The Things to Be Observed in the Dispensation of the Holy Eucharist

Something must be said about the time, place, and mode of distributing the Holy Eucharist, and about the mode of carrying it to the sick.

“In the administration of Holy Communion, the versicles and the prayer Deus qui nobis are of precept; but the blessing is always to be given, with the single exception of the case when it is given immediately before or after a Mass of the Dead, under the formula The blessing of God, etc.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 30 August 1892, Esztergom, response to 10.

“The prayers are to be said during the ablution and wiping of the fingers.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 14 January 1898.—In the administration of the Most Holy Eucharist during Easter time, before or after a Requiem Mass, the prayer and versicles of the season must be said, with the Alleluia omitted. Sacred Congregation of Rites, 26 November 1878, Siena.

“Whether the stole for administering the Most Holy Eucharist outside Mass must always be of the color agreeing with the Office of that day, as the Roman Ritual prescribes, or whether it may also be white, as being most fitting for the Sacred Eucharist, as many Doctors judge?—Response. Affirmative.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 March 1836, Trent, response to 12.

“A priest returning to the altar after the Communion of the faithful must genuflect before he covers the sacred ciborium, and must genuflect again before, after the ciborium has been replaced in the tabernacle, he closes the little door of the tabernacle itself.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 23 December 1862, Rome.

“The Superior General of the Order of St. John of God humbly petitioned the Sacred Congregation of Rites that it deign to resolve the following doubts concerning the manner, in force in the hospitals of his Order, of carrying Holy Communion within Mass to the sick, namely: 1. After the Confiteor, Misereatur, Ecce Agnus, and Domine non sum dignus have been recited at the altar, can it be permitted that the priest carry Holy Communion in the ciborium without a humeral veil to the sick, accompanied at least by two persons carrying candles, and with an umbrella also employed if it can be done, especially if the sick are distant from the altar? 2. Can Holy Communion be carried in the aforesaid manner not only throughout the whole hospital, or at the part behind the altar, but also in certain rooms from which, although the altar cannot be seen, the voice of the priest celebrating is nevertheless heard? 3. Can it be permitted that, in place of the priest carrying the Most Holy Eucharist to the sick, another person, even a layman, recite the prayers?—Response. To the first and second: There is nothing to prevent it, provided, however, that in carrying the Most Holy Sacrament an umbrella is employed without exception. To the third: There is nothing to prevent those present from reciting certain prayers while the Sacred Eucharist is being distributed.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 7 February 1874, Order of St. John of God.

“Is it lawful for one celebrating in a private or religious house to carry Holy Communion before the purification, for the sake of devotion and not by way of Viaticum, to a sick person staying in the same house, although it is necessary to ascend to the upper part of the house and to pass through another corridor?—Response. It is not lawful, according to the decree in the case of Florence, 19 December 1829, response to 1; but if necessity presses, let it be done after Mass has been completed.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 7 December 1844, Genoa.

“During the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the administration of Viaticum, especially in hospitals, is it lawful to withdraw from the altar as far as the bed of the sick, meanwhile reciting the psalm Miserere, as is customarily done outside Mass?—Response. Negative as regards the psalm Miserere. Moreover, it is to be noted that if the celebrant, for the administration of Viaticum within Mass, loses the altar from his sight, this administration is not lawful.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 December 1829, Florence, response to 1.

In carrying the Most Holy Sacrament, women cannot precede, carry the umbrella and torches, or ring the small bells. “If women wish to carry lights, let them follow the priest.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 11 December 1903.

“To the sick who are near death, of whatever condition they may be, even though they dwell in a sordid and vile place or hut, let the Viaticum of the Most Holy Eucharist be carried, since with God there is no acceptance of persons, and for our salvation He shrank neither from the stable nor from the ignominy of the Cross.” Alexander VII, Constitution Sacrosancti, 18 January 1658.

“...As soon as the Sacred Congregation learned that, in certain dioceses of that region, the custom, or rather abuse, had gained strength whereby priests carried the Most Holy Sacrament with them from morning until evening solely because they might perhaps encounter some sick person, it judged that the Metropolitans were to be written to, so that it might declare that custom to be wholly abhorrent to the practice of the Church.... Issue such decrees by which the carrying of the Most Holy Sacrament is restricted only to urgent causes and to the actual exercise of priestly ministry....” Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 25 February 1853.

“But where the violence and iniquity of the Turks prevails, let the priest always keep his stole covered by his own clothing; let him enclose the ciborium in a small bag or burse, suspend it from his neck by cords, and place it within his bosom; and let him never proceed alone, but be accompanied by at least one of the faithful if a cleric is lacking.” Benedict XIV, Constitution Inter omnigenas, 2 February 1744.

“Sacred Viaticum can be carried to the sick without a stole in a case of necessity.” Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 20 September 1739, for China.

“...1. Whether it can be lawful for the missionaries of these regions to administer the Most Holy Sacrament to the sick secretly and without a light and stole when it cannot be administered otherwise? ... 2. Whether the Apostolic Vicar can permit the missionaries to carry and administer the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to Christians ... detained in prisons? ... It could easily be administered to them without danger of contempt for the Most Holy Eucharist if it were lawful to administer it without surplice and stole.—Response. To the first: Affirmative, for it concerns a faculty already granted by the Supreme Pontiffs. To the second: Affirmative, and as regards those detained for a time, insofar as they request it, yet at the judgment and prudence of the Apostolic Vicar.” Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 9 December 1822 and 5 July 1854.

“Can it be permitted, in this time of persecution, that confessors of the faith condemned to death because of the faith, and to whom the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is brought in prison, may secretly receive it in their own hands and secretly communicate themselves, lest the priest communicating them in the ordinary manner be recognized and apprehended?—Response. Affirmative, provided that so great a Sacrament is exposed to no irreverence or other danger.” Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 21 July 1841.

“Whenever the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist can respectively be carried to the sick either publicly or secretly, it is to be carried. But if, either because of the prohibition of the magistrates or for another cause, danger of sacrilege and irreverence is feared, let celebration be permitted in a more nearly situated fitting place, and, if no fitting place is available, in the house of the sick person itself, provided that a fitting place is likewise available there.” Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 14 December 1668; C. 709, 718.

“A Pastor is not to be reproved who carries Holy Viaticum to a sick person on Friday in Parasceve, provided that privately and in a low, indeed in the lowest, voice he recites the customary psalms along the public ways, even if he says Gloria Patri, etc.; because in such a circumstance an action of this kind has nothing in common with the functions of the Church on this day. And it is to be considered that he carries it with a white stole and cope, when on the aforesaid Friday the color of the vestments is black for the functions of the Church. Therefore, if he carries it privately because of some necessity, he is not to be reproved if he dismisses the people without a blessing on Friday in Parasceve, because it ought not to be replaced in the public church.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 15 May 1745, Lucca.

“In carrying the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist for administering Sacred Viaticum publicly to the sick, but without a canopy, the abuse is not to be tolerated whereby the Pastor or minister proceeds along the way with his head covered, while the faithful nevertheless walk with heads uncovered.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 31 August 1872, Toledo, response to 2.

“In view of the circumstances (the greatest difficulty of the places), the Sacred Congregation of Rites committed it to the Most Reverend Bishop that, according to his judgment and prudence, he may grant that the Pastor and administrators of this kind, in these circumstances, may carry Sacred Viaticum while riding and with the head covered by a hat, accompanied by at least one man, if it can be done, carrying a lighted lantern.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 23 May 1846, Bisignano.

“It is lawful to carry Viaticum without any pomp and in an almost private manner whenever it is to be administered to sick persons dwelling very far from the parish church and it is necessary to pass through pathless, distant, and inaccessible places; and let the prescriptions of the Roman Ritual be observed, and let the decree in the one case of Bisignano, 23 May 1846, be given.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 January 1878, Templen, response to 7.

“Whether the rule of the Parisian Ritual expressed thus can safely be followed: If, when Communion is to be given, a sufficient number of hosts has not been found, can some hosts be divided into several particles which are to be distributed to the individuals?—Response. Let the custom of dividing the consecrated hosts be observed if necessity is present.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 16 March 1833, Verona, response to 1.

“Let Bishops, Pastors, or confessors admonish that no one is to be given several Eucharistic forms or particles, nor larger ones, but only the customary ones.” Sacred Congregation of the Council, 12 February 1679.

“The carrying of the Most Holy Sacrament outside a church is not permitted except on the solemn occasion of a procession on the feast and throughout the octave of Corpus Christi, and likewise on the occasion of the sick and of the Forty Hours’ Prayer according to the decrees of the sacred canons; and in the aforesaid cases the clergy with a cross must always take part.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 June 1638, Sulmona.

"For the sick near death, of whatever condition they may be, although they dwell in a sordid and vile place or hut, let the Viaticum of the Most Holy Eucharist be brought, since with God there is no acceptance of persons, and for our salvation he did not shrink from the stable or the ignominy of the Cross." Clement IX, Const. In Excelsa, 13 Sept. 1669.

"... As soon as the S. C. understood that in certain Dioceses of that region a custom, or rather abuse, had prevailed that Priests would carry the Most Holy Sacrament with them from morning until evening, for this cause only, that they might perhaps happen upon some sick person, it judged that it should be written to the Metropolitans, so that it would declare that custom to be altogether abhorrent from the practice of the Church... Issue such decrees, by which the carrying of the Most Holy Sacrament may be restricted to urgent causes only, and to the actual exercise of the Priestly ministry...." Instr. S. C. de P. F. 25 Feb. 1853.

"But where the force and iniquity of the Turks prevails, let the Priest always have the stole covered with his own garments, let him conceal the pyx in a little bag or burse, which, suspended by cords from the neck, he should place in his breast, and let him never proceed alone, but let him be accompanied by at least one faithful person in default of a Cleric." Benedict XIV, Const. Inter omnigenas, 2 Feb. 1744.

"That Sacred Viaticum can be carried to the sick without a stole in a case of necessity." S. C. de P. F. 20 Dec. 1739. Father Windsiller, Missionary in China.

"... 1. Whether it can be lawful for the Missionaries of these regions secretly, and without light and stole, to administer the Most Holy Sacrament to the sick, when otherwise it cannot be administered? ... 2. Whether the Vicar Apostolic can permit Missionaries that they carry and administer the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to Christians ... detained in prisons? ... It could easily be administered to them without danger of contempt of the Most Holy Eucharist, if it were lawful to administer it without surplice and stole. Resp. To the 1st affirmatively, for the matter concerns a faculty already conceded by the Supreme Pontiffs. To the 2nd affirmatively and as regards those detained for a time, insofar as they ask, yet according to the judgment and prudence of the Vicar Apostolic." S. C. de P. F. 9 Dec. 1822; 5 July 1854.

"Whether it can be permitted, in this time of persecution, that Confessors of the faith condemned to death because of the faith, and to whom the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is brought in prison, can secretly receive it with their own hands and secretly communicate themselves, lest the priest communicating them in the ordinary manner be recognized and seized? Resp. Affirmatively, provided that so great a Sacrament is exposed to no danger of irreverence or other danger." S. C. de P. F. 10 Aug. 1841.

