Article I. On the Time of Dispensing the Holy Eucharist

I. Ordinary Communion; under this name also comes Communion of devotion to be received by a sick person.

1. Ordinary Communion can be distributed on all days (canon 867, § 1), except Friday of Holy Week, on which it is permitted only to carry Sacred Viaticum to the sick (canon 867, § 2). Viaticum is understood as it was explained above (n. 164); therefore Communion cannot be ministered on Friday of Holy Week to a sick person to whom Viaticum so understood has already previously been conferred. Nevertheless, Easter Communion could be given to one who can receive it conveniently enough only on Friday of Holy Week, for the law of communicating at Easter prevails over the liturgical law of not distributing Holy Communion on the aforesaid Friday.

2. Ordinary Communion can be distributed only at those hours at which the sacrifice of Mass can be offered, and likewise at other hours if a reasonable cause suggests it (canon 867, § 4). A reasonable cause for ministering Communion earlier or later than is permitted in itself is present, for example, if a sick person cannot observe the fast until one hour before dawn, or if someone, prevented from receiving Communion earlier, has remained fasting beyond one hour after noon. For the rest, note:

a) The faculty of distributing Communion at the hours at which Mass can be celebrated is to be taken in a broad sense, so that at whatever time, whether by common law or by privilege, it is permitted to celebrate, Communion also can be distributed. Hence it can be distributed in the oratory of a religious or pious house, where according to canon 821, § 3 Mass can already be begun at midnight; this is clear from the cited canon itself. Likewise it can be distributed in a conventual or parochial Mass (canons 821, § 1; 867, § 4; 863).

b) An indult of anticipating Mass can, with sufficient probability, also be extended to the distribution of Communion, even if in fact Mass is not anticipated.

c) On Holy Thursday the Holy Eucharist seems able to be distributed only before and during the solemn Mass; both because after the solemn Mass another Mass can no longer be celebrated, and because according to the rubric of the Missal only some species are to be reserved for the sick.

d) On Holy Saturday Holy Communion cannot be ministered to the faithful except during the solemnities of Masses or continuously and immediately after they have been completed (canon 867, § 3). Hence it is prohibited in churches where Mass is not celebrated. Moreover, considering the obvious sense of the canon, it seems to be required that the distribution of Communion be made jointly with Mass, so that it forms one thing with it. Yet this does not prevent there from being a reason excusing from the law, as if men, after having completed spiritual exercises, could not wait for the solemnities of Masses. Indeed, considering also the custom persisting in Rome, it can seem to someone that canon 867, § 3 speaks only of the place where the solemnities of Masses take place, but not, for example, of a separate chapel.¹

e) A celebrating priest is not permitted to distribute the Eucharist within Mass to faithful so distant that he himself loses the altar from view (canon 868). Therefore the interpretation of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 7 February 1874 (n. 3322), according to which it would suffice that the voice of the celebrant be heard, even if the altar were lost from view, seems to fall away. But the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (n. 2672), 7 December 1844 (n. 2885), 24 March 1860 (n. 3099, ad I), and 11 May 1878 (n. 3448, ad VIII), which agree with the Code, remain. Nevertheless others judge that the canon is not to be urged in this way.

3. It is not necessary that Communion be united with Mass, but it can also be distributed outside it. But if it is united with Mass, it must be done within Mass immediately after the Communion of the celebrant; and if Mass is celebrated privately, for a reasonable cause it can also be done immediately before and immediately after Mass (canon 846). These things also hold in a Mass for the dead.²

¹ Cf. Response of the President of the Commission for the Code, 10 July 1909 (Il Monitore Ecclesiastico 1922, p. 371; 1924, p. 21).

² Cf. Roman Ritual, title IV, chapter 2, n. 11. Cf. S.R.C., 19 December 1829, n. 2672, ad 1; 23 July 1868, n. 3177; 24 March 1860, n. 3099.

II. Viaticum can be ministered on any day, even Friday of Holy Week (canon 867, §§ 1 and 2), and at any hour of the day or night (canon 867, § 5).