Article III. On the Things Required for the Licit Dispensation of the Eucharist

I say. Besides the state of grace and jurisdiction, in the sense explained above, for the licit dispensation of the Eucharist it is required that the Minister be free from every censure; otherwise he would sin gravely and would contract irregularity.

The Most Holy Eucharist is to be given under the species of bread alone (Can. 852).

§1. The priest is to distribute holy communion with unleavened or leavened bread, according to his own rite.

§2. But where necessity urges and no priest of a different rite is present, it is lawful for an Eastern priest who uses leavened bread to administer the Eucharist in unleavened bread, and conversely for a Latin or an Eastern priest who uses unleavened bread to administer in leavened bread; but each must preserve his own rite of administering (Can. 851).

§1. To all the faithful of whatever rite the faculty is given that, for a cause of piety, they may receive the Eucharistic sacrament confected in any rite.

§2. Nevertheless, it is to be advised that each of the faithful satisfy the precept of paschal communion in his own rite.

§3. Holy Viaticum is to be received by the dying in their own rite; but, when necessity urges, it is lawful to receive it in any rite (Can. 866).

Question 1. Whether and what sin it is to administer the Eucharist without sacred vestments?

Resp. To administer the Eucharist without any sacred vestment, outside a case of necessity, according to the common opinion is a mortal sin, because this is very indecent and against a grave precept of the Church. Yet if only the stole is omitted, or only the surplice, it is reputed venial. Likewise it is venial to administer the Eucharist without a light or without the customary preceding confession, Confiteor, etc. Similarly, it is held to be only venial to transfer the Eucharist from place to place, for example, from one altar to another, without sacred vestments. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 241. - Reuter, n. 168.

Question 2. What is to be said about that manner of acting, quite common among us, namely of administering the Eucharist to the sick with a stole, but without a surplice and cassock?

Resp. Certainly it cannot be praised, both because it contradicts the Roman Ritual and because it savors of a certain irreverence. Nevertheless, it seems that it can be tolerated, at least so long as the Bishops are silent or do not prohibit it in their diocesan statutes, and provided from another source that priests strive to reconcile reverence with the sacred rite. The reason is taken from the moral impossibility of acting otherwise, at least everywhere and in every case. But now, throughout the whole world, Ordinaries can permit, for a just and reasonable cause, that to those affected by poor health, who cannot leave home and who seek holy communion out of devotion, especially when in some parish several ask for it or someone asks frequently, the Holy Eucharist be carried privately, or with the prescriptions of the Ritual not observed, from the church to the home, with at least the rite proposed by Benedict XIV in the Decree Inter omnigenas, 2 Feb. 1744, par. 23, being observed, namely: "The priest should always have the stole covered by his own garments; in a little sack or burse he should place the pyx, which, suspended from the neck by cords, he should place in his bosom; and he should never proceed alone, but should be accompanied by at least one of the faithful in the absence of a cleric." - S. C. de disc. Sacr. 23 Dec. 1912.

Question 3. What stole is to be used in administering the Eucharist outside Mass?

Resp. "A stole always of white color, or of the color suitable to the office of that day (the black color, however, being changed into violet on the day of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed)." - Cf. Rit. Rom. Tit. IV, c. 2, n. 1. On Feria VI of Greater Week the distribution of the Eucharist is altogether prohibited unless it is by way of Viaticum, which must always be given with a stole of white color.

Question 4. Can communion be given with black vestments, whether before, after, or within Mass, both from particles consecrated in that Mass itself and from preconsecrated ones?

Resp. Affirmatively, in all cases, as is established from the Decree of the S. R. C., confirmed by Our Most Holy Lord Pius IX, 23 Jul. 1868. - Note, however, 1st. that in the aforesaid case the blessing is not to be given. Note 2nd. that, according to the mind of the Sacred Congregation, in order that the Most Holy Eucharist can be distributed before Mass, a reasonable cause is required; but this can scarcely be lacking if there are any who then ask for communion. - Cf. Ballerini, note (c), p. 197.

