Chapter III. The Minister of the Eucharist

ONLY a priest can say Mass and consecrate the Eucharist, and a priest is also the ordinary minister who distributes Holy Communion to others. If, however, the priest is occupied and is unable to give Holy Communion himself, he may delegate faculties to a deacon who is the extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. In case of necessity, especially when there is danger of dying without receiving the Viaticum, and there is no priest or deacon to give it, a simple cleric, or even a lay person, may administer Holy Communion to himself or to another. It was not very unusual in the primitive Church for laymen to do this, but nowadays the occasion would seldom arise.

Any priest within Mass, and if he celebrates privately, also immediately before and immediately after Mass, can administer Holy Communion. . This may be done wherever he says Mass, even in a private oratory, unless for some good reason the local Ordinary forbids it in particular cases (Can. 846, 869).

It is the right and duty of the parish priest within his parish to carry Holy Communion publicly to the sick, even though they be not his parishioners. Other priests can only do this in case of necessity, or with at least the presumed leave of the parish priest or of the Ordinary (Can. 848).

To carry Viaticum to the sick, whether publicly or privately, also belongs exclusively to the parish priest. Any priest can carry Holy Communion to the sick privately (Can; 849).

All who have the cure of souls are bound to administer the Eucharist to their flock, not only when these are under an obligation to receive it, but whenever they reasonably ask for it. This obligation is grave, but it does not bind with proximate danger of death from catching disease or from some other cause, nor is a single refusal of the sacrament necessarily a grave sin, for the loss of it may easily be made up on another occasion. Priests who have not the cure of souls may sometimes be bound to administer Holy Communion, not out of justice, but out of charity.

For the lawful administration of Holy Communion the minister must be free from all censures which deprive him of the right to administer it; he must be in the state of grace, and he must follow the rubrics laid down by the Church in the Missal and Ritual.

According to Canon 867, Holy Communion may be administered on any day, but on Good Friday only as Viaticum to the sick. -On Holy Saturday Holy Communion may not be given to the faithful except in High Mass, or immediately after it and in continuation of it.

Holy Communion can only be administered at the times when Mass may be said, unless there be some reasonable cause for doing otherwise.

But Viaticum may be given at any time of the day or night.

The Blessed Sacrament should not be taken from the church except when it is carried to the sick, and then with all the marks of honour prescribed by the rubrics of the Ritual. However, in English-speaking countries the Holy Eucharist cannot be taken to the sick publicly, so it is carried in a small pyx enclosed in a bag specially made for the purpose, and suspended by a cord or chain from the priest’s neck. The priest should have on a stole underneath his coat.

If a consecrated host falls on the ground or on the Communion cloth, the place should be marked and afterward washed, and the water poured into the piscina. If the Precious Blood is spilled, the priest should suck it up as far as possible, and afterward the place should be well washed, scraped, and the water and scrapings poured into the piscina. If a consecrated host fall on the beard or clothes of a communicant, the place on which if fell need not be washed. If it falls on the breast or dress of a woman, she should take it reverently in her fingers and give it to the priest, who will then administer it to her as Communion.

If, while he is still vested, a priest discovers what seem to be particles consecrated in his Mass, the rubrics direct that he should consume them, even though no longer fasting; if he has put off the sacred vestments, or if the particles do not belong to his Mass, they should be reserved for another priest to consume after his own Communion, or placed in the tabernacle.

If the Blessed Sacrament is vomited by a sick man, the sacred species should be carefully separated and placed in a vessel in the tabernacle until they corrupt, when they should be thrown into the piscina. Corruption will more quickly take place, and any disagreeable odour will be avoided, if a little water be put into the vessel.