"The General of the Order of St. John of God humbly asked from the S. R. C. that it deign to declare the following doubts concerning the manner of carrying Sacred Communion within Mass to the sick, in force in the hospitals of his Order, namely: 1. Whether, after the Confiteor, Misereatur, Ecce Agnus, Domine non sum dignus have been recited at the altar, it can be permitted that the Priest with the Pyx, without humeral veil, carry Sacred Communion to the sick, accompanied by at least two persons carrying candles, and with an umbrella also employed, if it can be done, especially if the sick are distant from the altar? 2. Whether Sacred Communion can be carried in the above-mentioned manner not only in the whole hospital, whether from the posterior part of the altar, but also in some rooms, from which, although the altar is not seen, nevertheless the voice of the Priest celebrating is heard? 3. Whether it can be permitted that, in place of the Priest carrying the Most Holy Eucharist to the sick, another, even a layman, recite the prayers? Resp. To the 1st and 2nd, nothing stands in the way, provided however that in the carrying of the Most Holy Sacrament an umbrella is altogether employed. To the 3rd, nothing stands in the way that those standing by recite some prayers while the Sacred Eucharist is distributed." S. R. C. 7 Feb. 1874.

"Whether it is lawful for one celebrating in a private or religious house to carry before purification Holy Communion, for the sake of devotion and not by way of Viaticum, to a sick person dwelling in the same house, although one must ascend to the upper part of the house and pass through another corridor? Resp. It is not lawful, according to the decree of 19 Dec. 1829; but if necessity urges, let Mass be finished." S. R. C. 17 Dec. 1844.

294. Principles. - I. Besides jurisdiction ¹, it is required that the Minister be free from every excommunication, interdict, and suspension from Sacred things; for otherwise he would sin gravely and contract irregularity.

¹ We have already observed above, in the note to n. 289, that the custom has prevailed that any priest celebrating Mass in any church can minister the Eucharist to those asking.

II. It is required that the Minister be in the state of grace, because the most august and most holy Body of Christ ought not to be handled by impure hands. Hence the Priest sins as often as, being guilty of mortal sin, he distributes Communion, although probably he does not commit as many sins as there are persons communicating in the same distribution of the Eucharist. - St. Ligorius, n. 30 and following. - Nevertheless very grave Theologians, for example Lugo, De Sacramentis, disp. 8, n. 155, and others cited by St. Ligorius, lib. 6, n. 35, excuse from grave sin.

III. It is required that the Minister distribute the Eucharist by the customary rite of the Church. Hence, generally speaking, the administration of this Sacrament must be omitted when it cannot be done in the manner prescribed by the Roman Ritual or by the custom of the place. - See St. Ligorius, n. 241 and following.

295. Resolves. - 1. The Minister of the Eucharist must treat this most august Sacrament with great reverence, in whose presence the venerating Powers tremble and the whole heavenly Court suppliantly adores. But it is not enough that the Priest touch the holy Eucharist worthily and devoutly and minister it to the faithful; for if he is the Parish Priest, or his assistant, it belongs to him to take care that it be preserved in an honorable place, or in a becoming tabernacle. A notable omission of the care due for this can easily become mortal. - Elbel, n. 76. - St. Ligorius, Homo apostolicus, n. 81, and all others.

2. The Eucharist is not to be ministered except with a becoming habit, that is, with stole, surplice, and light.

3. According to the common opinion, he sins gravely who outside a case of necessity distributes Communion without any sacred vestment, because this is very indecent and against a grave precept of the Church. - St. Ligorius, n. 241. - Yet if only the stole is omitted, it seems to several and grave Theologians to be only venial, which seems sufficiently probable. - St. Ligorius, ibid.

4. It is reputed only venial to minister the Eucharist without light, or without the usual confession, Confiteor, etc., having been said beforehand. - Thus commonly with St. Ligorius, n. 241. - Similarly, it is held only venial to transfer the Eucharist without sacred vestments from place to place, for example from one altar to another. - Reuter, n. 168. - Mazzotta.

296. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Whether a Priest laboring under infirmity in thumb and index finger can minister the Eucharist with other fingers?

Resp. It seems it must be denied, at least more probably, a case of most grave necessity being excluded ². - Thus St. Ligorius, n. 244. - The reason is that although the whole hand is consecrated, nevertheless the index finger and thumb by the rite of the Church are specially destined for exercising this office.

² Here a most grave necessity seems to be required a little too severely. On this matter La Croix (lib. 6, p. 1, n. 480) writes thus: It is probable that a priest licitly distributes Communion with the latter fingers, if he cannot with the first because of gout of the hand or another impediment, as Toletus, Arriaga, Leander, and others with Gobat have it.... Because although only the first fingers are anointed, nevertheless the whole hand seems consecrated; hence Gobat infers that a priest who without cause touched the host with the last fingers would sin only venially.

QUESTION 2. What must be done if the Host falls to the ground?

Resp. The place into which the holy Host has fallen must immediately be covered with some clean thing and afterwards washed. If it falls onto the cloth or little linen cloth by which the hands of the communicant are covered, the place must be marked and afterwards washed in the same way. Thus the Rubric, which nevertheless according to the common opinion does not oblige under grave obligation; yet it would oblige gravely to wash the place into which the sacred species of wine had fallen, since it is imbibed; nevertheless there is no need to burn them ³. - St. Ligorius, n. 250. - Lacroix, n. 484.

³ Those last words: There is no need to burn them, although taken from St. Alphonsus (lib. 6, n. 250), do not cease to be obscure. For to what does the word them refer? Therefore more clearly in La Croix (lib. 6, p. 1, n. 484), whom St. Alphonsus alleges here: Pasqualigus adds that there is no need to burn that into which the sacred blood has fallen, but that it is enough to wash it.

QUESTION 3. What must be done if the Host falls onto the face, beard, or garments of the communicant?

Resp. In the aforesaid cases purification is to be omitted, because it is better to avoid the astonishment, disturbance, or offense of the people than to observe the Rubric, which obliges only under light obligation. - St. Ligorius, n. 250, and others commonly.

QUESTION 4. What must be done if the Host falls into the bosom or within the garments of a woman?

Resp. The woman herself must extract the Host and hand it to the Priest, from whom afterwards she is to receive it into her mouth. - Thus Benedict XIV, On the Sacrifice of the Mass, sect. 2, n. 176. But the fingers of the woman are to be washed, and the ablution is to be thrown into the sacrarium. If the woman cannot easily extract the Host there, let her withdraw apart, for example into some chapel, or into the sacristy, etc.

297. • QUESTION 5. At what hour can Communion be dispensed?

Resp. Regularly it must be ministered at the hours at which it is permitted to celebrate Mass either from custom or from a special Indult. But commonly with St. Ligorius it is taught that it can be ministered at any hour of the day, except, however, the last part of the day, that is, toward night. The reason is that no prohibition exists concerning this matter. St. Ligorius, lib. VI, n. 259. - Nor does the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites given in the month of December 1816 stand in the way, permitting the administration of Communion from the time to the time in which Masses are celebrated in any Church on a day of great concourse. For that Decree is not exclusive, since the Sacred Congregation gave a response according to the petition, in which the matter was precisely about a day of great concourse for gaining a plenary Indulgence or Jubilee.

Here it must be added that, from a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1641, Communion is not to be given in the Mass of the Nativity of the Lord which is celebrated at midnight. In St. Ligorius, ibid. Nevertheless the faculty of permitting this is sometimes conceded by privilege; and very recently it was conceded to some Bishops of France by this law, that no danger of scandal be present.

298. • QUESTION 6. Whether Communion can be given outside Mass?

Resp. Generally speaking, it is to be given, as far as can be done, after the Communion of the Priest. Thus from the Roman Ritual ⁴. Yet from received usage Communion can easily be given before or after Mass, or even at any other time at which Mass can be celebrated, as was said above. Indeed, where there is a great influx of communicants, it is expedient to defer Communion until the Sacrifice has been completed, lest those who are present at Mass be detained in Church longer than is fitting and be affected with weariness. Communion outside Mass is very easily to be conceded to the sick, children, old persons, and all those who, because of weakness of stomach, cannot prolong the fast ⁵. Thus St. Ligorius, n. 249, with others commonly after Benedict XIV, On the Sacrifice of the Mass, sect. 2, n. 162. - Indeed because of present custom there now exists no precept of giving Communion only within Mass. - Thus Billuart, diss. 7, art. 4. - Nay rather, it must be held as certain that because of the custom which has prevailed everywhere, and which cannot be abrogated by Parish Priests, there exists no precept by force of which Communion must be distributed only within Mass. - Thus the Sacred Congregation of Rites, December 7, 1844, in Januensis.

⁴ The Roman Ritual does not treat of Communion to be ministered generally, but of Communion to be distributed by a priest celebrating Mass. And to this alone pertain those words: But the Communion of the people within Mass ought to be done immediately after the Communion of the celebrating priest (unless sometimes for a reasonable cause it is to be done after Mass), since the prayers which are said in Mass after Communion pertain not only to the priest, but also to other communicants. For otherwise the same Ritual prescribes in the prior place the manner which is to be observed outside Mass in imparting Communion.

⁵ Add also those, and these are almost all, who, pressed by domestic cares or business, unless they are dispatched as quickly as possible, would often be forced to be deprived of the sacred table.

299. • QUESTION 7. Whether Communion can be given with black vestments immediately before or after a Mass of the dead ⁶?

⁶ In the preceding edition of the year 1866 we observed that the Rev. Fr. Aloysius Marchesi, Priest of the Congregation of the Mission and Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, very recently wrote an excellent Commentary on the argument of this and of the following question; in which, after the Decrees of the Sacred Congregation which are circulated had been brought forward and weighed with equal judgment and diligence, he judged that one must conclude: It is not against the rite, in Masses of the dead with black vestments, to minister Sacred Communion to the faithful, even from preconsecrated particles, by extracting the pyx from the repository. Communion can also be ministered in black vestments immediately after a Mass of the dead; but when grave necessity is given (I would think, when otherwise the faithful would be forced to lack sacred Communion) even immediately before the same Mass; yet in each case the blessing is to be omitted. But Masses of the dead are altogether to be celebrated in black vestments, so that violet cannot be used unless in the case in which, on November 2, the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist is exposed for the public adoration of the faithful for the solemn prayer of the Forty Hours; but that the Sacred Congregation of Rites again responded to these things: Deferred.

Finally, on July 23 in the year 1868, Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX confirmed the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites issued on June 27 of the same year, by which an end is imposed on these questions. This Decree indeed we are pleased to transcribe here, and the more willingly because it also exhibits a certain history of the whole controversy. It is as follows.

