Article II. On the Obligation of Celebrating by Reason of Office

361. I say I: All pastors of souls are bound by natural and divine law to celebrate at some time for their sheep. The reason is that they ought to feed them. This is also established from the Council of Trent, sess. 23, ch. 1, De Reform., where it says: Since by divine precept it has been commanded to all to whom the care of souls is entrusted to know their sheep, to offer Sacrifice for them..., etc.

I say II: By ecclesiastical law, the same persons are bound to celebrate for their sheep on all Sundays and feast days on which the faithful ought to hear Mass. This is established from several decrees of the Church, but especially from the Constitution of Benedict XIV, Cum semper, of August 19, 1744. Not only secular parish priests but also regulars are bound to this; likewise those who are deputed, temporarily or removably, for example, because of the absence or infirmity of the parish priest, to supply his office, such as assistant parish priests. - Benedict XIV, Constitution cited. Indeed, a parish priest placed over two parishes is bound to apply two Masses when feast days recur, unless the union of the two parishes is plenary and extinctive, so that from two parish churches there has become altogether one through the extinction of the title of the other. - S. Congr. of the Council, March 11, 1774. This burden a fortiori rests upon Bishops after they have taken possession of the See, but not upon Vicars Capitular. - S. Congr. of Rites, Nov. 12, 1831. Missionaries and Vicars Apostolic, however, are by no means bound to apply Masses, although it is fitting to do so from charity. - S. Congr. for the Propagation of the Faith, April 1862 ¹.

¹ Namely, a response had formerly proceeded from the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith as though missionaries were bound to this by a strict obligation of charity. But later, namely in the year 1862, that resolution was rejected by the Sacred Congregation itself. For the rest, the title of charity of which the Author speaks presses missionaries equally, as is evident, and all priests throughout the whole world. Hence the Author here indicates not an office proper to missionaries, but one common to all.

362. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Can a very poor parish priest accept a stipend for a Mass to be celebrated on Sunday?

Reply. Negatively, of itself. This is established from the declaration of Benedict XIV in the aforesaid Constitution ². - St. Lig., no. 325.

² Nevertheless, in sec. 8 of the same Constitution Benedict XIV grants Bishops the faculty of dispensing so that needy parish priests may, even on feast days, receive an alms from some devout offerer and apply the Sacrifice for him, on this condition, however, that within the week, by applying a Mass for the people, they supply whatever was omitted on the feast days.

QUESTION 2. Is the obligation of celebrating Mass for the people personal?

Reply. Affirmatively. The reason is that it rests upon the parish priest as pastor. Hence parish priests ought by themselves to apply Mass for the people on Sundays and feast days; nor is any custom to the contrary valid.

To a doubt proposed to the S. Congr. of the Council:

What is to be thought of the custom by force of which a parish priest on Sundays and feast days applies a private Mass for some devout benefactor and, being detained by no legitimate impediment, transfers to another priest the burden of celebrating Mass?

The Sacred Congregation replied: The custom in question is not to be regarded. Sept. 25, 1847, in Mechlinien. - See D. Bouix, Treatise on the Parish Priest, p. 590.

363. QUESTION 3. Does a parish priest satisfy the aforesaid obligation by a private Mass?

Reply. It seems that the answer must be altogether affirmative, because he fulfills the precept of the Church in reality; nor is he bound to celebrate a solemn Mass, or at some certain fixed hour, although the Bishop can prescribe that parish priests by themselves read or sing the more solemn Mass. - Thus D. Bouix, ibid., pp. 591-592.

Moreover, on Sundays and feast days the parish priest ought to celebrate Mass in his own church and not in another, notwithstanding any custom whatever to the contrary. - Thus S. Congr. of the Council, Sept. 15 and Nov. 17, 1629. - D. Bouix, Treatise on the Parish Priest, p. 591 ³.

³ In some places, however, custom provides that if a solemn feast is celebrated in another church subject to the same parish priest, the honor of celebrating a sung Mass with a double stipend is reserved to him by a certain right.

QUESTION 4. If a parish priest has deputed a vicar to celebrate Mass for the people, must he give him a stipend?

Reply. Affirmatively, because it pertains to the parish priest to take care that the parochial Mass, or Mass for the people, is celebrated, nor is the vicar bound to be deprived of a stipend.