Question 5. Could a priest at will and always give communion outside Mass?

Resp. If there is question of a priest who is not celebrating, certainly he can always dispense it, as often as there are those who reasonably ask; for no precept can be assigned by force of which communion must be distributed only within Mass. Nevertheless, care must be taken that the tabernacle not be opened at almost every moment in order to satisfy one or another person approaching inopportunely, for this would savor of a certain levity and would not be without irreverence. But if there is question of a priest who is celebrating, according to the Roman Ritual and generally speaking, communion should be distributed by him within Mass after the consumption of the chalice. But from Canon 846, §1, if the priest celebrates privately, with due regard for the prescription of Can. 869, communion can also be given before or after Mass. Indeed, where there is a great influx of communicants, it is expedient to defer communion to the end, lest those who assist at Mass be detained in church longer than is fitting. - Note also here the response given by the S. R. C. on 12 March 1836, according to which, if necessity is present, the custom can be tolerated that "a priest who approaches some altar to celebrate, or withdraws from it, thus vested in the sacred vestments of the sacrifice and holding the chalice before his hands, may in passing ascend to the altar in which the Most Holy Eucharist is present, so that there he may distribute holy communion to the faithful." - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 249. Gardellini, n. 4777. Communion cannot be administered, even with a reasonable cause being given, by a priest vested in the sacred vestments of the sacrifice before or after a solemn or sung or even conventual Mass, as is permitted before or after a private Mass. S. C. R. 19 Jan. 1906.

Question 6. At what hour can communion be dispensed?

Resp. §4. Holy communion is to be distributed only at those hours at which the Sacrifice of the Mass can be offered, unless another reasonable cause advises otherwise.

§5. Nevertheless, Holy Viaticum can be administered at any hour of the day or night (Can. 867).

On a day of great concourse for a plenary Indulgence or Jubilee, communion can be administered from the time to the time when Masses are celebrated in that church, either according to the form of the Rubric or according to the form of the Indult granted to the same church. - S. C. R. 11 Jun. 1904; 7 Sept. 1860.

Indeed, we think that very rare cases can occur in which it would be lawful to distribute communion toward sunset. By force of canon 867 §4, and without an Apostolic indult, Communion can be distributed in the Mass which is celebrated on the night of the Nativity of the Lord in parochial and conventual churches, whenever, at least in the judgment of the Ordinary, a reasonable cause for doing this is present.

Question 7. What must be done if a minister is lacking for the priest: can a man about to communicate or a woman supply?

Resp. Certainly any communicant, if he is a man, can serve the priest; or even the priest himself can supply, by saying the Confiteor and responding Amen. A woman, however, cannot supply, unless she is a Nun, who according to received custom responds within the cloister; then, therefore, the priest himself must perform all things. - Nor should you say that in necessity a woman can make the responses at Mass, provided she stands at a distance; for in Mass the priest alone could not easily respond to all things. - Cf. Bouvier, de Eucharistia, chap. 4, art. 2. - Gousset, n. 212.

Question 8. Can several particles be given to one communicant, or one larger one, for the sake of devotion, etc.?

Resp. Negatively, because this was expressly prohibited by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council approved by Innocent XI on 12 February 1679. But the words of the decree (in Benedict XIV) are these: "Let Bishops, Pastors, or confessors admonish that several Eucharistic forms or particles are to be handed to no one, nor larger ones, but the customary ones."

Question 9. Can particles be broken if they are lacking?

Resp. Affirmatively, from the common opinion of theologians and the general practice, provided a just cause is present, for example, if another Mass is lacking or the faithful cannot wait. Nevertheless, the priest then must divide the Hosts only into two, or at most three, parts, because otherwise communion could scarcely be given with due reverence. - Cf. Lacroix, n. 508.

