PRISONERS: GOD’S COMMANDMENT MUST TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER ANY HUMAN CONSIDERATION

Father Courtès had not given Communion to a prisoner condemned to death, and he received the anger and condemnation of Eugene for having been a weakling in the face of a pastoral need.

You have made a very great mistake in refusing Jouve Holy Communion. This situation has taken away from me all the joy that the account of his beautiful death had caused me.
I thought you were more loyal to my teachings which are those of the Church. You could not have forgotten what I have done at the execution of Germaine. Quite recently the Quotidienne and so many other newspapers informed you what I did at Gap. Hence you have become a real weakling and I must tell you that you have greatly sinned. I don’t want to see you observing practices which the Sovereign Pontiffs describe as barbarian and which they order to be destroyed wherever they are found.
These horrible practices, moreover, have been abrogated in your district, either through the precedent I had set by my example, or through the solemn approval his Grace Archbishop de Bausset, who came to confirm and give Holy Communion to all the accused as well as condemned prisoners who were in the jails at the time of the retreat we preached there.
Even if it were otherwise, you should have done your duty without worrying about the consequences. God’s commandment must take precedence over any human consideration.
Even if you had been interdicted afterwards, because you were in charge of his soul, your duty was to have him fulfil his obligation from which no power could dispense him. If some superior authority, which it was useless to consult in such a situation, was opposed to things being done according to rules. I would intervene with my authority to protect you from continuing a ministry that is incomplete, irregular and ineffective, and a compromise to your conscience and mine.

Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, October 11, 1837 in O.W. IX n. 648

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