# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1858_S58
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

58

Excerpts as Contributions to Pastoral Casuistry.

Opinion of Dr. Polycarp Leyser.

Whether a pastor may knowingly give the holy Sacrament to an unworthy person, and may justify himself by the example of Christ and Judas?

To give a correct answer to the question posed, one agreeable to the faith, it is above all required that the two terms "unworthy" and "knowingly" first be explained.

By "unworthy" we understand not, with Bucer, the weak in faith, but rather the unbelieving — those who do not examine themselves, who present themselves without true contrition and repentance, faith in Christ, and a good resolve, more out of habit than devotion, and who do not discern the body of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 11:29.

By the word "knowingly" both a definite knowledge and also an opinion resting on certain presumptions may be understood. For, 1. sometimes a person is accused of an erroneous opinion in matters of faith or of an evil deed; there are strong presumptions present; he has made himself suspect, yet one cannot sufficiently prove it against him. 2. Some are open sinners, whose misdeeds are known and manifest to the whole congregation. 3. Some sinners are known and recognized by God and the pastor alone, in that the pastor has either himself seen the misdeed, or it has been disclosed to the pastor by the offender in confession.

Hereupon it is asked: whether a pastor may knowingly give the Sacrament to an unworthy person? And the answer must be given differently in different cases:

As for, first, open and impenitent sinners, who persist in their sins and give no sign of true repentance — these are either put under the ban by the church, in which case a pastor may not give them the holy Sacrament unless they have been publicly reconciled with the church. Further, should a pastor — apart from a case of death, and unless the person has earnestly done penance — knowingly wish to give the holy Sacrament to such a banned person, godly antiquity has quite earnestly determined, quod sit deponendus — that such a pastor is to be deposed from office. But when the church is negligent in church discipline, a pastor must nevertheless have regard to his conscience and may not give them the holy Sacrament, as may be seen from the writings of our own [theologians].

I. On account of the command in Matthew 7:6: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before the swine." And the apostle, 1 Corinthians 5:11, commands the Christians: "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, etc., with such a one—