After the more recent liturgical laws enacted by the Supreme Pontiffs Pius V, Clement VIII, Paul V, and Urban VIII, a grave controversy blazed up among Doctors and Rubricists: "Whether in Masses of the dead the tabernacle can be opened for refreshing the Faithful with Eucharistic bread." The Sacred Congregation of Rites, asked the first time, in one of Albenga, July 24, 1863, responded to the fourth: "It is not against the rite to minister Communion in a Requiem Mass, or after it with black vestments, the blessing being omitted, if it is administered after Mass." But the controversy not yet being composed, the Sacred Congregation of Rites from time to time gave responses in particular cases, without ever coming to a general Decree. Meanwhile, from the opinions of some Doctors, both the opinion spread that the holy Eucharist could be ministered to the faithful only with particles consecrated in the Mass for the dead, and in some places the custom prevailed of celebrating Masses of the dead in violet vestments, so that not only within Mass, but also before or after the same, satisfaction might be given to the piety of the faithful desiring to be refreshed by the sacred Eucharist. Wherefore, Bishops especially very often asking the Sacred Congregation of Rites to establish by a general Decree what must be done in this matter, the same Sacred Congregation on April 12 of the year 1823, in one of Palermo, declared that this grave question should be considered particularly and officially. This again obtained in the year 1837, in one of Modena, where to the third doubt: "Whether the custom which still endures of communicating in Masses of the dead with preconsecrated particles can be permitted, or etc.," the response was: Deferred, and let the rescript in the case of Palermo, April 12, 1823, be observed. Nevertheless, because of the circumstances of times and things, this special inquiry of this difficult business was delayed even to our age; since in the meeting gathered on September 16 of the year 1865, when there was a question concerning the use of violet color in Masses of the dead at an altar where the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is preserved, the response was given for the third time: "Deferred, and let it be proposed again together with another doubt, whether a Priest can open the ciborium for communicating the faithful with black vestments." Finally, with new prayers of sacred Prelates intervening on March 3 of the year 1866, in the Ordinary Assembly of the Sacred Congregation of Rites a Doubt was proposed, together with the opinion which another of the Consultors opened from office: "Whether a priest can open the ciborium for communicating the faithful in black vestments?" But the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinal Fathers responded: Deferred, and let another Consultor write, and also the Assessor, all things bearing on the matter being resumed; with regard especially to opportunity. These opinions having been printed and communicated, both of the Most Reverend Assessor and of another specially deputed from the Masters of Apostolic Ceremonies, the Sacred Congregation of Rites was assembled in Ordinary Meeting on this day at the Vatican; where the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Nicholas Clarelli-Paracciani, in the place and stead of the absent Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinal Constantine Patrizi, Prefect, proposed the same Doubt, and the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinal Fathers set over the protection of sacred Rites, the matter having been maturely and accurately weighed also as to opportunity, responded: Affirmatively, or that in Masses of the dead, with black vestments, Sacred Communion can be ministered to the faithful, even from preconsecrated particles, by extracting the pyx from the tabernacle. Likewise Communion can be ministered in black vestments immediately after a Mass of the dead; but when reasonable cause being given, also immediately before the same Mass; yet in each case the blessing is to be omitted. But Masses of the dead are altogether to be celebrated in black vestments, so that violet cannot be used unless in the case in which, on November 2, the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist is exposed for the public adoration of the faithful for the solemn Prayer of the Forty Hours, as was guarded in the Decree of this Sacred Congregation on September 16 of the year 1801. And thus they decreed, and commanded that it be observed everywhere, if it should please Our Most Holy Lord, on June 27, 1868.

Then, a faithful report concerning the premises having been made by me, the Secretary, to Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, His Holiness approved and confirmed the Decree of the Sacred Congregation on July 23 of the same year.

Resp. 1. It can be given after Mass if the Priest has not yet departed from the altar at which he celebrated; but then he does not give the blessing to those who communicated. - Thus from the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites confirmed by Our Most Holy Lord Pius IX, July 23, 1868.

Resp. 2. According to the same Decree, Communion can also be given before Mass if there is a reasonable cause, yet the blessing being omitted. But a reasonable cause is never lacking if there are some who then ask for Communion. For very often it happens that among those asking there are certain persons who otherwise would either depart without Communion, or, by staying longer, would necessarily undergo no light inconvenience either in domestic matters or in conducting business.

QUESTION 8. Whether Communion can be given with black vestments WITHIN a Mass OF REQUIEM?

Resp. The answer is affirmative, both if Communion is given with Hosts alone consecrated in the same Mass, and if it is given from preconsecrated ones which are preserved in the tabernacle. Thus the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites cited above.

300. • QUESTION 9. Whether Communion can be given with violet vestments, even before or after Mass?

Resp. This question could long be controverted, especially because of the Response which was reported of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in the cause of Orihuela (mistakenly in St. Alphonsus, lib. 6, n. 249, dub. 2, it is read Pritana) in the year 1670. But the aforesaid Decree of the Sacred Congregation also removed this doubt, by which it is established that in Masses of the dead violet vestments cannot be used, except in some Church on November 2, if the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is exposed for public adoration of the faithful for the solemn Prayer of the Forty Hours.

301. • QUESTION 10. How is Communion to be ministered outside Mass?

Resp. 1. If Communion is to be ministered immediately before or after Mass, one must act as in the Mass itself; but the priest, having returned to the altar, can say: O sacrum convivium, etc.; then he says: Domine exaudi, etc. - Dominus vobiscum, etc., with the Prayer for the time; finally, his fingers having been washed, and the sacred ciborium having been placed back in the tabernacle, he blesses those who communicated with the formula: The blessing of Almighty God, Father, etc., as in the Roman Ritual.

Resp. 2. If it is to be distributed at another time: 1. according to the Roman Ritual, two candles are to be lit. Yet if time presses and two candles cannot easily be lit, one will suffice. 2. The Priest, his hands washed, vested in surplice and stole of the color fitting the Office of that day, ministers, as above, and, having returned to the altar, proceeds with the rest, as above; then he gives the blessing with the right hand, but not with the pyx, except over the sick. But the versicles Domine exaudi, etc., Dominus vobiscum, etc., with the proper Prayer, are of precept. Sacred Congregation of Rites, September 24, 1842. - But prayers of this sort seem to have to be said in a voice at least moderately raised, since response is to be made to them by the minister.

302. • QUESTION 11. What must be done if a minister is lacking for the Priest: can a man about to communicate, or a woman, supply?

Resp. 1. Certainly any person about to communicate, if he is a man, can serve the Priest; or even the Priest himself can supply, by saying the Confiteor and responding Amen.

Resp. 2. A woman cannot supply, unless she is a Nun, who according to received custom answers within the cloister; then therefore the Priest himself must perform all things. Nor may you say that in necessity a woman can answer Mass, provided she stands at a distance; for in Mass the Priest alone could not answer all things. - Thus commonly. - Bouvier, On the Eucharist, c. 4, art. 2. - Gousset, n. 212.

QUESTION 12. Whether several particles, or one larger particle for the sake of devotion, etc., can be given to one communicant?

Resp. No. For this was expressly prohibited by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, approved by Innocent XI on February 12, 1679. But the words of the Decree, in Benedict XIV, are these: Let Bishops, Parish Priests, or Confessors admonish that several Eucharistic forms or particles are not to be given to anyone, nor larger ones, but the customary ones.

303. • QUESTION 13. Whether particles can be broken if they are lacking; and what must be done if some remain over, and there is no tabernacle in which they may be placed?

Resp. to the first: The answer is affirmative from the common opinion and general practice, provided that a just cause is present, for example if another Mass is lacking or the faithful cannot wait. Indeed, when it had been requested from the Sacred Congregation of Rites whether the Rule of the Parisian Ritual expressed thus can be followed entirely: If, when Communion is to be given, a sufficient number of Hosts has not been found, some Hosts can be divided into several particles which are distributed to individuals, the Sacred Congregation responded: Let the custom be observed of dividing consecrated ones, if necessity is present. March 16, 1833, in Veronensis. Nevertheless the Priest must then divide the Hosts only into two or at most three parts, because otherwise Communion could scarcely be given with due reverence. - Lacroix, n. 508.

Resp. to the second: They are to be consumed by the celebrant before the ablutions, if this can easily be done. Otherwise they would have to be carried to the nearest tabernacle with the customary rite; nor is it to be committed that several Hosts be ministered to the faithful. - See below, n. 315.

QUESTION 14. Whether, when smaller Hosts are lacking, a Priest can take away a part of the larger Host to be consumed by himself, in order to communicate the faithful?

Resp. 1. The answer is affirmative in the case of Viaticum to be carried to one dying, by reason of urgent necessity. - Thus all. - 2. The answer is affirmative also if there would be one or another faithful person about to communicate who otherwise would have to wait for Communion not without inconvenience. - Thus commonly with St. Ligorius, n. 217.

— I. At What Time. 1. On what day. Except Friday in Parasceve, on which only Viaticum may be carried to the sick, on all days it is lawful in the Latin Church to distribute the Most Holy Eucharist. On Holy Saturday, however, "Holy Communion cannot be ministered to the faithful except during the solemnities of Masses, or continuously and immediately after they have been completed" (c. 867, §§1-3).

The Viaticum which alone it is lawful to distribute on Friday of the Greater Week must be understood as prescribed Viaticum, or that which is received for the first time in danger of death, for example, by a priest who had celebrated the sacred function healthy and then was brought into danger of life; but not that which, while the danger continues, is laudably repeated. On Holy Saturday, because it is an aliturgical day, only that Communion is permitted which is joined with Mass by a continuous connection. Moreover, Communion seems sufficiently joined with the solemnities when, immediately after the sacred action, from the very altar where it was celebrated, it is carried to the sick enclosed under the same roof. Nor is the prohibition of other Communion so grave that a cause would not excuse from it such as, not so long ago before the Code, the Sacred Congregation of Rites itself approved. For it declared it lawful that, for men who had completed spiritual exercises and could not wait for the solemnities of Masses, Communion be dispensed on Holy Saturday quite early in the morning (Ferreres, La Communion frecuente y diaria, nn. 176-177).

2. At what hour. "Holy Communion is to be distributed only at those hours at which the sacrifice of Mass can be offered, unless another reasonable cause counsels otherwise" (c. 867, §4).

The canon, in this favorable matter of Holy Communion, can be understood in such a way that the privilege of anticipating Mass is extended to Communion. And such is the style of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments. Moreover, a reasonable cause permits an exception, so that he who has remained fasting for a long time, even after midday, in order to receive it, should never be deprived of the sacred banquet. When the function of Thursday in the Supper of the Lord has been celebrated, Masses can no longer be said in the same church; in reality, from that hour the faculty of distributing Holy Communion there also seems to cease, especially since the sacred species must be removed. Yet a reasonable cause also suffices for derogating from this rule.

"Holy Viaticum can be ministered at any hour of the day or night" (c. 867, §5).

By this canon the prohibition of the Ritual, t. 4, c. 10, by which, except in necessity, nocturnal carrying of the Eucharist was prohibited, is removed. Since secret carrying is rather easily permitted, the very reason for the prohibition now no longer seems to subsist.

— II. In What Place. Wherever Mass can be celebrated, there also Holy Communion can be distributed, even in a private oratory, "unless the local Ordinary, for just causes, in particular cases, has prohibited this" (c. 869).

The power of the Ordinary to forbid dispensation of the Holy Eucharist is circumscribed by private oratory; nor would it be lawful for a bishop to prohibit Communion in private oratories by a general statute; but it is necessary that particular causes counsel that this be done in a particular case. Not even paschal Communion in itself is prohibited from being made in a private oratory, with the notification to be given to one's own pastor from c. 859, §3 being preserved.

— III. By What Rite. 1. A priest must always minister Holy Communion by his own rite, even to faithful of another rite. Yet, in urgent necessity, if a priest of a different rite is lacking, it is lawful for an Eastern priest who uses leavened bread to minister the Eucharist in unleavened bread, and conversely, for a Latin or an Eastern priest who uses unleavened bread, to minister in leavened bread; but each must preserve his own rite of ministering (c. 851, §2).

Observe that the faculty is made not of consecrating a different species, but merely of ministering it. But necessity is not circumscribed by Viaticum. Therefore it will be had whenever a faithful person would be morally impeded from Communion on that day unless a priest ministered to him a species of a different rite. Suppose that in a place there is one church, which preserves leavened species. In the absence of a priest of the Eastern rite, a Latin priest will be able, by his own rite, to offer from the ciborium the leavened species to those who otherwise could not communicate. Yet he will not be able to do this if he has the opportunity of consecrating matter of his own rite.

2. In the Latin Church, dispensation under the species of wine is prohibited (c. 852), even, as they commonly understand, if the necessity of Viaticum cannot otherwise be provided for. Yet Cappello, I, n. 451, thinks that the divine precept of receiving Viaticum can be preferred to the ecclesiastical law, if no inconveniences are foreseen.