Question 10. For communicating the faithful, if smaller Hosts are lacking, can the priest take away a part of the larger one to be consumed by himself?

Resp. Affirmatively, in the case of Viaticum to be brought to a dying person, by reason of urgent necessity. It must also be answered affirmatively outside the case of Viaticum, if only one or another of the faithful were about to receive communion and could not wait without inconvenience. - Note besides that the large Host which has been used for the exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament must not, always excluding the case of great necessity, be divided into several parts in order to satisfy those about to communicate. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 217. - Instruct. Clem., § xxxi, n. 24.

Question 11. What must be done if (a) the Host falls to the ground, or (b) upon the face, beard, or garments of the communicant, or (c) into the bosom of a woman?

Resp. In the first case, the place into which the holy Host has fallen is immediately to be covered with some clean thing and afterward washed. If it falls onto the cloth or linen cloth by which the hands of the communicant are covered, the place is to be marked and afterward washed in the same way. Thus the Rubric, which nevertheless, according to the common opinion, does not oblige under grave sin; nevertheless, it would oblige gravely to wash the place into which the sacred species of wine had fallen, since it can easily be imbued with them; yet there is no need that that upon which they have fallen be burned. - But in the second case, purification is to be omitted; because it is better to avoid the wonder, disturbance, or offense of the people than to observe the Rubric, which obliges only under light sin. - Finally, in the third case, the woman herself must draw out the Host and place it back in the ciborium or hand it to the priest, from whom afterward she may receive it into her mouth. But the woman's fingers are to be washed, and the ablution is to be poured into the piscina. If the woman cannot easily draw out the Host there, let her withdraw apart, for example, into some chapel or into the sacristy, etc. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 250. - Benedict XIV, de Sacrif. Missae, n. 1, sect. 2. - O'Kane, nn. 653 and following.

Question 12. When on Holy Saturday can holy Communion be distributed to the faithful?

Resp. §3. On Holy Saturday, holy communion cannot be administered to the faithful except during the solemnities of Masses or continuously and immediately after they have been completed (Can. 867).

Question 13. To whom must holy Communion be administered first?

Resp. Communion must be administered to the minister of the sacrifice before others, even if more worthy, not by reason of preeminence but of ministry, Dec. Auth. n. 1074; and it can be administered within the presbytery and on the edge of the footpace of the Altar to a layman serving Mass, even if he is not clothed in clerical habit. (Ibid. n. 4271).

"By the name of minister of the altar or of the sacrifice of the Mass comes any cleric or layman serving Mass at the altar, who is to be preferred to the others in the distribution of the sacred Synaxis; with caution, however, that clerics be preferred to a serving layman, and to clerics of a minor order others constituted in a higher order, or persons who possess a superior liturgical dignity to be considered per se (as kings) or per accidens (as spouses in the Mass for blessing nuptials)." Thus S. R. C. 30 Jan. 1915.

Question 14. On what days is it lawful to distribute the Most Holy Eucharist?

Resp. §1. On all days it is lawful to distribute the Most Holy Eucharist.

§2. On Feria VI of Greater Week, however, it is lawful only to bring sacred Viaticum to the sick (Can. 867).

Question 15. What is expedient to be done with relation to communion on Feria V of Greater Week?

Resp. It is expedient that on Feria V of Greater Week all clerics, even priests who on that day abstain from offering the Sacrifice, be refreshed by the Most Holy Body of Christ in the solemn or conventual Mass (Can. 862).

Question 16. In what place can Holy Communion be distributed?

Resp. Holy communion can be distributed wherever it is lawful to celebrate Mass, even in a private oratory, unless the local Ordinary, for just causes, has prohibited this in particular cases (Can. 869).¹

It is not lawful for a celebrating priest to distribute the Eucharist within Mass to faithful persons so distant that he himself loses the altar from view (Can. 868).

¹ Cf. Addenda, p. 1148, n. 122.