QUESTION 5. Is a parish priest or Bishop who is infirm, or prevented from celebrating by some other cause, bound on feast days to have another celebrate for the people?

Reply. The answer is affirmative, because that burden is not only personal, but at the same time real, just like the burden of preaching, which consequently can and ought to be fulfilled through another. - St. Lig., no. 327. - S. Congr. of Rites, May 11, 1720.

QUESTION 6. Is a parish priest who could not substitute another for himself to celebrate for the people on one or another day during the time of a Retreat (Retraite pastorale) afterward bound to apply as many Masses for the people?

Reply. Affirmatively, from the response of the S. Congr. of the Council to the Most Reverend Maupoint, Bishop of Saint-Denis (Bourbon), on Dec. 14, 1859.

364. QUESTION 7. Are pastors of souls bound to celebrate for the people on feasts suppressed by Pius VI?

Reply. Affirmatively. The reason is that on those days the Church exempts the faithful only from the obligation of hearing Mass and abstaining from servile works; hence the obligation of the parish priest to celebrate for the people continues to bind, just as it bound before. This is established from various Declarations of the S. Penitentiary.

QUESTION 8. Which feasts were suppressed by Pius VI?

Reply. They are the following: the feasts of the Apostles, except the solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul; the two weekdays that follow Easter and Pentecost; the Finding of the Holy Cross; the feasts of St. Anne, St. Lawrence, St. Stephen, the Holy Innocents, St. Sylvester, St. Michael, and St. Joseph. - See what was said in vol. I, no. 476.

365. QUESTION 9. Are pastors of souls in France bound to celebrate Mass for their sheep on suppressed feast days whose solemnities were transferred to Sunday by the concession of Pius VII in the year 1802?

Reply. Affirmatively. This is established from various decisions of the Holy See, especially from the Declaration of the S. Congregation of the Council of Trent approved by Gregory XVI, in the response given to the Most Reverend Bouvier, Bishop of Le Mans, on June 14, 1841, as well as from the response to the Most Reverend Archbishop of Toulouse on August 6, 1842; and again from the decision of the Sacred Congregation on Sept. 25, 1847.

Therefore, in order that a parish priest may satisfy this obligation, it does not suffice for him to apply Mass for the people on the Sundays to which the solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord, Corpus Christi, SS. Peter and Paul the Apostles, the Patron of the place (but not the Titular of the church), and the Immaculate Conception is deferred or transferred, where by Apostolic Indult that feast is celebrated on the second Sunday of Advent; but in addition he is bound to apply Mass on the very day on which the Offices of the aforesaid feasts are commonly recited in the Church ⁴.

⁴ With regard to transferred feast days, an exception must be made when the divine Office also has been transferred to Sunday together with the solemnity. Thus the Constitution of Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, May 3, 1858: But as regards transferred feast days, We make this one exception, namely, that when the divine Office has been transferred to Sunday together with the solemnity, only one Mass for the people is to be applied by parish priests, since the Mass, which is the principal part of the divine Office, must be judged to have been transferred together with the Office itself.

366. QUESTION 10. Is there any prescription or custom against the obligation of applying Mass for the people on suppressed or transferred feasts?

Reply. Negatively. This is openly established from the Declaration of the S. Congregation of the Council on Sept. 25, 1847, and especially from the Constitution of Pius IX, Amantissimi, May 3, 1858 ⁵.

⁵ Concerning this obligation with regard to reduced feasts, Pius IX established the following: ... Wherefore, by these letters We declare, establish, and decree that parish priests and all others actually exercising the care of souls ought to celebrate and apply the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the people entrusted to them, both on all Sundays and other days that are still observed by precept, and also on those which, by the indulgence of this Apostolic See, have been removed and transferred from the number of feast days of precept, just as the curators of souls themselves were bound to do while the aforesaid Constitution of Urban VIII was in its full force, before the feast days of precept were reduced and transferred.

QUESTION 11. Which feasts were suppressed by Pius VII and transferred to Sunday for France?

Reply. They are the following: the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Purification, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the feasts of SS. Peter and Paul, and of the Patron of the Parish. - Recall what was said in vol. I, no. 476.