PASCHAL PRECEPT. — It is the obligation binding all the faithful who have reached the age of discretion to receive Holy Communion within the so-called Paschal time.
I. NATURE OF THE P. P. — Imposed by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 (can. 21; Denz.-U., 437; for the preceding historical part V. EUCHARISTIC COMMUNION, III, VII), it was confirmed by the Council of Trent (sess. XIII, cap. 9, de ref.) and taken up again by the Code of Canon Law (can. 859 § 1), which made it more explicit by declaring obligatory Communion at least once a year, at Easter. As expressed, the precept is virtually twofold; it primarily imposes the annual Communion and secondarily the Paschal Communion, in the sense that whoever has not wished or been able to receive Communion at Easter is bound to receive it during the year, i.e., at least before the following Easter.
II. THE PASCHAL TIME
The suitability of the Paschal time for the obligatory Communion is based both on the fact that this Sacrament was instituted by Jesus Christ during Easter and on its character as a commemoration of the Lord’s Passion. The Code of Canon Law, in fixing the useful time for the fulfillment of the precept, conforms to the constitution *Fide digna* of Eugenius IV (can. 859 § 2). Diocesan Ordinaries, however, are empowered to anticipate or extend the term, if there are just reasons, for the benefit of some or even all of their faithful, specifically by extending it from the Fourth Sunday of Lent to the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. A legitimate custom that extends this time even further is also admitted, provided that it does not exceed the limits of the civil or Paschal year. Parish priests and confessors, in case of necessity or utility for individuals, may grant only a postponement, never an anticipation, of the useful term for fulfilling the precept.III. OBLIGATION
The ecclesiastical precept of annual Communion is a determination of the precept to nourish oneself with the Eucharist; it therefore binds under pain of grave sin all the faithful of both sexes and of every age, including children who have not yet completed their seventh year, provided they have attained the use of reason (can. 859 § 1). According to Trent (sess. XXI, cap. 4) and the decree *Quam singulari* (S. Congr. of the Sacraments, 8 Aug. 1910), those who can sufficiently discern good from evil and are capable of committing mortal sin are considered to have attained the use of reason. Once this capacity is reached, the obligation to fulfill the precept begins, with the faculty to defer its fulfillment to a suitable time, ordinarily however not beyond the year from when the use of reason was attained.If it becomes publicly known that someone has long failed to fulfill the P. P., he is to be regarded as a public sinner and, as such, loses among other things the right to ecclesiastical burial, unless he has given some sign of repentance before his death (can. 1240).
According to can. 860, the Paschal precept also binds, with respect to children, parents, guardians, teachers, the confessor, and the parish priest.
IV. PLACE
It is not obligatory to receive Paschal Communion in one’s own parish, but for the common edification it is well that the faithful preserve this praiseworthy custom or at least inform the parish priest if they have received Communion elsewhere. In this way the purpose of the ancient prescription, which was to record in the parish register of souls that the precept had been fulfilled, is preserved.Naturally, the state of grace is required for the Paschal precept, so that the law is not satisfied in the case of sacrilegious Communion (can. 861).