3. About him who has Repented but has not Confessed

15. About the third I say that if an opportunity to confess arises, he is bound to confess before he receives communion. The reason is that he must be reconciled not only to God but to the Church, so that he may receive worthily the sacrament of the unity of the Church.

16. But if an opportunity to confess does not arise, and if he can without scandal avoid receiving communion, he is bound not to receive but to wait for confession, for the same reason as said just now [n.15].

17. But if scandal may arise unless he at once receive communion, as if he has put on vestments and, after doing so, he becomes conscious of a mortal sin which he has not otherwise confessed and he does not have a suitable confessor to hand then, with contrition and the will to confess at an opportune time, he can, so as to avoid scandal, celebrate [mass].

18. And likewise as concerns another about to receive communion who is not a celebrant (as when the custom in some religious community or college or church is that all non-priests receive communion), if the case is alike, namely if, when he must receive communion, he does not then have a suitable confessor, he can then receive communion without having confessed. Nor must one say that he is sinning mortally or transgressing the precept in order to avoid scandal, because no precept excludes him from this act in this case. For putting off the confession in act that he then hass in his affection does not prevent him from being a member of the Church militant suitable for the acts in which the members communicate; and he is bound to avoid scandal to a neighbor.