and one graver than that which is committed by him who confects a sacrament in the state of mortal sin, because he not only treats a sacrament unworthily in some way, but also frustrates it of its effect.

St. Alphonsus (n. 86) brings forward two indeed rare cases in which it is permitted to receive the sacrament of the holy eucharist in the state of mortal sin: a. If a priest at the altar or a layman reclining at the table of communicants should remember a mortal sin committed by him and could not elicit an act of contrition except by interrupting the sacrifice of the Mass or by withdrawing from the table of communicants with danger of defamation, he would licitly receive the most holy sacrament. b. If a consecrated host were exposed to danger of profanation on the part of impious persons and there were no time for eliciting contrition, the host could be received without sin, but it would also be received without fruit.

43. Whether it is permitted to seek or accept sacraments from an unworthy minister.

An unworthy minister is called one who is known certainly not to be about to administer a sacrament without mortal sin. It is said certainly: for if he is not known certainly to be unworthy, he must be presumed worthy. Now a minister can be unworthy either because of mortal sin or because of a censure by which, being bound, he is prohibited from administering the sacraments (cn. 2261).

1. Per se it is not permitted to seek or accept sacraments from an unworthy minister. And indeed it is not permitted to seek the sacraments, because the law of nature forbids that we incite anyone to that which he either cannot do without sin or is not going to do without sin; but it is not permitted to receive, because it is not permitted to cooperate in the sin which one administering a sacrament in mortal sin commits.

Besides this reason of cooperation, which is the principal one, a twofold other reason sometimes accedes, namely scandal and danger of perversion, to which an unworthy minister, especially if he is a heretic, can tempt. Therefore without cause it is certainly not permitted to receive sacraments from an unworthy priest, even if he is ready to minister them and, indeed, offers himself of his own accord.

2. Nevertheless, from a just cause it is licit to seek and accept sacraments from an unworthy minister who can administer them without sin. For from a proportionately grave cause it is licit to seek an action which another can furnish without sin, although it is foreseen that he will commit sin; moreover, from a just cause it is licit to cooperate materially in the sin of another. Yet if, because of a particular censure or prohibition, he could not confer sacraments without sin, it would not be permitted to seek sacraments from him, because it is never permitted to induce another to sin.

But the just and proportionately grave causes on account of which even an unworthy priest could be called or approached are these: for administering the sacraments to the sick; for making paschal confession and communion; for baptizing an infant; for receiving absolution, lest the receiver have to remain longer in the state of sin; for gaining an indulgence; for preventing imminent danger of a fall because of vehement temptation or an occasion of sin.¹

3. As to excommunicated persons. The faithful can, from any just cause, seek sacraments from an excommunicated person, especially if other ministers are lacking. But from excommunicated persons to be avoided, and also from those excommunicated persons against whom a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has been issued, the faithful can seek, in danger of death alone, both absolution and also, if other ministers are lacking, the other sacraments.

a. Therefore one who would be about to die without a sacrament unless he sought it from an excommunicated person to be avoided (or from a heretic or schismatic) could seek from these persons not only baptism or absolution, but also extreme unction and viaticum.

b. Public heretics and schismatics indeed are not to be avoided in the juridical sense; nevertheless it is not permitted to seek sacraments from them except in proximate danger of death. Indeed, ordinarily they are not to be called even then, because of danger of perversion: for scarcely will a heretical minister minister the sacraments to a dying man unless he has admitted the faith of that minister's sect. Wherefore it is better, after eliciting an act of perfect contrition, to commit oneself to the divine mercy than to expose oneself to so great a danger.

¹ St. Alphonsus, n. 89.