3. The communicant: a) is permitted to consult his own devotion, so that, for the sake of piety, he can receive a sacrament confected in another rite; b) is counseled to receive paschal Communion in his own rite; c) but the dying person must receive Viaticum in his own rite; yet, when necessity urges, he can receive it in any rite (c. 866). But the minister must follow his own rite in ministering.

— 4. In dispensing the Eucharist, the sacred minister, and in receiving it the faithful communicant, must exhibit to the most august sacrament the reverence which reason and the canons require, so that it is better to abstain from ministering the sacrament than to admit positive irreverence.

Therefore:

a) Within Mass it is not lawful for the celebrant to distribute the Eucharist to faithful so distant that he himself loses sight of the altar (c. 868).

Places so distant can be had even in a great basilica. Yet we saw the moderation admitted in hospitals at n. 321, 3;

b) He must put on sacred vestments and use a light. The omission of light is judged venial; nor is the omission of the stole alone or of the surplice alone thought grave, but certainly the omission of every sacred vestment is, unless necessity urges. But what must in itself be observed in secret carrying, we saw above, n. 387, d). Yet these rules do not oblige under mortal sin. Thus it is also reputed venial to omit sacred vestments and a light in carrying the Most Holy from one altar to another.

Outside Mass the color of the stole can be that of the day or white;

c) He must proceed with a moderate step. Scandal being set aside, however, several permit that the priest run. From necessity it is lawful to use a gentle horse, or a carriage, even an automobile. It does not seem becoming, unless it is excused by the necessity of Viaticum, that the priest use the instrument commonly called a bicycle or motorcycle. The Sacred Congregation, when asked about this matter, abstained from an absolute prohibition, but warned that this manner was unusual. Here attention must be paid to episcopal statutes;

d) The Most Holy Eucharist is to be carried publicly with head uncovered. Dispensation outside cities was permitted to bishops; within a city it is reserved to the Holy See. Yet in a case of true necessity, by epikeia, they allowed that the priest cover his head, unless he could provide in a better way. But the better way now is secret carrying;

e) Holy Communion is to be given by one's own hand, and indeed by thumb and index finger. To use other fingers seems venial; from which the reason of not depriving the dying person or several healthy persons, why not one?, of Holy Communion will excuse. Yet if another priest is present, let him distribute Communion with thumb and index finger rather than another with other fingers.

And if the sick person cannot receive or swallow the host otherwise, they permit that, not too frequently, a particle of the host be offered to him in a spoon, with wine or water, provided scandal and danger of falling to the ground are absent. Something similar can be done to avoid danger of contagion;

f) Neither a larger host nor several smaller ones at once can be handed to one communicant: to do this would be venial. But lest one or another wait long, part of the host of the sacrifice can be detached; larger hosts can be consecrated and distributed divided into smaller parts. Where there is need, the smaller hosts themselves can be divided into two, at most three, parts;

g) A minister is required under light obligation. If he is lacking, the priest can do all things by himself. Except for the responses, a woman cannot supply the minister; nor is it the custom that in church a woman recite the Confiteor. Yet a nun or sister in the cloister or in the room of the sick person is accustomed to recite the prayers;

h) The Confiteor with absolution is required under light obligation. The blessing at the end is also prescribed, unless you are clothed in black paraments. The other prayers of the Ritual also now seem to be prescribed. Cf. Ritual, 1913, and Cappello, I, n. 453;

i) A burse of a color similar to the stole is to be used, with a corporal: a pall does not suffice;

j) Communion cannot be ministered at an altar where the Most Holy Sacrament is exposed. Wherefore, where there is only one altar, it will be better for a few moments to cover the Most Holy Sacrament with a veil, as is done while a sermon is held.

But it is tolerated that a priest clothed in vestments for Mass, when there is no easy supply of another priest, distribute Communion at another altar than that at which he has celebrated or is about to celebrate;

k) In itself, unless for a special cause the Ordinary has forbidden it in a domestic oratory, Communion can be distributed where it is lawful to celebrate (c. 869; cf. n. 421). And from there the Most Holy Eucharist can also be carried by any celebrant for "devotional" Communion to the sick who are lying in a room of a hospital or house;

l) As we have already said above, n. 401, various signs of honor are not strictly prescribed, but nevertheless are piously to be observed, such as laying aside weapons, gloves, etc.

— Concerning Defects. The rubrics of the Missal, ch. De defectibus in the Missal itself, are to be approached if something extraordinary happens. We shall note only these things.

If the species of bread has fallen, the host with the fragments being reverently collected, the place is to be marked, afterward to be washed with water to be poured into the sacrarium. St. Alphonsus, l. 6, n. 250, thinks the washing is required under grave obligation if the place is trodden by feet. Yet if it is morally established that nothing of consecrated matter remains there, we judge this to have been said too severely. And a washing which would move wonder is to be omitted, as in the beard of a man. If some host has fallen into the lap of a woman, let her herself draw it out separately and reverently and restore it to the priest.

But if a drop of blood has fallen, let it be absorbed, if it can be done, and the linen is to be washed three times. But if it has penetrated all the way to stone or wood, these things must be scraped somewhat, the scrapings burned, and the place washed three times. At least some washing, to be poured into the sacrarium, must be done under grave obligation.

— 1. Viaticum can be given on every day; Holy Communion on days other than Friday in Parasceve; on Holy Saturday only during the solemnities of Masses or continuously and immediately after they have been completed.

2. At the same hours at which Mass is offered, Holy Communion can be dispensed; but a reasonable cause permits an exception.

3. Where Mass is celebrated, Communion can be given. Yet the local Ordinary can prohibit this in a private oratory, in particular cases.

4. The Most Holy Eucharist is to be dispensed by one's own rite. Yet in urgent necessity a priest will be able to take a species of another rite already consecrated and offer it, by his own rite, to one about to communicate. Except for Viaticum, one can receive Communion of another rite.

5. Reverence in ministering is to be provided for, and therefore the rules must be observed concerning distance from the altar for the celebrant, vestments, light, movement, uncovered head, use of one's own hand, form of the host, the minister, the prayers of the Ritual, etc. And in the Missal itself the rubrics De defectibus explain what is to be done in an extraordinary case.

219. a) Due jurisdiction. Since the Eucharist is the spiritual food of the soul, while feeding the flock of Christ is the proper office of pastors, only those to whom the care of souls has been entrusted can distribute Holy Communion. Therefore, to distribute Communion is a parochial right. Thus at least according to the old law, which, however, has been somewhat diminished in the course of time. According to the discipline now in force, the following have been established:

α) Any priest can administer Holy Communion within Mass and also (if he celebrates privately) immediately before and immediately after it; and this even in a private oratory, unless the local Ordinary, for just causes, has prohibited it in particular cases.²⁰⁸ Therefore, even those who do not satisfy the precept of hearing Sunday Mass in a private oratory can receive Holy Communion there for the sake of devotion.

β) To carry Holy Communion by way of Viaticum, whether publicly or privately, to the sick belongs to the pastor²⁰⁹ and his delegate. There are, however, three exceptions: 1. In a case of necessity, when the pastor is lacking, those things hold which were said above in n. 217 concerning the extraordinary minister of distributing the Eucharist. 2. The right and duty of administering Viaticum to the diocesan bishop belongs to the dignitaries and canons of the chapter.²¹⁰ 3. In every clerical religious institute, superiors have the right and duty, either personally or through another, of administering Viaticum (and Extreme Unction), not only to sick professed religious, but also to novices and others remaining day and night in the religious house for the sake of service, education, hospitality, or ill health.²¹¹ In a house of nuns, the ordinary confessor or the one who takes his place has the same right and duty.²¹² In another, lay religious institute, this right and duty pertains to the pastor of the place or to a chaplain whom the Ordinary has substituted for the pastor.²¹³ To carry Communion privately to the sick for the sake of devotion is not a parochial right, and therefore any priest can do it.²¹⁴ The matter is otherwise with public carrying, which belongs to the pastor in his own parish.²¹⁵

²⁰⁸ Code of Canon Law, cc. 846 and 869.

²⁰⁹ Ibid., c. 850.

²¹⁰ Ibid., c. 397, n. 3.

²¹¹ Code of Canon Law, c. 514, § 1. Cf. Pontifical Commission, June 16, 1931 (Acta Ap. Sed. XXIII, 353).

²¹² Code of Canon Law, c. 514, § 2.

²¹³ Ibid., § 3.

²¹⁴ Ibid., c. 849, § 1.

²¹⁵ Ibid., c. 462, n. 2, and c. 848, § 1.

223. d) The due rite is to be observed in the administration of the Eucharist, as the Roman Ritual or another approved Ritual prescribes.²²³ According to the present discipline in force in the Latin Church, the principal statutes are these:

1. It is a grave sin of irreverence to distribute or carry the Eucharist in churches or oratories without any sacred vestment, unless necessity excuses. The sacred vestments to be worn are the surplice and stole,²²⁴ unless Communion is given at Mass or immediately before or after it, in which case Communion is administered in the vestments worn for Mass. Two candles are to be lighted, and the prayers before and after the distribution are to be said. St. Alphonsus thinks that this precept obliges only under venial sin.²²⁵ The prayers to be said after Communion has been distributed (outside Mass) are: the antiphon "O sacrum convivium" and the versicles "Panem de caelo," etc.; and the prayer with the longer conclusion. During Easter time, "Alleluia" is added, and a special prayer is said, likewise with the longer conclusion.²²⁶ When Communion has been given in black vestments, neither is "Alleluia" added to the prayers, nor is a blessing given.

2. The priest must administer the Eucharist with the thumb and index finger of the right hand. But Lehmkuhl rightly says:²²⁷ "If [the priest] has those fingers impeded, it is better to use others than to deprive the people or individual dying persons of Holy Communion." For although only the first fingers are anointed, nevertheless the whole hand is consecrated. St. Alphonsus²²⁸ maintains a more severe opinion in this matter, saying: "If someone had a thumb so infirm that he could not break the host with it, he could not indeed celebrate.... The general rule is: that which is an impediment to receiving an order impedes the exercise of the order after its reception." This rule seems too harsh, for the Church more readily bars someone from receiving an order than from exercising an order rightly received. Therefore, the first opinion seems safe in practice, provided that external decorum is preserved and scandal is avoided. If, however, these fingers suffer from a lasting disease, then permission to celebrate Mass is to be sought from the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

3. In the Latin rite it is not lawful to give the Eucharist to a layman under the species of wine,²²⁹ not even in the necessity of receiving Viaticum. Thus the common opinion.²³⁰ For the rest, such a necessity can almost never occur; for a sick person who can swallow wine can also take water in which a particle of a consecrated host has been immersed. In necessity it is lawful to give the host in this manner.²³¹

4. All the faithful, even for the sake of devotion, can receive Communion in a rite other than their own. When a priest of their own rite is lacking in a case of necessity, an Eastern priest can distribute to the faithful the Eucharist confected in unleavened bread, and conversely it is lawful for a Latin priest to give the Eucharist confected in leavened bread. "But each one shall preserve his own rite of ministering."²³²

5. It is not lawful to give laypersons a larger host, such as the priest employs at Mass, or even several small hosts. Thus Innocent XI established,²³³ who nevertheless prohibited this lest anyone foster a false devotion by thinking that he obtains greater graces if he consumes a larger host or several hosts. Hence nothing seems to prevent several hosts from being given to a lay communicant for a reasonable cause (for example, if the celebrating priest cannot consume all the particles which remain).²³⁴ For a reasonable cause it is lawful to divide small hosts into two or three parts, provided, however, that the parts thus divided are not too small; likewise, for a reasonable cause a celebrating priest can give to some communicant a particle of the larger host consecrated by him at Mass.

