Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I am writing to ask you for advice. Once a priest told me that when you commit a mortal sin and fail to confess before Sunday, you could take the Eucharist as long as you went to confession within eight or ten days later.

So, in your opinion, if I am in doubt of having committed a mortal sin, for example on Fridays or towards the weekend, can I confess the sin in the following days and still take Communion? Or would it be better to avoid receiving  it altogether?

Thank you

A priest answer

Dear,

the questions you asked me are two

1.     The first concerns the possibility of receiving Holy Communion with the intention of confessing a mortal sin within eight or ten days.

This possibility is nowhere foreseen because the Sacred Scriptures are clear: “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.  A person should examine himself,  and so eat the bread and drink the cup.For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.” (1 Cor 11, 27-30)

2.      With reference to this, John Paul II wrote in the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “Keeping these invisible bonds intact (be in grace of God9 is a specific moral duty incumbent upon Christians who wish to participate fully in the Eucharist by receiving the body and blood of Christ. The Apostle Paul appeals to this duty when he warns: “Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor 11:28). Saint John Chrysostom, with his stirring eloquence, exhorted the faithful: “I too raise my voice, I beseech, beg and implore that no one draw near to this sacred table with a sullied and corrupt conscience. Such an act, in fact, can never be called ‘communion’, not even were we to touch the Lord’s body a thousand times over, but ‘condemnation’, ‘torment’ and ‘increase of punishment”. 

Along these same lines, the Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly stipulates that “anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion”. I therefore desire to reaffirm that in the Church there remains in force, now and in the future, the rule by which the Council of Trent gave concrete expression to the Apostle Paul’s stern warning when it affirmed that, in order to receive the Eucharist in a worthy manner, “one must first confess one’s sins, when one is aware of mortal sin”. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 36)

3.     Canon 916 of the Code of Canon Law provides for an exception: “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 two reasons must be realized together: there must be a serious reason and the opportunity to confess must be lacking. Now, there is no serious reason for taking the Holy Communion when going to Mass. Furthermore, where is the opportunity to confess missing, where it is lacking in our parts? You have time to do everything, but you don’t want to find it for  the confession.

4.     In any case, however, perfect contrition is always required, that is, a true repentance of one’s sins that allows one to be reached by grace even before confession. Because the Holy Communion can never be given in mortal sin, in this case it would no longer be Communion, but “condemnation, torment and an increase in punishments” as Saint John Chrysostom says.

5.     This exception applies more to the priest if he were in mortal sin, because for him there is the grave reason of having to celebrate Mass for the faithful gathered according to the timetable. But for the faithful, when would there be the grave reason? In the past, it was said: in the event that the priest fails during the celebration and it is necessary to consume the Eucharist.Or when someone is already on the point of receiving Holy Communion and remembers having committed a grave sin. Then going back would cause confusion and shame among the faithful.

6.     The second question is different because you ask: in case one is in doubt of having committed a serious sin …

Well, since one is required to confess the mortal sins committed (and it is assumed that they have been committed with a certain conscience), if there is no certainty of having committed a mortal sin in itself, there would not even be the  strict obligation to confess.

However, since the situation of doubt is not optimal because one exposes oneself to receive Communion in an unworthy manner, all theologians agree in exhorting to confession.

St. Thomas would specify that if one is certain of the sin committed, but is in doubt that it is mortal, he is obliged to confess it, as long as he is in doubt.

“However, he must not assert that his sin is mortal, but speak in a doubtful way, leaving the judgment to the priest who is responsible for distinguishing ‘between leprosy and leprosy’ (Dt 17.8)” (Sum Theological, Suppl. 6.4 , ad 3).

7.     In case of doubt, therefore, if one refrains from receiving Holy Communion, it is a good thing.

Many people of sound moral principles do this.

But if someone takes the Holy Communion, it cannot be said that he has committed a grave sin.

In this case what St. Thomas says is valid: “When one is in doubt that a sin is mortal, he is bound to confess it, as long as he is in doubt”.

With the hope that you can always be careful to receive the  Holy Communion with the best dispositions to draw the greatest fruit,

I remember you in prayer and I bless you.

 Father Angelo

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