On the Disposition of the One Offering

The priest who is going to celebrate should be fasting from midnight, in the state of grace, and duly prepared.

I. The natural fast. It is not lawful for a priest to celebrate unless the natural fast from midnight has been observed (canon 808). See the things which regard the natural fast set forth in n. 187 sq. Add canon 247, § 5: "It, that is, the Congregation of the Holy Office, alone is competent concerning all those things which regard the Eucharistic fast for priests celebrating Mass." Finally, the Holy Office declared¹ that priests dispensed from the Eucharistic fast can, before the second Mass, take the ablution in the first.

¹ 16 November 1923 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1923, p. 584).

II. The state of grace is required both for carrying out the consecration worthily (n. 26), and for receiving Communion (n. 179).

1. One who has lost the state of grace is bound per se to recover it through sacramental confession (canon 807); per accidens an act of perfect contrition suffices, namely if necessity urges and availability of a confessor is lacking (cited canon). See each of these things more fully explained in n. 179.

2. But if a priest conscious to himself of mortal sin has celebrated, availability of a confessor being lacking and necessity urging, yet after eliciting an act of perfect contrition, let him confess as soon as possible (canon 807).¹ It is said:

a) A priest; and so the law does not bind a layperson or a cleric not yet initiated into the priesthood (St. Alphonsus, VI, 268).

b) Availability of a confessor being lacking and necessity urging, yet after eliciting an act of perfect contrition; hence the law does not regard a priest who has celebrated without confession when either availability of a confessor was not lacking, or necessity was not urging, or the act of contrition was neglected. Those who celebrate thus commit sacrilege; but the reason why the law does not include sacrilegious persons is that it would become useless and an occasion of a new transgression (St. Alphonsus, VI, 260).

c) Without sacramental confession having been made beforehand; and so a priest is not held by the law if he celebrated after a confession in which he inculpably forgot a mortal sin, because he did not celebrate without a previous confession (St. Alphonsus, VI, 267).

d) Has celebrated; therefore a priest who has merely communicated is excepted. It is disputed, however, whether the law includes a priest who, while celebrating, remembers a grave sin or becomes guilty of one. Several deny this, because in the rubric² it is said that a priest who before Mass remembers a sin and celebrates from necessity, not having availability of a confessor, is bound afterward to confess at the first opportunity. But speaking of one who remembers a sin in the celebration itself, the rubric³ says: Let him be contrite with the purpose of confessing, without adding: at the first opportunity (cf. St. Alphonsus, VI, 267).

e) Let him confess as soon as possible. Moreover:

alpha) Here there is a true precept; hence Alexander VII condemned the proposition: "The mandate of Trent made to a priest sacrificing from necessity with mortal sin, to confess as soon as possible, is counsel, not a precept."⁴ Moreover, that precept by the consent of all obliges under grave sin.

beta) This "as soon as possible," according to the common opinion, is understood as within three days, or in such a way that it is not lawful to wait beyond three days.⁵ The obligation of confessing exists even if someone is not going to celebrate except after a longer time. Moreover, meanwhile the priest cannot again celebrate without previous confession unless both necessity of celebrating is present and availability of a confessor is lacking. Finally, if someone can confess now and foresees that afterward the occasion of confessing will be lacking, he is bound to confess now, for example already on the first day (St. Alphonsus, VI, 266).

¹ Council of Trent, session 13, chapter 7.

² De defectibus, title VIII, n. 3.

³ De defectibus, title VII, n. 4.

⁴ Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 1138.

⁵ Alexander VII condemned the proposition: "That particle 'as soon as possible' is understood as, when the priest will confess in his own time" (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 1139).

III. Preparation and thanksgiving. Let the priest not omit to dispose himself by pious prayers for the oblation of the Eucharistic sacrifice, and, once it has been completed, to give thanks to God for so great a benefit (canon 810).