6. If in the distribution of Holy Communion any species has fallen to the ground, that place is to be covered and afterward washed. But the water of ablution is to be poured into the sacrarium. This law, however, does not bind under grave sin.²³⁵ Hence, for example, if a consecrated host has fallen into a man's beard, that beard is by no means to be washed and the water of ablution poured into the sacrarium. But when a host has fallen into a woman's garments and cannot easily and without scandal be extracted thence by the priest, the woman is to be led into the sacristy, so that she herself may seek the sacred species and give it to the priest. The woman must then wash the hand with which she touched the host. If someone vomits the host and cannot consume it again, the host is to be placed in a vessel of water in the tabernacle. But when the host has dissolved, the water is to be poured into the sacrarium. If a drop of consecrated Blood has fallen, those things prescribed in the Missal are to be observed.²³⁶

²²³ For the rites used in the ancient Church, see Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, s.v. "Kommunion."

²²⁴ The color of this stole can always be white; it can, however, also conform to the color of the Office of that day. Sacred Congregation of Rites, March 12, 1836 (Decr. auth., n. 2740 ad XII). On the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, let the color be white or violet. Sacred Congregation of Rites, April 19, 1912, ad X.

²²⁵ Theol. mor., l. 6, n. 241.

²²⁶ Thus from the Roman Ritual, tit. 4, c. 2 (typical edition). Therefore, the ancient custom seems to have been changed, and the response of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, August 30, 1892, ad 10 (Decr. auth., n. 3792), is to be interpreted according to the new text of the Ritual.

²²⁷ Theol. mor. II, n. 187.

²²⁸ Loc. cit., n. 244.

²²⁹ Code of Canon Law, c. 852.

²³⁰ St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor., l. 6, n. 245.

²³¹ Cf. ibid., n. 244.

²³² Cf. above, n. 214.

²³³ Decree Cum ad aures, February 12, 1679.

²³⁴ Cf. Benedict XIV, De sacrif. Miss., l. 3, c. 20, n. 1; Noldin, De sacr., n. 130.

²³⁵ Cf. St. Alphonsus, loc. cit., n. 250.

²³⁶ De defect. Missae, tit. 10, nn. 12 ff.

1539. The prescribed order regards both the due place, and the time, and the rite; concerning this, these things are to be held:

I. With respect to place. The Most Holy Eucharist can be dispensed to the faithful in all churches or public oratories, but not in private oratories, unless by express permission of the Ordinary.¹⁴ It can also be dispensed in a private house, if a sick person is to be communicated.

1540. II. With respect to time. The dispensation of the Most Holy Eucharist is permitted: 1. on any day whatever, except in time of local Interdict (cf. n. 1308, 2), and, unless Viaticum is in question, in the time from the reposition of the Most Holy Sacrament on Thursday of Greater Week until the end of the solemn Mass on Holy Saturday;¹⁵ and also within this Mass, where custom flourishes. Thus S. R. C., September 23, 1837, in Brundusina.¹⁶

2. It is permitted at any hour of the day; but it is not permitted when it has now begun to grow dark or become much evening, unless a just cause is present. But at an untimely hour of night, that is, when many hours of the night have already elapsed, it is never licit, unless Viaticum must be carried in necessity.¹⁷ Yet in Communities where the Most Holy Eucharist is reserved in the domestic chapel, it can be ministered even during the time of night, when a just cause is present, for example if some sick person cannot prolong the fast.

It is asked: Whether it is licit to dispense Communion in the Mass of the Nativity of the Lord which is celebrated AT MIDNIGHT?

Resp. Negatively, unless from special privilege.¹⁸ This was conceded to some Bishops of France under this law, that no danger of scandal be present.¹⁹

1541. III. With respect to rite: 1. Communion, as far as can be done, is to be offered within Mass, namely after the Communion of the celebrant himself. The Roman Ritual brings forward the reason for this matter, saying: "since the prayers which are said after Communion look not only to the priest, but also to the others communicating."²⁰ Moreover, from a reasonable cause, it is to be offered also outside Mass, for example if those about to receive Holy Communion cannot conveniently wait, or if many are to communicate, lest those who do not communicate be affected by weariness. And in many places the usage has already prevailed of ministering Communion indifferently either within or outside Mass.²¹

2. A priest about to minister the Most Holy Eucharist should be vested in sacred vestments, namely outside Mass in surplice, or alb, and stole of a color suitable to the Office of that day; a deacon, if he ministers, should wear this transversely. Let candles burn, let the general confession be premised, and let the accustomed prayers be said, as is prescribed in the Ritual.

On these matters let it be noted: 1. If necessity demands it, Communion can be given by a priest vested in Mass vestments, who has celebrated or is about to celebrate Mass at another altar. Thus S. R. C., March 12, 1836, in Trident.²²

2. In offering sacred Communion, the priest must use only the thumb and index finger; for, although the whole hand is consecrated, nevertheless the thumb and index finger alone, from the rite of the Church, are deputed for this ministry. Yet authors commonly except a case of extreme or most grave necessity²³ (cf. n. 1544, q. 3 and 4).

3. If a minister serving the priest is lacking, the one about to communicate himself, if he is a man, can respond; but a woman indeed cannot do this, unless she is a nun within the cloister. Therefore let the priest supply, saying the Confiteor, responding Amen, etc.

4. In the Communion of Nuns, Misereatur, Ecce Agnus, etc., are to be said facing the Nuns, not facing the people. But the priest ought to descend and return by the front steps of the altar, not by the side steps.²⁴ The practice received among Nuns of making the renewal of vows immediately before Communion is licit. S. R. C., September 12, 1857, in Taurinen.²⁵

5. Communion is first to be ministered to the serving ministers, not by reason of preeminence, but of ministry (S. R. C., July 13, 1658).²⁶

6. "According to the present discipline it is never licit, without dispensation of the Pontiff, even for furnishing Viaticum, to administer the Eucharist under each species, or in the species of wine alone; for the precept of Viaticum does not oblige when it cannot be received according to the rite of the Church."²⁷ It is similarly prohibited TO GIVE the one communicating several particles or one larger one: from Decree of the S. C. C., February 12, 1679.²⁸

7. Communion having been given outside Mass, "the priest, having returned to the altar, will be able to say: O sacrum convivium, etc.; soon he says: Domine exaudi, etc.; Dominus vobiscum, etc."; then the Prayer Deus qui nobis, etc., with the whole conclusion. In Paschal time the prayer Spiritum nobis, etc., is said with the shorter conclusion. After these things, the fingers having been washed, and the sacred Ciborium having been replaced in the tabernacle, let him bless with the hand, not with the pyx, unless after Viaticum, those who have communicated, with the formula: Benedictio Dei omnipotentis Patris, etc. Thus from the Roman Ritual, and from the Response of the S. R. C., September 24, 1842.²⁹

1542. Questions. Q. 1. What sin is it to OMIT the ceremonies prescribed in ministering Communion?

Resp. "To minister the Eucharist without light and the usual confession is commonly reputed only venial. But to minister without stole and surplice, authors commonly judge to be mortal from its kind; yet, only the stole having been omitted, it seems to several to be only venial. But to carry the Eucharist to another altar without sacred vestments, they commonly say, does not exceed venial sin."³⁰

Q. 2. Whether Holy Communion can be given WITH BLACK VESTMENTS or in Masses of the dead?

Resp. There was formerly a great controversy concerning this matter; but at present the case is finished; for on June 27, 1868, a general Decree was issued by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and confirmed by Pius IX on July 23, by which it was declared: "That in Masses of the dead, with black vestments, sacred Communion can be ministered to the faithful, even from preconsecrated particles, by drawing the pyx from the tabernacle. Likewise, Communion can be ministered in black vestments immediately after a Mass of the dead; and, a reasonable cause having been given, immediately also before the same Mass; yet in each case the blessing is to be omitted. But Masses of the dead are altogether to be celebrated in black vestments; so that violet ones cannot be employed, except in the case in which, on November 2, the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist is publicly exposed to the adoration of the faithful for the solemn Prayer of Forty Hours, as was provided in the Decree of this Sacred Congregation on September 16, 1801."³¹

Q. 3. What is to be done if SACRED PARTICLES for the Communion of the people are not found in sufficient number?

Resp. Let the custom be observed of dividing consecrated particles into smaller parts;³² yet not so small that they cannot be given honorably.³³

Q. 4. What is to be done in the case in which a host FALLS?

Resp. "First the place is to be covered, and afterwards washed, as the Rubrics prescribe; yet these do not oblige under grave obligation, and thus ordinarily the washing of a garment or beard can be omitted, to avoid disturbance of the people. But the place where the species of wine fall must always be washed, since they are imbibed, even if there is no need to burn them. If the host falls upon the breasts of a woman, the priest himself must not remove it, but the woman herself should draw it away with the hand and replace it in the ciborium."³⁴ Likewise, if it falls within the cloister of Nuns. But the fingers of the woman should be washed, and the ablution thrown into the sacrarium. If the woman cannot easily take the host there, let her withdraw separately, for example into some chapel, or into the sacristy, etc.³⁵

Q. 5. What is to be done if FRAGMENTS of hosts are found?

Resp. The Rubric of the Missal responds to this question in this manner: "If he notices after the consumption of the Body and Blood, or even after the ablution, that some consecrated relics have been left, let him consume them, whether they are small or large, because they pertain to the same Sacrifice." And this not only immediately after Mass, as is common, but also if the priest is in the sacristy, yet still clothed in the sacred vestments. It was said, still clothed; for if the priest has now taken off the sacred vestments, then the relics either are to be replaced in the tabernacle, if it is present, or are to be reserved for another priest about to celebrate on the same morning; otherwise, they are to be consumed by the same one who celebrated.¹

But if those fragments are relics of another Sacrifice, it is not licit to consume them, unless danger of irreverence is present; because the Rubric permits a priest who is not fasting only to consume relics which pertain to the same Sacrifice, since they complete it.²

Q. 6. What if an entire PARTICLE is found?

Resp. "But if an entire consecrated host has been left, he [the priest] should replace it in the tabernacle with the others; if this cannot be done, he should leave it, decently covered on the altar upon the corporal, for the following priest about to celebrate there, to be consumed together with the other which he is about to consecrate; or if neither of these things can be done, he should preserve it decently in the chalice itself or on the paten, until either it is replaced in the tabernacle, or consumed by another; but if he has no way in which it can be preserved honorably, he himself can consume it."³ Particles found outside the corporal, in doubt whether they are consecrated, are to be consumed after the ablution, and better with the same ablution.⁴

Note. If a layman finds a particle or fragment of a host, let him warn a priest as soon as possible, who will act according to the things said above. But if a priest cannot be had, let the fragment be reverently collected by the layman himself in paper or a clean linen cloth, by means of a small pin, and be placed within a corporal or in a decent vessel, until a priest arrives.⁵

1543. From the ROMAN RITUAL we note the following:

1. With respect to the obligation of ministering. "1. Viaticum of the most sacred Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ is to be procured for the sick at the opportune time with the highest zeal and diligence, lest perhaps it happen that they die deprived of so great a good by the negligence of the pastor... 2. Let the pastor exhort the sick person that he receive Holy Communion, even if he is not gravely sick, or danger of death is not imminent, especially if the solemnity of some feast suggests this, nor will he himself refuse to minister it... 3. But he will minister it as Viaticum when it is probable that he will not be able to receive it any more... 4. But let it not be carried to someone only for adoration, or for showing it, under the pretext of devotion or of any matter." Thus the Ritual.

