Note 486 — Chapter I · JURISDICTION

Cf. Trid. Sess. XIV. c. 7, where reserved cases are spoken of, and the following is decreed: “That no one may perish, it has always been the usage of the Church that there should be no reservation at the hour of death, and, therefore, that all priests may absolve any penitent from any sins and censures whatever.” These words of the Council are variously interpreted, some believing that all priests, without exception, receive jurisdiction from the Church, others believing that it is necessary to affix a limitation: when no other approved priest is at hand to whom the dying person could easily and without danger confess; these latter, therefore, limit the words “omnes sacerdotes” on account of the intention expressed in the preceding words: “ne quis pereat,” and the other ones: “ut nulla sit reservatio,” maintaining that these words indicate that there is question of priests who otherwise possessed jurisdiction, namely, “when no otherwise approved priest is at hand.” According to the first interpretation, and the opinion based upon it, a sacerdos simplex (therefore non approbatus) could valide administer absolution to a dying person in presence of approved priests. A great number of theologians defend this opinion (Ballerini mentions twenty-five in his notes to Gury, l. c. ad n. 551, Q. 8, and in his Opus. Theol. Mor. l. c. cp. II. De jurisdict. Conf. n. 581), and St. Alphonsus does not venture to reject it, though, in spite of the reasons advanced by these authorities, he maintains that a simplex sacerdos can only absolve a dying person when no other approved priest is at hand, and he is supported in this opinion by the authority of the Roman Ritual, which (De Sacram. Pœnit. sub init.) teaches that: when danger of death threatens, and an approved priest is not present, any priest can absolve from all sins and censures. This opinion of St. Alphonsus is the most general, though, according to Ballerini and Lehmkuhl, probability is not to be denied to the other opinion, in view of the authority of so many theologians, and in accordance with the rules of interpretation.