OFFICIAL NOTICE
Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion
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.”
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