2. With respect to the manner of carrying it. Let the pastor warn beforehand that in the room of the sick person all things be rightly arranged according to the prescriptions of the Ritual. Let lights be prepared, and a small vessel with water, with which the fingers are to be washed. Besides, let a clean linen cloth be placed before the breast of the one communicating, and other things for the adornment of the place, according to the ability of each.

Moreover, the Most Holy Eucharist is to be carried from the church to the private houses of the sick, in decent habit, with a clean veil laid over it, manifestly and honorably before the breast, with all reverence and fear, always with a light preceding. But the priest, clothed in surplice and stole of white color, and having first placed a decent oblong veil from each shoulder, should take the vessel with the Sacrament with both hands, and then go beneath the baldachin or umbrella, if it can be had, and proceed with uncovered head. Going, he says the Miserere, and other Psalms and Canticles; returning, Laudate Dominum de coelis, and other Psalms and Hymns; but these are only by way of counsel.

3. With respect to the rite of ministering. Let the prayers be recited, and let the rest be observed, as is prescribed in the Roman Ritual. According to the diversity of circumstances, let the return be solemn or private.

1544. Questions. Q. 1. Whether sometimes the Eucharist can be carried SECRETLY to the sick?

Resp. With the license of the Bishop this is licit in places of heretics, and also of Catholics, if it cannot be carried otherwise without proximate danger of irreverence.⁶ Concerning the manner of carrying the Eucharist secretly, these things are had in the Supplement to the Roman Ritual: "Where the force and wickedness of the Turks prevails, let the priest always have the stole covered by his own garments; let him hide the pyx in a small sack or burse, which, hung from his neck by little cords, he should place in his bosom; and let him never proceed alone, but let him be accompanied by at least one faithful person, in defect of a cleric." - From the Constitution of Benedict XIV, Inter omnigenas, § 25.

Q. 2. Whether it is licit for a priest carrying the Eucharist, in a case of NECESSITY, to run, ride, or proceed with covered head?

Resp. 1. To run in necessity probably is not against the reverence due; whence, when necessity urges, it will be licit.⁷ 2. It is licit to ride on a gentle horse, so that there is no danger of falling, if indeed a longer or more difficult journey must be undertaken; but it is never licit to give the pyx to be carried to a layman, however tired the priest may be, in which case the burse should rather be suspended from the neck.⁸ 3. It is licit sometimes, from Apostolic Indult, to go with covered head, nor is this conceded with great difficulty, on account of weather or infirmity; wherefore, when necessity urges, it could even be presumed. The Bishop can also probably dispense that Viaticum be carried with a hat on the head, when one must proceed for a long time through villas and villages.⁹

Q. 3. Whether it is licit, in a case of necessity, to minister Viaticum without LIGHT and SACRED VESTMENTS?

Resp. Affirmatively, according to the more common and sufficiently probable opinion. "The reason is that it is not reasonably presumed that Christ, who instituted this Sacrament for the help of souls, and the Church, which is a kindly mother, wished the dying to be deprived of so great a good, lest the prescribed ceremonies be omitted."¹⁰

Q. 4. Whether it is licit, in time of plague, to offer the Eucharist with some INSTRUMENT?

Resp. Affirmatively and probably, for example with the particle placed in a spoon, as far as can be done, of silver, with wine or water; for necessity seems a sufficient cause why it is licit to depart from the usual rite of the Church. And similarly it can be offered with a spoon to a sick person who, because of dryness of mouth, would be unable to swallow the host.¹¹

Q. 5. Whether a priest ministering Viaticum can sometimes omit those words prescribed in the Ritual, RECEIVE VIATICUM, etc., substituting the common formula: THE BODY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, etc.?

Resp. Affirmatively and probably, in the case in which the sick person is judged likely to receive Viaticum with great sadness of soul; for the precept of pronouncing those words induces only a light obligation, from which any just cause well excuses, such as excessive disturbance of the sick person.¹²

Q. 6. What is to be done if the sick person VOMITS the host received?

Resp. If the sacred species appear, they must be carefully collected in a clean vessel, carried to the church, and kept in a safe and well-closed place, until they are altogether corrupted, so that they can be cast into the sacrarium without irreverence. - If they cannot be discerned, as being altogether mixed with filth, the mouth of the sick person is indeed to be wiped; but whatever was rejected should be collected with tow; then, the tow having been burned, the ashes are to be cast into the sacrarium.¹³

1291. Principles. - I. Besides jurisdiction (cf. n. 1287. IV.), it is required that the Minister be free from every excommunication, interdict, and suspension from Sacred Orders; for otherwise he would sin gravely and contract irregularity.

II. It is required that the Minister be in the state of grace, because the most august and most holy Body of Christ ought not to be handled by impure hands. Hence the priest sins as often as, guilty of mortal sin and not contrite, he distributes Communion, although probably he does not commit as many sins as there are persons communicating in the same distribution of the Eucharist.¹ - Cf. n. 219.

III. It is required that the Minister distribute the Eucharist according to the rite customary in the Church. Hence, generally speaking, the administration of this Sacrament is to be omitted when it cannot be done in the manner prescribed by the Roman Ritual or by the custom of the place.²

1292. Resolves. - 1° The Eucharist is not to be ministered except with decent habit, that is, with stole, surplice, and light.

2° According to the common sentence, he sins gravely who, outside the case of necessity, distributes Communion without any sacred vestment; because this is very indecent and contrary to a grave precept of the Church.³ - If, however, only the stole is omitted, it seems to several and grave Theologians to be only venial, which seems sufficiently probable.⁴

3° It is reputed only venial to minister the Eucharist without light, or without the usual confession premised, the Confiteor, etc.⁵ - Similarly it is held only venial to transfer the Eucharist without sacred vestments from place to place, e.g. from one altar to another. - Reuter,⁶ Mazzotta.

1293. Questions. - Query 1° Can a priest laboring under an infirmity in the thumb and forefinger minister the Eucharist with other fingers?⁷

Resp. It seems one must deny, at least more probably, excluding the case of gravest necessity.⁷ - The reason is because, although the whole hand is consecrated, nevertheless the forefinger and thumb from the rite of the Church are specially destined for exercising this office.

Query 2° What must be done if the Host falls to the ground?

Resp. The place onto which the holy Host fell is immediately to be covered with some clean thing, and afterwards washed. If it falls onto the cloth, or small linen, with which the hands of the communicant are covered, the place is to be marked and afterwards washed in like manner. Thus the Rubric, which nevertheless, according to the common sentence, does not oblige under grave sin; nevertheless it would oblige gravely to wash the place onto which the sacred species of wine had fallen, since this is absorbed; yet there is no need to burn them, i.e. the object onto which they fell.¹

Query 3° What must be done if the Host falls onto the face, beard, or garments of the communicant?

Resp. In the aforesaid cases purification is to be omitted; because it is better to avoid wonder, disturbance, or offense of the people, than to observe the Rubric, which obliges only under light sin.²

Query 4° What must be done if the Host falls into the bosom or within the garments of a woman?

Resp. The woman herself must draw out the Host, and she herself must bring it to her mouth with her own hands. Thus Benedict XIV.³ But the fingers of the woman are to be washed, and the ablution is to be cast into the piscina. If the woman cannot easily draw out the Host there, let her withdraw apart, e.g. into some chapel, or into the sacristy, etc.

1294. Query 5° At what hour can Communion be distributed?

Resp. Regularly it ought to be ministered at the hours at which Mass, whether from custom or from a particular Indult, may be celebrated. But commonly with St. Alphonsus it is taught that it can be ministered at any hour of the day, except nevertheless the extreme part of the day, i.e. toward night. The reason is because there exists no prohibition concerning this matter.⁴ Nor does there stand in the way the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites given in Dec. 1816, permitting the administration of Communion from time to time at which Masses are celebrated in any church on a day of great concourse. For that Decree is not exclusive, since the Sacred Congregation gave the response according to the petition, in which there was question precisely of a day of great concourse for gaining a plenary Indulgence or Jubilee.

It must be added here that, from a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of the year 1641, Communion is not to be given (unless by force of privilege) in the Mass of the Nativity of the Lord, which is celebrated at midnight. At St. Alphonsus,⁵ and at Gardellini n. 1319.

Query 6° At what time and place can Communion not be given?

Resp. to the 1st. In the time of local interdict, and in the time from the reposition of the Most Holy Sacrament on Thursday of the Greater Week until the solemn Mass on Holy Saturday, within which, as today is certain, all the faithful are permitted to receive the Sacred Eucharist.¹

Resp. to the 2nd. Outside Churches or public oratories. But in private ones it can be given by license of the Bishop,² and, among us, wherever Mass is celebrated.

But at the altar on which the Most Holy Sacrament is exposed, it is not to be distributed (S. R. C. 12 Nov. 1831), unless because of the lack of another altar (S. R. C. 26 Sept. 1868).

1295. Query 7° Can Communion be given outside Mass?

Resp. It is to be given, generally speaking, insofar as it can be done, after the Communion of the Priest. Thus from the Roman Ritual. Yet by received usage Communion can easily be given before or after Mass, or even at any other time at which, as was said above (n. 1294. q. 5°), it can be ministered. Indeed, where there is a great influx of communicants, it is expedient to defer Communion until the Sacrifice has been completed, lest those who assist at Mass be detained in Church longer than is fitting and be affected with tedium. - Nay rather, it must be held as certain that, on account of the custom which has prevailed everywhere, and which cannot be abrogated by Pastors, there exists no precept by force of which Communion must be distributed only within Mass. - Thus the Sacred Congregation of Rites.³

Query 8° Can Communion be given with black vestments immediately before or after Masses of the dead?

Resp. 1° After Mass it can be given, if the priest has not yet withdrawn from the altar on which he celebrated; but then he does not give the blessing to those who have communicated. - Thus from the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites confirmed by Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, 23 July 1868.

Resp. 2° According to the same Decree, Communion can also be given before Mass, if a reasonable cause is present, the blessing nevertheless being omitted. But a reasonable cause is never lacking if some then ask Communion. For very often it happens that among those asking some are present who otherwise either would depart without Communion, or, by remaining longer, would necessarily undergo no light inconvenience, whether in domestic matters or in business to be transacted.

Query 9° Can Communion be given with black vestments within a Mass of Requiem?

Resp. Affirmatively, both if Communion is given with only Hosts consecrated in the same Mass, and if it is given from preconsecrated Hosts which are reserved in the tabernacle. Thus the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites cited above.

1296. Query 10° Can Communion be given with violet vestments, even before or after Masses of the dead?

Resp. On this question there could long be controversy, especially on account of a Response which was reported from the Sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1670. But now there is no doubt, after the aforesaid decree of the Sacred Congregation, by which it is established that in Masses of the dead violet vestments cannot be used unless in some Church, on November 2. The Eucharistic Sacrament is publicly exposed for the solemn Prayer of Forty Hours.

Query 11° How is Communion to be ministered outside Mass?

Resp. 1° If Communion is to be ministered immediately before or after Mass, it must be done as in Mass itself; but the priest, standing at the altar, can say: O sacred banquet, etc. Vers. Bread, etc. (in Paschal time is added: Alleluia); then he says: Lord, hear, etc., The Lord be with you, etc., with the Prayer: O God, who, etc. (in Paschal time: Pour forth upon us, etc.); finally, with his fingers washed and the Sacred Ciborium replaced in the tabernacle, he blesses those who communicated with the formula: The blessing of almighty God, Father, etc. - Roman Ritual and Sacred Congregation of Rites, 24 Sept. 1842.⁶ p. 417.

