Chapter VI: Part II: The Recipient of the Sacrament of Penance, or the Acts of the Penitent

9. Who can Receive the Sacrament of Penance.

Every man who has fallen into formal sin after Baptism is capable of receiving the Sacrament of Penance. Whoever, therefore, has not yet been baptized, or, having been baptized, has committed no sin since Baptism, is incapable of sacramental absolution. All children who have not attained to the use of reason are unable to receive this Sacrament; to these we may add such adults as cannot make that use of their reason which is necessary for disposing them to receive this Sacrament.

In order that a baptized person may make a valid and fruitful use of this Sacrament, he must elicit those acts which we have mentioned before; he must be genuinely sorry for his sins, be ready to do penance, and submit his sins to the power of the keys vested in the Church. These acts form not only the essential and necessary dispositions for receiving the Sacrament, but—and this is a peculiar feature of the Sacrament of Penance—they are also the _materia proxima_. The following sections will be devoted to the consideration of these acts in their double aspect.