Can you receive Communion while in mortal sin if you intend to go to confession later?

[TobyLue]

To Michelle Arnold: I saw the answer you gave MissMae27 on her question Can priests force you to receive Communion? but you didn’t address her statement where she said, “I know that I can receive Communion even if I am not in a state of grace if I have the intention to go to confession.” You should either explain canon 916, or you should have informed her that she is misinformed. This needs to be corrected lest someone else be misinformed too.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Canon 916 of the Code of Canon Law states:

Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previously having been to 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 resolve to go to confession as soon as possible.

The inquirer was basically correct, and her comment was incidental to the substance of her question, so I saw no need to risk aggravating scruples by nitpicking a minor point.

In apologetics it is important to seek to answer the question that is asked, and to ignore the temptation to offer unsolicited corrections on minor issues. To do so risks causing the person to become disheartened and discouraged because he suddenly must realize that he was even more incorrect about the faith than he first thought, and is left to worry if there are other areas where he doesn’t “measure up.”

I freely admit that I myself have trouble meeting this ideal. I sometimes have offered more information than was necessary to answer the question, or commented in areas where comments were not solicited. It’s a daily tightrope in apologetics to discern whether or not a particular piece of information, true and helpful though it may be, is necessary. In this case, I judged that it was not necessary. But I’ve posted this follow-up since follow-up information was solicited.