Resp. 2° If it is distributed at another time, two candles are to be lit according to the Roman Ritual. But if time urges and two candles cannot easily be lit, one will suffice; 2° the priest, with hands washed, vested in surplice and stole of the color suitable to the Office of that day, ministers, as above, and having returned to the altar he proceeds with the remainder as above; finally he gives the blessing with the hand raised, but not with the pyx, except over the sick.

But the versicles Lord, hear, etc., The Lord be with you, etc., with the proper Prayer, according to some, as connected with the antiphon O Sacred, etc., can be omitted; according to others they are of precept, as is the antiphon itself.¹ - But such prayers seem to be said with a voice at least moderately raised, since they must be answered by the minister. (z) p. 417.

1297. Query 12° What must be done if the minister is lacking for the priest: can a man about to communicate, or a woman, supply?

Resp. 1° Certainly any man about to communicate, if he is a man, can serve the priest; or even the priest himself can supply, by saying the Confiteor and answering Amen.

Resp. 2° A woman cannot supply, unless she is a Nun who, according to received custom, answers within the cloister; then the priest himself must by himself perform everything. Nor do you say that in necessity a woman can respond at Mass, provided she stands at a distance; for in Mass the priest alone can answer everything. - Thus commonly, Bouvier,² Gousset.³

Query 13° Can several particles be given to one communicant, or one larger one by cutting it, etc.?

Resp. Negatively. For this was expressly prohibited by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, approved by Innocent XI on 12 February 1679. The words, as Benedict XIV³ reports, are these: "Bishops, Pastors, or confessors should warn that several forms of the Eucharist, or particles, are to be handed to no one, nor larger ones, but the customary ones."

Query 14° Can particles be broken if they are deficient; and what must be done if there is no tabernacle in which they can be replaced?

Resp. to the 1st. Affirmatively, from the common sentence and general practice, provided there is a just cause, e.g. if Masses or the faithful cannot wait. Indeed, when the question had been proposed to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, "Whether it is safe to follow the Rule of the Parisian Ritual, thus expressed: If, when Communion is to be given, a sufficient number of Hosts has not been found, can some Host be divided into several particles, which are distributed to individuals?" the Sacred Congregation responded: "Let the custom of dividing consecrated ones be observed, if necessity is present." On 16 March 1833, n. 4707. Nevertheless the priest then must divide Hosts only into two or at most three parts, because otherwise Communion could scarcely be given with due reverence. - Lacroix.¹ Cf. what was said n. 1282. 5°.

Resp. to the 2nd. They are to be consumed by the celebrant before the ablutions, if this can easily be done. Otherwise they would have to be carried to the nearest tabernacle with the customary rite; and it must not be done that several Hosts be ministered to the faithful.

Query 15° For communicating the faithful, when smaller Hosts are lacking, can the priest detach a part of the larger one to be consumed by himself?

Resp. 1° Affirmatively in the case of carrying Viaticum to one dying, by reason of urgent necessity. - Thus all. - 2° Affirmatively also if one or another of the faithful were about to communicate, who otherwise would have to wait for Communion not without inconvenience.² Cf. what was said n. 1282. 5°.

1298. The Roman Ritual Establishes The Following. - I. Let the Pastor admonish that the sick person's room be cleansed, and in it a table be prepared covered with a clean cloth, on which the Most Holy Sacrament may decently be set down. Let two candles at least be prepared, two small vessels, one with wine, the other with water, so that either may serve the priest for washing the fingers, and the sick person for swallowing the Sacred Host after Communion (therefore it suffices to prepare either one); besides, a clean linen is to be placed before the breast of the communicant. Often a vessel of holy water is added, as often as it is not accustomed to be carried with the Most Holy Sacrament.

II. The Eucharist must be carried from the Church to the private homes of the sick with decent habit, a clean veil placed over it, manifestly and honorably, with all reverence, always with light and with a little bell being continually rung before it. But the priest, vested in surplice and stole, and first having placed from both shoulders a becoming oblong veil, should receive with both hands the vessel with the Most Holy Sacrament, to be carried before the breast, and then should go under the baldachin, or umbrella, if it can be had, and proceed with uncovered head. But in going he says the Miserere and other Psalms, and in returning Praise the Lord from the heavens, and other Psalms and Hymns, but these are only of counsel.

III. The priest, entering the room of the sick person, says: Peace be to this house, Resp.: And to all dwelling in it. Then he adores the Most Holy Sacrament placed upon the table; he sprinkles the sick person and the room with holy water, saying: Thou shalt sprinkle me, etc., and the other prayers placed in the Roman Ritual. Afterwards, the sick person having been questioned and exhorted, he gives the Most Holy Eucharist in the usual manner. But if there is question of Viaticum, he does not say: The Body of the Lord, etc.; but: Receive, brother, the viaticum of the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc., as in the Ritual. (y) p. 401.

IV. When death is imminent, most of the prayers, or even all, are omitted. The priest, with fingers washed, and the prayers completed, if particles remain, blesses the sick person with the ciborium, saying nothing. From the Roman Ritual the ablutions must be given to the sick person, but if he is unwilling or unable to take them, they are cast into the fire in the sick person's own house, or, which is more fitting, into the Sacrarium. (x) p. 401. - The priest, having returned to the Church, with the ciborium placed upon the altar, recites the versicle and prayer concerning the Most Holy Sacrament, and with the Sacrament makes the Sign of the Cross over the people, saying nothing.

1299. Questions. - Query 1° Can the Eucharist be carried to the sick at night?

Resp. Negatively. For this is expressly prohibited, except in a case of necessity. For thus the Roman Ritual: "But at night this Sacrament must not be carried, unless necessity urges." But when necessity urges, it is to be carried at any hour of the night; but without noise and sound of the little bell. But the cited words of the Ritual do not regard Communities which reserve the Most Holy Eucharist in a domestic Chapel, because the danger of irreverence, on account of which the law was passed, is then absent.

Query 2° Can the Eucharist be carried to the sick secretly?

Resp. Negatively, generally speaking. It is established from the Roman Ritual, where it is said: "This Holy Sacrament must be carried manifestly and honorably." Nevertheless some circumstances are excepted, e.g. places of heretics, where it cannot be carried manifestly. Likewise sometimes even in Catholic places, if otherwise Holy Viaticum (but not Communion from devotion²) cannot be carried to the sick person without some inconvenience, for example because impious relatives absolutely do not wish any religious ceremony to be celebrated in their house, although they tolerate that the priest approach the sick person. Nevertheless this must not be done without license of the Bishop, where he can be consulted.

Query 3° Can a priest, when necessity urges, minister Viaticum without any sacred vestment?

Resp. Affirmatively. The reason is because it is not to be presumed that the Church, which is so benign a mother, wished those rites to be observed in the administration of Viaticum with detriment to the dying. For the Sacraments have been instituted primarily for the salvation of souls.²

Query 4° When necessity urges, in carrying Viaticum is it lawful to run?

Resp. Affirmatively, probably. The reason is because urgent necessity of carrying Viaticum to one dying can excuse from greater decency in walking.³

Query 5° Is it lawful in time of plague to offer the Eucharist by some instrument, for instance in a spoon, on a paten, or in another clean vessel?

Resp. Affirmatively, not improbably, because so great a necessity seems to excuse from the customary rite of the Church.⁴

Query 6° Is it lawful to carry the Eucharist with the head covered on the way?

Resp. Negatively, on account of the reverence due to the Sacrament, except nevertheless in the singular case of necessity - of a brief infirmity, not however a lasting one - and provided that another priest cannot be had. - Likewise if a legitimate custom on account of a most grave cause, e.g. on account of excessively cold air, prevails somewhere. Therefore in carrying the Most Holy Sacrament to the sick, whether this is done by day or by night, neither on the pretext of any infirmity nor on any other pretext can the biretta or even a small cap be used.¹

Wherefore a priest laboring under a cold or another infirmity must abstain from carrying the Most Holy Sacrament, or commit that office to another, or nevertheless proceed with uncovered head, unless the use of the little cap has been granted to him.² Yet the use of the little cap is not granted with so much difficulty on a journey; with more difficulty within a city or town. According to several, the Bishop can grant license of carrying a little cap on a journey; but the faculty of using a little cap through a city or town is of Apostolic right.³ The Holy See granted a dispensation from that law for the diocese of Cologne, especially in winter weather, on 3 Nov. 1862. - St. Alphonsus has this: "Pasqual probably says that the Bishop can dispense that Viaticum be carried with a little cap on the head, when one must proceed far and through villages."⁴

Query 7° Can a priest carry the Holy Eucharist riding on a horse?

Resp. Affirmatively, if it must be carried to a sick person far distant, or through a difficult road, or if there is danger in delay. But the horse must be gentle, so that danger of falling and irreverence is absent. But it is never lawful to give the pyx to be carried by a layman, however much the priest may be tired; but then he must carry it in a burse hung from the neck. It is established from the Roman Ritual on the Eucharist, and also from a decision of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. And beforehand, "that Viaticum, on account of distance of places, difficulty of journeys, roughness of roads, can be carried by the Pastor while riding," the Sacred Congregation of Rites "grants," nevertheless with the consent of the Bishop.⁶

Query 8° Can the Eucharist be carried several times to the sick who are not fasting, or by way of Viaticum?

Resp. Affirmatively, and not only if a new danger of death recurs, but also if the same one perseveres. - Thus the common and true sentence, says St. Alphonsus.⁷ It is confirmed by the authority of Benedict XIV, who, in the work On the Synod,⁸ testifies that no Theologian of any name denies this sentence; and he adds,¹ "The Bishop should suggest to Pastors that Viaticum can and ought to be administered again and a third time in the same infirmity, especially if the sick person requests it; and, if he wishes, he should decree a penalty against Pastors who decline to carry the Eucharist again and a third time to sick persons devoutly asking, under false pretexts." But Communion in this case, according to Scavini,² is to be given with the usual formula: May the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ preserve, etc. "Likewise in this case," says de Herdt,³ "Have mercy and Indulgence are said in the plural: your, your sins."

Query 9° Can the Eucharist be carried frequently to the bedridden?

Resp. Affirmatively, of itself. Nevertheless this depends on the circumstances, namely on their particular disposition and necessity. Indeed, not improbably, "a sick person accustomed to communicate more often from devotion" will be able "already on another day immediately after Viaticum ... to receive Communion not fasting. And Pal. and Arm. and Dic. apud Croix admit this on individual days, and Tamb. thinks it probable."⁴ The Pastor must, as far as it is in him, exhort the sick to frequent Communion. - Gousset.⁵

Query 10° What must a priest do if, coming to a sick person with the Most Holy Sacrament, and hearing his Confession, he finds him indisposed?

Resp. First of all the confessor must labor, as best he can, to bring the penitent to better fruit. If the matter does not succeed, and e.g. the sick person does not promise either to break off the proximate occasion of sin, or to make a grave and certainly owed restitution, he surely cannot be absolved. But what of Communion? The penitent must be earnestly induced that, the Confession having been completed, he declare publicly that he does not yet wish to receive the Holy Eucharist. But if he gives this declaration, the difficulty now vanishes; for it is clear that the Eucharist is not to be ministered to him. But if he refuses to declare this, and wishes to communicate, the Eucharist must be ministered to him, although he is indisposed, or an agreement must be made with him that you say over him "The Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ," etc., without offering the Body.⁶

392. On the rite of dispensing holy communion. - A. As to time. 1° As to the day. According to can. 867:

"On all days it is licit to distribute the most holy Eucharist." But the things which follow in this canon no longer have force insofar as the decree Maxima Redemptionis of the S. C. of Rites, of Nov. 16, 1955, together with the Instruction annexed to it, contradicts them. According to these, one must now say:

a) On Friday in the Passion and Death of the Lord it is licit to distribute the most holy Eucharist to the faithful, but only during the solemn afternoon liturgical action. To the sick, however, who are in danger of death, also at another hour.

b) On Thursday in the Supper of the Lord, holy Communion is to be distributed to the faithful only in the evening Mass or immediately after. Likewise on Holy Saturday only during the solemnities of the Masses of the Vigil or immediately after. The sick who are constituted in danger of death are excepted, however.

