What if a priest is in mortal sin?

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Epistemes

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If a priest is in mortal sin, is he allowed to say Mass? consume the sacrament?
 
No and no. However, a Priest’s state of sin is irrelevant to the validity of the Mass.
 
chris_molter said:
No and no. However, a Priest’s state of sin is irrelevant to the validity of the Mass.
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So, if he is the only priest, and he commits a mortal sin on Saturday night, then the parishioners are turned away? is it announced that a communion service is held (thus, more or less, inviting suspicions as to why) rather than Mass?
 
Epistemes said:
So, if he is the only priest, and he commits a mortal sin on Saturday night, then the parishioners are turned away? is it announced that a communion service is held (thus, more or less, inviting suspicions as to why) rather than Mass?
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This article from Zenit via EWTN answers your question: ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur68.htm

Also see canon 916: 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.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Also see canon 916: 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.
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Although I am by no means experienced in Canon Law, it would seem that this would classify as “grave reason.” Either the Priest celebrates Mass with the intention to go to confession, or the parishioners are told that there is no Mass this Sunday and to go somewhere else.
 
It is enough to worry about the state of our own souls without having to worry about the state of any priest’s soul. His Mass is valid in any case. And priests go to confession too.
 
JimG said:
It is enough to worry about the state of our own souls without having to worry about the state of any priest’s soul. His Mass is valid in any case. And priests go to confession too.
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I was only asking because, having read Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, whose main character is a priest who lives in mortal sin and who offers Mass on several occassions, I was wondering what the actual Law said about this sort of thing – and how the parishioners might be affected.
 
Epistemes said:
I was only asking because, having read Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, whose main character is a priest who lives in mortal sin and who offers Mass on several occassions, I was wondering what the actual Law said about this sort of thing – and how the parishioners might be affected.
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That’s understandable. But the key is that we need not worry, as the sacraments are valid in any case. I recall the book; I read it a long time ago, but now that you mention it, I’d like to read it again.
 
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