Title IX: Of Churches

By the name of church is understood a sacred building dedicated to divine worship, especially for this end, that it be for the use of all the Christian faithful for publicly exercising divine worship.

§ 1. No church is to be built without the express consent of the local Ordinary given in writing, which, however, the Vicar General cannot furnish without a special mandate.

§ 2. The Ordinary is not to furnish consent unless he has prudently foreseen that the necessities will not be lacking for the building and preservation of the new church, for the support of ministers, and for the other expenses of worship.

§ 3. Lest a new church bring detriment to the others already existing, not compensated by greater spiritual utility of the faithful, the Ordinary, before he furnishes consent, must hear the rectors of neighboring churches whose interest it is, with the prescription of can. 1676 remaining firm.

§ 4. Even religious members, although they have obtained from the local Ordinary consent for establishing a new house in the diocese or city, nevertheless before they build a church or public oratory in a certain and determined place, must obtain the permission of the local Ordinary.

To bless and place the primary stone of a church pertains to those of whom in can. 1156.

§ 1. Ordinaries are to take care, with the counsel also of experts having been heard if there is need, that in the building or repair of churches the forms received from Christian tradition and the laws of sacred art be observed.

§ 2. In a church no entrance or window is to be opened to the houses of lay persons; and places, if there are any, beneath the pavement of the church or above the church are not to be applied to merely profane use.

§ 1. Divine offices cannot be celebrated in a new church before the same has been dedicated to divine worship either by solemn consecration or at least by blessing.

§ 2. If it is prudently foreseen that the church will be converted to profane uses, the Ordinary is not to furnish consent for its building, or at least, if by chance it has been built, he is neither to consecrate nor bless it.

§ 3. Cathedral churches are to be dedicated by solemn consecration and, as far as can be done, collegiate, conventual, and parochial churches.

§ 4. A church of wood or iron or another metal can be blessed, but not consecrated.

§ 5. An altar can be consecrated even without the consecration of the church; but together with the church at least the major altar must be consecrated, or a secondary altar if the major one has already been consecrated.

§ 1. The consecration of churches, although it can be done on any day, is nevertheless more fittingly performed on Sundays or other feasts of precept.

§ 2. The consecrating Bishop and those who seek that a church be consecrated to them are to fast during the day which precedes the consecration.

§ 3. When a church or altar is consecrated, the consecrating Bishop, although he lacks jurisdiction in the territory, grants an indulgence of one year to those visiting the church or altar on the very day of consecration; on the anniversary day, however, of fifty days if he is a Bishop, one hundred if an Archbishop, two hundred if a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.

The feast of the consecration of a church is to be celebrated each year according to the norm of liturgical laws.

§ 1. Each consecrated or blessed church is to have its own title; once the dedication of the church has been performed, it cannot be changed.

§ 2. The feast of the title is also to be celebrated each year according to the norms of liturgical laws.

§ 3. Churches cannot be dedicated to Blesseds without an indult of the Apostolic See.

§ 1. It is fitting that each church have bells, by which the faithful are invited to divine offices and other acts of religion.

§ 2. The bells of churches also must be consecrated or blessed according to the rites handed down in approved liturgical books.

§ 3. Their use is subject solely to ecclesiastical authority.

§ 4. With the conditions preserved, approved by the Ordinary, attached by those who perhaps gave the bell to the church, a blessed bell cannot be applied to merely profane uses, unless from a cause of necessity or from permission of the Ordinary or finally from legitimate custom.

§ 5. As regards the consecration or blessing of bells, the prescription of can. 1155, 1156 is to be observed.

A church does not lose its consecration or blessing unless it has been wholly destroyed, or the greater part of the walls has collapsed, or it has been reduced to profane uses by the local Ordinary, according to the norm of can. 1187.

In a sacred building legitimately dedicated, all ecclesiastical rites can be performed, with parochial rights, privileges, and legitimate customs preserved; moreover the Ordinary, especially as to the hours of sacred rites, can for a just cause determine them in advance, provided that there is not question of a church which belongs to an exempt religion, with the prescription of can. 609, Sec. 3 remaining firm.

§ 1. A church is violated only by the acts listed below, provided that they are certain, notorious, and placed in the church itself:

1° By the delict of homicide.

2° By an injurious and grave shedding of blood.

3° By impious or sordid uses to which the church has been devoted.

4° By the burial of an infidel or of an excommunicate after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence.

§ 2. When a church has been violated, the cemetery, although contiguous, is not for that reason judged violated, and vice versa.

§ 1. In a violated church, before it is reconciled, it is forbidden to celebrate divine offices, administer Sacraments, or bury the dead.

§ 2. If the violation occurs during the time of divine offices, these are immediately to cease; if before the Canon of the Mass or after communion, the Mass is to be dismissed; otherwise the priest is to continue the Mass up to communion.

§ 1. A violated church is to be reconciled as quickly as it can be, according to the rites described in approved liturgical books.

