Case LXVII: The Reconciliation of a Church Subjectively Prescribed, Although Objectively Not Necessary

A priest, while celebrating Mass, is made the target for an assassin’s bullet. The priest, although hit by the bullet, remains miraculously without injury beyond slight excoriation of the skin, while the assassin fires another bullet into his own brain and falls dead on the spot. The assassin and suicide was later identified and serious doubts were entertained as to his sanity. The question is, must the celebration of Holy Mass be suspended? Is the Church to. be considered profaned and in need of re-consecration?

Of the various causes of a Pollutio ecclesiae we need only consider here, 1. Sanguinis humani effusio, and 2. Homicidium. Marc (II, 1629): A copious outpouring is required, not of a few drops but of a notable amount of blood; and a wound inflicted in the church suffices, even if perhaps the blood is shed outside the church. As regards the priest, only his shirt and undershirt were stained with small blood spots, for this reason therefore no pollutio ecclesiae here took place. The ordinarily inevitable effect of the bullet was averted in a wonderful manner. 2. In reference to the homicidium-suicidium the action must be lethal, gravely sinful, and have had its completion in the Church (LEHMKUHL, II, No. 222). As madmen and lunatics are not allowed at liberty but are as a rule watched and confined, the perpetrator must be supposed of sound mind, and his deed as grievously sinful, till the contrary is proved. Therefore it is proper to suspend the Celebratio Missarum, and to have the church reconsecrated, although, objectively considered, it would not have been necessary if the perpetrator’s insanity had been established at the moment, instead of some time afterward. Under the circumstances it would have been unlawful to celebrate Mass without previous reconciliatio.

P. Joseph M. Thuille, O.S.B.