§ 1. On the Manner of Application

245. Notion. The application of the Mass is the intention or will of the priest to determine the ministerial fruit for a special end, for example, for certain deceased persons. Therefore, application, as we now speak of it, does not touch the three other fruits, nor even the Mass insofar as it is a personal good act. These things must indeed be kept before the eyes to avoid confusions. It must especially be noted that it is not the same thing to ask for whom the Mass can be applied and for whom it can be useful. The fruits of the Mass are in some measure useful to the whole world, just as is the sacrifice of the Cross; but the Mass cannot be applied for just anyone in the whole world.

246. The power of applying. It is certain that the Mass can truly be specially applied, and the contrary opinion of the Synod of Pistoia was condemned by Pius VII.³¹⁴ The application of the Mass (that is, its ministerial fruit) belongs to the celebrating priest alone, who is constituted the dispenser of the mysteries of God and in his ordination received the power of offering the sacrifice of the Mass, that is, of applying the ministerial fruit both for the living and for the deceased. The priest must make this application, because otherwise this fruit remains in the treasury of the Church, as the theologians say.

For the rest, every priest is judged to have a habitual intention of applying the Mass either for himself or for those to whom he is obligated from justice or from another title. But when a priest has forgotten to make the application of some Mass, then the ministerial fruit probably returns to the celebrant himself. But when a priest, having accepted a stipend, applied the Mass for some deceased person who is already in heaven or who is in hell, then the fruit of the Mass probably accrues to the one who gave the stipend, since he is judged to have the intention that the offered Mass profit either the deceased person or himself. In practice it is advisable that the priest once and for all make an express intention: of applying the ministerial fruit to himself if perhaps he has forgotten to make an application, or if by a gratuitous title he has applied the Mass to someone incapable of receiving it; but of applying the ministerial fruit to those giving the stipend if, by an onerous title, he was bound to make an application which was ineffective because of the incapacity of the person receiving.

³¹⁴ Prop. 30 (Denz., n. 1530).

247. The manner of applying. 1. The application must be made for a certain end. For the priest must determine at least in some manner to whom the ministerial fruit ought to accrue; otherwise the application is thereby destroyed. Nevertheless, it is not required that this determination be entirely singular and that the priest know the intended end perfectly. Hence it suffices to apply the Mass: according to the intention of the person giving the stipend, or of the superior; according to the intention noted in a booklet; according to the order in which the stipends were given; for fulfilling endowed Masses; for the greatest sinner; for the most abandoned soul; etc. But it is not lawful to apply the Mass according to the intention of one who will request the application after offering an alms, but has not yet requested it, and then to retain the alms afterward given for the Mass previously applied.³¹⁵

When a priest through error celebrated Mass for a deceased man, whereas the stipend was given for a deceased woman, he nevertheless satisfied the obligation. For the error is accidental, since the prevailing intention was to celebrate according to the intention of the person giving the stipend. To avoid difficulties which can easily occur, it is better that a priest celebrating a Mass for a stipend elicit no other principal intention than that of applying the Mass according to the intention of the person giving the stipend.

But if several persons have offered stipends, then the Masses can be celebrated either according to the order in which the stipends were offered, or each Mass can be celebrated according to the intention of all who offered stipends; for then from each Mass each offerer receives a part of the fruits. But when all the Masses have been discharged, each has received all the fruits to which he had a right. This second manner ought to be preferred by those who hold that the limitation of the fruits of the Mass arises not from the will of Christ but from the incapacity of the recipient. For then each of all those who offered stipends receives, each time the Mass is thus applied, the whole fruit of which he is capable.³¹⁶

Here authors pose a curious question: whether it is lawful to apply the Mass according to the intention of the Blessed Virgin Mary? If the Blessed Virgin truly intends that the Mass be celebrated for a determinate end, this application is valid; otherwise it is not. In practice it is much better that the priest add another, more determinate intention besides this intention.

2. The application must be made at least before the second consecration. The reason is that the essence of the Mass consists in both consecrations, as was said above in n. 229. Therefore, as long as both consecrations have not been completed, the fruit of the Mass can be applied. But when the second consecration has been completed, the application also has been completed and accordingly can no longer be changed. An application made between the two consecrations is more probably valid, because the essence of the sacrifice has not yet been completed. In practice, however, it is advisable that the application be made before Mass. Nevertheless, it is not required that it be made immediately before Mass, but it can also be made some time beforehand. Thus, for example, a priest can arrange the Masses to be applied for the whole coming month.

³¹⁵ Code of Canon Law, c. 825, n. 1.

³¹⁶ Thus also Ballerini in the note to Gury II, n. 356.

248. Scholion. On a conflict of two intentions in the application of the Mass. What must be done if a priest, forgetful of a prior intention, has intended a second application of the Mass was already said above in n. 66 in the treatise on the intention of the minister of the sacraments. The general rule is: The stronger intention prevails. But which intention is stronger, whether the first or the second, is often impossible to discern. In practice it is better and safer that the priest once and for all establish for himself a rule according to which, in similar cases, the prevailing intention is to be discerned. But if in a particular case it truly is not established which application was made, nothing remains except that on another day a Mass be celebrated according to that intention which God knows has not yet been satisfied.