Title XVII: Of Sacred Processions

§ 1. By the name of sacred processions are signified solemn supplications which are made by the faithful people, with the clergy as leader, going in order from a sacred place to a sacred place, for exciting the piety of the faithful, for commemorating the benefits of God and giving thanks to Him, and for imploring divine help.

§ 2. Ordinary processions are those which are made on fixed days through the year according to the norm of liturgical books or the customs of churches; extraordinary processions are those which, for other public causes, are appointed on other days.

§ 1. Unless an immemorial custom bears otherwise, or the circumstances of places, in the prudent judgment of the Bishop, require another thing, on the feast day of Corpus Christi only one solemn procession through public ways must be made in one and the same place from the more worthy church, and all clerics, religious families of men, even exempt ones, and confraternities of lay persons must be present at it, regulars excepted who live perpetually in stricter enclosure or are distant from the city by more than three thousand paces.

§ 2. Other parishes and churches, even regular ones, can within the octave conduct their own processions outside the bounds of the church; but where there are several churches, it belongs to the local Ordinary to set beforehand the days, hours, and ways by which each procession is to conduct its own.

The local Ordinary, having heard the cathedral Chapter, can from a public cause appoint extraordinary processions; at these, as also at ordinary and customary ones, all those of whom in can. 1291, Sec. 1 must be present.

Religious, even exempt ones, cannot lead processions outside their churches and cloisters without the permission of the local Ordinary, with the prescription of can. 1291, Sec. 2 preserved.

§ 1. A pastor or anyone else cannot introduce new processions or transfer or abolish customary ones without the permission of the local Ordinary.

§ 2. All clerics attached to the same church must be present at processions proper to some church.

Let Ordinaries take care that sacred processions, bad practices having been rooted out if there are any, proceed in order and be carried out by all with that modesty and reverence which especially befits pious and religious acts of this kind.