Title XVIII: Of Sacred Furnishings

§ 1. Sacred furnishings, especially those which, according to the norm of liturgical laws, must be blessed or consecrated and which are employed in public worship, are to be carefully guarded in the sacristy of the church or another safe and decent place, and are not to be employed for profane uses.

§ 2. According to the norm of can. 1522, Secs. 2, 3, an inventory of all sacred furnishings is to be made and accurately preserved.

§ 3. Concerning the material and form of sacred furnishings, liturgical prescriptions, ecclesiastical tradition, and, in the better manner in which it can be done, also the laws of sacred art are to be observed.

Unless otherwise provided, those who by office are held to repair the church according to the norm of can. 1186 must also provide for it the sacred furnishings necessary for worship.

§ 1. Of a deceased Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church who had domicile in the City, although he was a suburbicarian Bishop or an Abbot nullius, any sacred furnishing, except rings and pectoral crosses even with sacred relics, and all other things stably destined for divine worship, with no account had of the quality and nature of the revenues by which they were acquired, pass to the pontifical sacristy, unless the Cardinal gave them or left them by testament to some church or public oratory, or pious place, or to some ecclesiastical or religious person.

§ 2. It is to be desired that a Cardinal who wishes to use a faculty of this kind prefer, at least in part, those churches which he had obtained in title, administration, or commendam.

§ 1. The sacred furnishings of a deceased residential Bishop, even if he had shone with cardinalitial dignity, pass to the cathedral church, except rings and pectoral crosses even with sacred relics, with the prescription of can. 1288 preserved, and all those utensils of whatever kind which it is legitimately proved were acquired by the deceased Bishop from goods not belonging to the church itself and are not established to have passed into the ownership of the church.

§ 2. If at any time a Bishop has governed two or more dioceses successively, or at the same time has presided over two or more dioceses united or granted in perpetual administration, having their own and distinct cathedral churches, the sacred utensils which are established to have been acquired from the revenues of only one diocese pass to the cathedral church of the same; otherwise they must be divided, in equal parts, among the individual cathedral churches, provided that the revenues of the dioceses are not divided, but perpetually constitute one episcopal table; but if the revenues are divided and separate, the division is to be made among the individual cathedral churches in proportion to the fruits which the Bishop received in the individual dioceses and the time during which he presided over them.

§ 3. The Bishop is held by the obligation of making an inventory of sacred utensils in authentic form, in which, according to the truth of the matter, he is to express when they were acquired, and distinctly describe if he acquired any not from the revenues and proceeds of the church, but from his own goods or from a donation made to him; otherwise all are presumed to have been acquired from the revenues of the church.

The things prescribed in can. 1299 are to be applied also to a cleric who has obtained in some church a secular or religious benefice.

§ 1. A Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, a residential Bishop, and other beneficiary clerics are held by the obligation of taking care by testament or by another instrument valid in the form of civil law that the canonical prescriptions of which in can. 1298-1300 receive due effect also in the civil forum.

§ 2. Wherefore, in due time and in a form valid by civil law, let them designate a person of unimpaired reputation according to the norm of can. 380, who, when their death has arrived, is to take possession not only of the sacred furnishings, but also of books, documents, and other things which pertain to the church and are found in their house, and remit them to the one to whom they are owed.

Rectors of churches and others to whom the care of sacred furnishings has been entrusted must carefully provide for their preservation and decorum.

§ 1. The cathedral church must furnish gratuitously to the Bishop the sacred furnishings and other things which are necessary for the sacrifice of the Mass or for other pontifical functions, even when he celebrates privately, not only in the cathedral church, but also in other churches of the city or suburb.

§ 2. If some church labors under poverty, the Ordinary can permit that a moderate stipend be exacted from priests who celebrate there for their own convenience, on account of the utensils and other things necessary for the sacrifice of the Mass.

§ 3. It belongs to the Bishop, but not to the Vicar Capitular or Vicar General without a special mandate, to define the same stipend, and it is lawful for no one, even religious although exempt, to exact a greater one.

§ 4. Let the Bishop define a stipend of this kind for the whole diocese in the diocesan Synod, if it can be done, or outside the Synod, having heard the Chapter.

The following can impart the blessing of that sacred furnishing which, according to the norm of liturgical laws, must be blessed before it is employed for its proper use:

1° Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and all Bishops.

2° Local Ordinaries, lacking episcopal character, for churches and oratories of their own territory.

3° A pastor for churches and oratories situated in the territory of his parish, and rectors of churches for their own churches.

4° Priests delegated by the local Ordinary, within the limits of the delegation and of the jurisdiction of the one delegating.

5° Religious Superiors, and priests of the same religion delegated by them, for their own churches and oratories and for the churches of nuns subject to them.

§ 1. Blessed or consecrated sacred furnishings lose their blessing or consecration:

1° If they have undergone such injuries or changes that they have lost their former form and are no longer considered suitable for their own uses.

2° If they have been employed for indecorous uses or exposed to public sale.

§ 2. A chalice and paten do not lose consecration because of the wearing away or renewal of the gilding, with the grave obligation, however, in the former case, of gilding them again.

§ 1. Care must be taken lest the chalice with the paten, and, before washing, purificators, palls, and corporals which were used in the sacrifice of the Mass, be touched except by clerics or by those who have custody of them.

§ 2. Purificators, palls, and corporals used in the sacrifice of the Mass are not to be handed over to be washed by lay persons, even religious, unless they have first been washed by a cleric constituted in major orders; moreover the water of the first washing is to be sent into the sacrarium or, if this is lacking, into fire.