OFFICIAL NOTICE: Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion
James B. Earley, Chancellor
Diocese of Scranton, PA
February 26, 2009
The Eucharist is the source and summit of all Christian life. It is the
sacrament of salvation, the Body and Blood of Christ offered for us on Calvary
and received by us, the People of God. Regarding the Holy Eucharist, St. Paul
says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1
Cor. 11:27).
The law of the Church requires each Catholic, before receiving Holy
Communion, to make a careful examination of conscience, using the teachings of
the Church as the examining criteria. After this private examination, each
Catholic is able to determine whether he or she is prepared to receive the
sacrament. Canon 916 of the Code of Canon Law states:
A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive
the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a
grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is
to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes
the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.
The above mentioned preparation is private, as the state of each
Catholic’s soul is known to him or her alone. However, there are instances when
a Catholic’s unworthiness to receive Holy Communion will be determined by the
Church because of a person’s public conduct. This determination does not depend
upon the private examination of conscience but results rather from a Catholic’s
public and persistent actions in opposition to the moral law as taught by the
Church. In these cases, the Church forbids members to receive the sacrament.
Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states:
Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or
declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave
sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.
In recent years, the Holy See has declared that those who are unworthy to
receive Holy Communion if they are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave
sin” include persons directly involved in lawmaking bodies. These have a grave
and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life.[1]
Pope John Paul II also addressed this matter when he wrote, “The judgment of
one’s state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, since it is
a question of examining one’s conscience. However, in case of outward conduct
which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the
Church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of
respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved. The Code of
Canon Law refers to this situation of a manifest lack of proper moral
disposition when it states that those who ‘obstinately persist in manifest grave
sin’ are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion.”[2]
In 2004, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) instructed the Bishops of the
United States as follows:
Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal
cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic
politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive
abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing
him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present
himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation
of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.
This denial, the Cardinal noted in the same instruction, “is not a sanction or a
penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy of Communion passing judgment on the
person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public
unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.”[3]
Therefore, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, Bishop of
Scranton, reminds all ministers of Holy Communion, ordinary and extraordinary,
that:
- To administer the Sacred Body and Blood of the Lord is a serious duty
which they have received from the Church, and no one having accepted this
responsibility has the right to ignore the Church’s law in this regard;
- Those whose unworthiness to receive Holy Communion is known publicly to
the Church must be refused Holy Communion in order to prevent sacrilege and
to prevent the Catholic in question from committing further grave sin
through unworthy reception.
James B. Earley
Chancellor
1]
Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in
Political Life, 4, 2002
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