UNWORTHY. - From Lat. indignus, "unworthy," "not deserving"; morally, it is one to whom the Sacraments cannot be administered or ecclesiastical offices or benefices (v.) conferred. With regard to the Sacraments, generally, one is called i. who, though able to receive them validly, nevertheless lacks the necessary dispositions to receive them fruitfully, and therefore lawfully. Such is, for example, one who receives the Eucharist in mortal sin.
Unworthiness can be public (if the sin is public) or hidden (if the sin is hidden; that is, not merely from the minister, who naturally does not have sacramental knowledge, or from very few). Furthermore, the request for the Sacrament can be public (if made before persons who know of it) or hidden (if made only to the minister).
To the i. who asks secretly, as a rule, the Sacraments must be denied, even though his unworthiness is hidden. For charity obliges the minister to prevent sacrilege, and religion demands that the reverence due to the Sacrament be preserved (can. 855 § 2).
To the hidden i. who asks publicly, as a rule, the Sacraments cannot be denied. For the denial would not only injure the reputation of the petitioner, but would drive others away from approaching them, since anyone could fear for himself a similar affront (can. 855 § 2; cf. Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 80, a. 6).
It is not lawful, ordinarily, to administer the Sacraments to a public i., that is, to a public sinner, even though he asks for them publicly. This is required by charity, which obliges one to prevent, when possible, the sin of one's neighbor, and by the necessity of preventing scandal to others (can. 855 § 1; cf. Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 80, a. 6).
Whenever it were not possible to deny the Sacraments to a public (or even hidden) i. without danger of most grave harm, it is probably lawful to administer them when they are not asked out of hatred of the faith or out of contempt for religion.
It is forbidden to administer the Sacraments to heretics or schismatics, as can. 731 § 2 prescribes. Such a prescription seems not to have to be extended to the case of one who is in danger of death and is deprived of his senses; because in extreme necessity the salvation of souls must be provided for by any means, even one only probably effective. Indeed, it even seems lawful to administer the Sacraments to a heretic or schismatic who is fully conscious, but who is so attached to error in good faith that one must prudently fear it would be useless to recall him to the duty of abjuration. The danger of scandal must, however, be removed.
The election of an i. to an ecclesiastical office is null, if this is provided for either by common law or by the law of foundation (can. 153 § 3). Clerics or laypersons who knowingly have presented or nominated an i. are deprived immediately, for that occasion, of the right of presentation or nomination (can. 2391 § 3).