During the solemnities of Masses seems to be understood of the distribution which is connected with Mass and takes place after the communion of the priest; nevertheless some interpret this as after the singing of the Gloria; - immediately after Mass, i.e., without an interval after the celebration. Hence it is illicit to distribute holy Communion in a chapel where Mass is not celebrated, or in a church before Mass or a little after; and for doing otherwise not any cause whatever, although reasonable in itself, suffices, but perhaps grave inconvenience does.

As to the Eucharistic fast to be observed by those who on Thursday celebrate or communicate at the evening solemnities, or who on the day of Parasceve during the afternoon liturgical offices approach the Sacred Synaxis, the things established in the Motu Proprio Sacram Communionem, of March 19, 1957, are to be observed (cf. above n. 281). The Eucharistic fast is to be observed from three hours before the beginning of Mass for celebrating priests, before the communion of the Mass for the faithful. Nevertheless let them remember that the ecclesiastical fast is prolonged up to the hour of midnight.

2° As to the hour.

a. As regards the distribution of communion in the forenoon hours, the canon determines that communion can be distributed only at the hours at which the celebration of Mass is permitted (can. 867, 4). This by ecclesiastical law is henceforth from one hour before dawn up to one hour after midday, since can. 821 [the printed text has 812] has not been abrogated.

b) As regards the distribution of holy Communion in the afternoon hours, the indult conceded in the Apostolic Constitution Christus Dominus, number 15, has force. The faithful can freely approach the sacred table during the evening Mass and immediately before or immediately after. Moreover, a decree of the Congregation of the Holy Office concedes to Ordinaries of places the faculty of permitting the distribution of holy Communion in the afternoon hours (from at least the sixteenth hour) on the occasion of any religious ceremony whatever (as adoration of the most holy Sacrament, holy hour, etc.) if no afternoon Mass is celebrated there (C. S. O., March 21, 1960).

c) Besides, there can occur a reasonable cause of asking for and distributing holy Communion outside the hours assigned above under a. and b., because the clause "unless another reasonable cause should suggest otherwise" of canon 867, § 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 should suggest otherwise") has not been formally abrogated. Nevertheless it can be applied more rarely, since, with the law of the Eucharistic fast mitigated, a reasonable cause will occur with greater difficulty. Moreover, the indults brought forward above tend to this, that they may foster assistance at the sacrifice of the Mass. This end would be frustrated if, without a proportionately grave cause, holy Communion were distributed at any hour to any petitioners whatever. In this way provision is also made lest pastors of souls be hindered by frequent petitions of the faithful from being able to satisfy the necessities of present-day apostolate.

d) Sacred Viaticum can be ministered at any hour of the day and night, at night however only when there is urgent necessity.

B. As to place, according to can. 869:

"Holy Communion can be distributed wherever it is licit to celebrate Mass, even in a private oratory, unless the Ordinary of the place, for just causes, has prohibited it in particular cases."

Hence a license of celebrating outside a church or oratory, conceded from an apostolic indult or from the faculty of the Ordinary according to the norm of can. 822, by the law itself also of itself imports the faculty of distributing holy Communion there, although in fact Mass is not said; as Damen interprets, Th. M., II, n. 129.

Nevertheless: 1° "It is not licit for a celebrating priest to distribute the Eucharist within Mass to faithful who are so distant that he loses sight of the altar" can. 868.

2° Holy Communion cannot be carried outside the church to a private house except for communicating the sick person; whence it cannot at the same time be ministered to other healthy persons on the way, or in the house of the sick person, unless in an extraordinary case permission has been obtained from the Ordinary by way of an act, or an apostolic indult has been obtained (S. C. Sacr., Jan. 5, 1928).

3° Holy Communion cannot be ministered at an altar where the most holy Sacrament is solemnly exposed, without necessity or grave cause or from a special indult (S. C. R., May 11, 1878, ad 1; and April 17, 1919).

C. As to the mode of ministering, according to can. 733, a priest ought accurately to observe the rites and ceremonies which are prescribed in the ritual books approved by the Church; and indeed each one according to his own rite (cf. can. 851, § 2).

The distribution of the Eucharist can be connected with Mass or not connected, and then take place in the place where the most holy Sacrament is, or outside, if it must be carried to the sick.

1° Within Mass it can take place with the vestments of the Mass; and, if the priest celebrates privately (but not if he sings a sung or conventual Mass), also immediately before and immediately after, even at another altar; this also holds for a Mass for the dead, but then the blessing of the people at the end is to be omitted.

2° Outside Mass, the priest should be vested in surplice and stole of the color fitting the office (violet on the day of the commemoration of the departed), or even uniformly of white color; but the deacon should wear the stole transversely. Two candles should be lit, the general confession should be said beforehand, and the customary prayers should be said, as is prescribed in the Ritual, tit. 4, c. 2.

Here it is especially to be noted that, after communion has been given, having returned to the altar, he ought to say: O sacrum convivium... with the verse: Panem de coelo (adding alleluia to each during Paschal time and the Octave of Corpus Christi, unless he ministers in black vestments), then Domine exaudi orationem..., Dominus vobiscum..., and the prayer: Deus qui nobis (in Paschal time: Spiritum nobis...) with the longer conclusion. And the blessing is given with the hand, with the formula: Benedictio Dei omnipotentis...; this is also to be observed by a deacon.

3° Holy Communion is to be carried to the sick publicly unless a just and reasonable cause suggests otherwise (can. 847), and to judge concerning this does not pertain, as certain authors used to say, to the priest, but to the Ordinary of the place alone (S. C. de Sacr., Jan. 5, 1928). If it is carried publicly, the priest should be vested in surplice and stole, and all things which are prescribed by the Ritual, tit. 4, c. 4, n. 29, are to be observed; but if it is carried privately, the Ritual admonishes: "The priest should always have at least the stole covered by his own garments; in a small bag or burse let him place the pyx, which, suspended by cords from the neck, he should place in his breast; and let him never proceed alone, but let him be accompanied by at least one faithful person, in defect of a cleric. But when he has arrived at the room of the sick person, let the priest also put on the surplice with the stole if he had not put it on before." The prayers are to be said invariably, no account being taken of Paschal time.

It is a sin to omit the prescribed prayers and ceremonies: to minister without sacred vestments is grave; the omission of the stole alone, and perhaps of the surplice alone with the stole preserved, unless scandal is present, does not certainly exceed venial; likewise to omit the rest.

Let it be noted: a) In necessity, if it cannot be done otherwise, it is licit to minister Viaticum without vestments and without light (S. C. P. F., Dec. 9, 1822).

b) The Eucharist ought to be carried publicly with uncovered head (Rit., tit. 4, c. 4, n. 12); nevertheless the bishop, on account of cold, or inclemency of the air, or infirmity, can dispense in this matter, not indeed for cities, but if in the countryside the sacrament must be carried for a long time; whence in a case of necessity permission can be presumed from epikeia.

c) The Eucharist is to be ministered with the thumb and index finger of the right hand. To minister with other fingers is not licit except from grave necessity, when the priest cannot use the customary fingers and another priest is lacking; to offer the sacrament with an instrument, for example with the particle placed in a spoon with wine or water, seems licit if the sick person suffers from plague, or otherwise could not swallow the host (n. 285).

d) A deacon ministering should wear the stole transversely, should observe all the other things which are indicated in the Ritual, even the rite of blessing the sick person with the most holy Sacrament, and this also after the return in the church (can. 1274, § 2).

Observation. - In a case of urgent necessity it seems licit to carry Viaticum while running, provided that it is necessary, the running is not too hasty, and great scandal of the multitude is lacking. Likewise it is licit to carry holy Communion on horseback, on account of storm, distance, a more difficult journey, and danger in delay, provided that the horse is tame, so that danger of a fall and irreverence is absent. In these cases the sacrament is carried in a burse suspended from the neck (Rit., tit. 4, c. 4, n. 13). In similar circumstances it is licit to use the railway or an electric vehicle. A fortiori it is licit in a carriage or vehicle, even an automobile; this of itself contributes nothing to irreverence, but rather to reverence for the sacrament, provided that the priest wears the sacred vestments. To use a bicycle or velocipede as an ordinary means of carrying the most holy Eucharist, even privately, is illicit; for Viaticum it can be tolerated if the place is rather remote, necessity urgent, and no other means is had, but only with scandal removed (S. C. de Sacr., June 13, 1919).

D. As to defects occurring: 1° If sacred particles sufficient for the number of communicants are not found, they can be divided into smaller parts, as is customary; but not into parts that are too small.

2° If a host falls, or a fragment of it, the place is to be covered and afterward washed, and the washing is to be put into the sacrarium (Missal, de def., tit. 10, n. 15). This, however, does not oblige under grave obligation, and therefore can be omitted if it would provoke the wonder of the people too much, as if the face or beard or garment were washed. - But if the sacrament has fallen upon the bare breast of a woman or within her garments, she herself, not the priest, should seek it and with her own hands place it back in the ciborium or put it into her own mouth; and if she cannot easily find it, let her withdraw apart into a chapel or sacristy; and afterward, if it can easily be done, let her wash her fingers and let the washing be thrown into the sacrarium. - But if the host has fallen into the enclosure of nuns, let the priest enter the enclosure. - But if a very small fragment is known to have fallen only by the priest, and it cannot easily be found without disturbance of the people, let the matter be committed to the providence of God.

If through negligence something of the Blood of Christ has fallen, if indeed upon the ground or upon a board, let it be licked with the tongue, and let the place itself be scraped as much as is sufficient, and let the scraping be burned, but the ash thrown into the sacrarium. If it has fallen upon the stone of the altar, let the priest absorb the drop, and let the place be well washed and the washing put into the sacrarium. If it has fallen upon the altar linen or only upon the corporal itself, let the linens be washed three times where the Blood fell, with a chalice placed beneath, and let the water of the washing be thrown into the sacrarium; and likewise this is to be done if it has fallen upon the priestly vestments or upon a cloth or carpet laid under the feet (de def., tit. 10, n. 12).

From these things, one also obliges under grave obligation, namely, that the linen be washed, and the place scraped or at least washed, in the case in which the species of wine are absorbed.

3° When remains or fragments of the host are found after the reception of the Body and Blood, the priest should receive them even after the ablution (de def., tit. 7, n. 2), as was said n. 283. But if they pertain to another sacrifice, or if an entire host is found after the ablution, they are to be placed in the tabernacle; and if this cannot be done, they are to be left on the altar upon the corporal, to be received in the following sacrifice; but if they cannot be preserved decently, the priest can receive them lest the sacrament be exposed to irreverence (de def., tit. 7, n. 3).

4° In the case in which the Eucharist is vomited: "if the species appear whole, they are to be received reverently unless nausea occurs: for then the consecrated species are to be carefully separated, and placed in some sacred place (for example, in a vessel with water), until they are corrupted and thrown into the sacrarium. But if the species do not appear, the vomit is to be burned (with tow or other material) and the ashes sent into the sacrarium" (de def., tit. 10, n. 14).

But if, after Viaticum has been received, the sick person immediately dies: if the host appears in the mouth, let it be modestly extracted and reverently preserved until the species are corrupted; but if it does not appear, nothing is to be done, although it is unknown whether the deceased swallowed it.

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.