§ 2. If it is doubted whether a church has been violated, it can be reconciled as a precaution.

A church violated because of the burial of an excommunicate or infidel is not to be reconciled before the corpse is removed from there, if the removal can be done without grave inconvenience.

§ 1. The rector of the same church, or any priest with at least the presumed consent of the rector, can reconcile a blessed church.

§ 2. The valid reconciliation of a consecrated church pertains to those of whom in can. 1156.

§ 3. Nevertheless in a case of grave and urgent necessity, if the Ordinary cannot be approached, it is lawful for the rector of a consecrated church to reconcile the same, after the Ordinary has afterward been made more certain.

The reconciliation of a blessed church can be done with common lustral water; but the reconciliation of a consecrated church is to be done with water blessed for this according to liturgical laws; this, however, not only Bishops but also presbyters who reconcile the church can bless.

All to whom it pertains are to take care that in churches that cleanliness be preserved which befits the house of God; from the same are to be kept away commercial dealings and markets, although held for a pious end; and generally whatever is discordant with the sanctity of the place.

A church enjoys the right of asylum, so that accused persons who have fled to it are not to be extracted from there, unless necessity urges, without the assent of the Ordinary, or at least of the rector of the church.

No church can be decorated with the title of basilica unless by apostolic concession or immemorial custom; moreover the privileges of each are gathered from either source.

Entrance into a church for sacred rites is to be entirely gratuitous, any contrary custom whatever being reprobated.

§ 1. With the prescription of can. 1519-1528 remaining firm, the administration of goods which are destined for repairing and decorating the church and for exercising divine worship in the same pertains, unless something else is established from a special title or legitimate custom, to the Bishop with the Chapter if there is question of a cathedral church; to the Chapter of the collegiate church if of a collegiate church; to the rector if of another church.

§ 2. The pastor or missionary also administers offerings made for the advantage of the parish or mission, or of a church situated within the limits of the parish or mission, unless there is question of a church having its own administration, distinct from the administration of the parish or mission, or unless particular law or legitimate custom bears otherwise.

§ 3. The pastor, missionary, rector of a secular church, whether he is secular or religious, must administer offerings of this kind according to the norm of the sacred canons, and render an account concerning them to the local Ordinary according to the norm of can. 1525.

§ 1. If others also, whether clerics or lay persons, are co-opted into the administration of the goods of some church, all the same together with the ecclesiastical administrator, of whom in can. 1182, or the one acting in his place, and with him presiding, constitute the Council of the fabric of the church.

§ 2. Members of this Council, unless it has been legitimately constituted otherwise, are nominated by the Ordinary or his delegate and can be removed by the same for a grave cause.

The Council of the fabric must take care for the right administration of the goods of the church, with the prescription of can. 1522, 1523 observed; but in no way is it to insert itself into all those things which pertain to the spiritual function, especially:

1° Into the exercise of worship in the church.

2° Into the manner and time of ringing the bells and into the care of protecting order in the church and in the cemetery.

3° Into defining the manner by which collections, announcements, and other acts pertaining in any way to divine worship and the adornment of the church can be made in the church.

4° Into the material disposition of altars, of the table for the distribution of the Most Holy Eucharist, of the chair or pulpit from which words are made to the people, of organs, of the place assigned to singers, of seats, benches, boxes for receiving offerings, and of other things which pertain to the exercise of religious worship.

5° Into the admission or rejection of sacred utensils and of other things which are destined either for use, or for worship, or for adornment in the church or sacristy.

6° Into the writing, disposition, and custody of parochial books and of other documents which pertain to the parish archive.

The sacristan, singers, director of the organ, choir boys, bell-ringer, grave-diggers, and the other servants are nominated, depend, and are dismissed by the rector of the church alone, with legitimate customs and agreements and the authority of the Ordinary preserved.

With peculiar and legitimate customs and agreements preserved, and with firm obligation which pertains to someone even from the constitution of civil law:

1° The burden of repairing a cathedral church falls in the order which follows:

On the goods of the fabric, with that part preserved which is necessary for celebrating divine worship and for the ordinary administration of the church.

On the Bishop and canons in proportion to revenues, after those things necessary for honorable support have been deducted.

On the diocesans, whom nevertheless the local Ordinary is to induce to furnish the necessary expenses according to their strength, more by persuasion than by coercion.

2° The burden of repairing a parochial church falls in the order which follows:

On the goods of the fabric of the church, as above.

On the patron.

On those who receive any fruits proceeding from the church, according to a tax in proportion to revenues to be established by the Ordinary.

On the parishioners, whom nevertheless the local Ordinary, as above, is rather to exhort than compel.

3° These things are to be observed with due proportion also as regards other churches.

If any church can in no way be applied to divine worship and all approaches to repairing it have been cut off, it can be reduced by the local Ordinary to a profane but not sordid use, and the burdens with the revenues and the title of the parish, if the church is parochial, are to be transferred by the same Ordinary to another church.