Article II. On the Place of Celebration

386. Principles. - I. It is not commonly lawful to celebrate except in a church, and one consecrated or at least blessed, which is not polluted, execrated, or interdicted. This is established from the Council of Trent, sess. 22, Decree De observandis et vitandis in celebratione Missae.

Concerning a polluted and execrated church, see Questions 2 and 3 below. But concerning an interdicted church, we shall speak toward the end of the Treatise on Censures, no. 1002 et seq.

II. A Bishop can no longer, as formerly, grant the faculty of celebrating in private houses or in a private Oratory. Council of Trent, sess. 22, in the Decree just cited. This is also established from the declaration of the S. Congregation of the Council, May 27, 1617, and Jan. 23, 1847, in which it is said: It is not lawful for any Bishop to grant licenses of this kind, not even for a transient act; this faculty is reserved to the Roman Pontiff alone (Revue des Sciences ecclesiastiques, Sept. 1862, vol. 6, p. 265). Hence it follows that the doctrine of St. Ligorius, somewhat more favorable to Bishops, must be moderated ¹. An exception is made, however, if grave and urgent causes are present, and only by way of a transient act. - S. Congregation of the Council just cited, May 27, 1617, and Dec. 20, 1856.

¹ But I do not know why St. Alphonsus is said to favor Bishops beyond what is right in this matter. For (Lib. 6, no. 359) he attributes to Bishops the faculty of dispensing only in a case of necessity or for a just cause and by way of a transient act, and he affirms this with very weighty and altogether numerous Doctors preceding him, so that he was able to conclude that this doctrine could be called common. Moreover, this is the very thing which the Author also proposes in this place.

III. A Bishop can, however, grant the faculty of offering Mass in public Oratories and of performing there the other sacred functions which are not strictly parochial. Nevertheless, he cannot permit the Most Holy Eucharist to be reserved there without an Indult of the Pontiff, unless an immemorial custom is present: thus the S. Congregation, April 27, 1709. Regulars who profess solemn vows, however, have the privilege of reserving the Most Holy Eucharist in their churches.

387. Questions. - QUESTION 1. In which Oratories can Bishops give permission to celebrate?

Reply. They can permit this to be done in every religious and pious place. A religious place is said to be one in which works of piety and mercy are exercised and which has been erected by the authority of the Bishop or of another ecclesiastical Prelate. Such are monasteries, any religious Communities, Seminaries, etc. But a pious place is called one which is constituted and deputed for works of piety and mercy, even if without the authority of the Bishop or an ecclesiastical Prelate. Hence any Hospitals and Orphanages ought to be regarded as pious places, in which the Bishop can therefore permit the erection of an Oratory, even if places of this kind were erected and constituted by the civil power ². - Thus the S. Congregation of the Council, March 27, 1847. - Recall what was said about private and public Oratories, vol. 1, no. 348.

² Add also Oratories which are erected in prisons, although prisons are not customarily called pious places.

388. QUESTION 2. How is a church polluted, and how must it be reconciled?

Reply to the first. A church is polluted or violated when certain base or indecent actions injurious to the sacred place are exercised in it, on account of which it is considered indecent that the immaculate Victim be offered there and the divine Offices celebrated until it is reconciled.

Therefore, a church is polluted: 1. By voluntary and unjust homicide ³. 2. By the shedding of human blood from a blow or a gravely injurious wound. 3. By the voluntary emission of human semen ⁴. 4. By the burial of an unbaptized person or infidel. Except, more probably, if he is a catechumen, because he is not regarded as an infidel. Likewise, if it is an infant whose parents are Christians, because then the parents desire Baptism for him. - Thus Pichler. - Gousset, no. 310, against others. 5. By the burial of a baptized person excommunicated by name; but not if he is indeed excommunicated but is not to be avoided. These things are established from Canon Law. - See St. Lig., no. 362. But in order that a church be regarded as polluted, these crimes must be notorious, so that they can in no way be concealed. They must also be perpetrated in the church itself, and not merely in the tower, roof, sacristy, or other rooms adjoining the church. - St. Lig., nos. 362 and 364.

³ The VV. rightly observe (p. 933, no. 99) that it must be sought from Busembaum (Lib. 6, tr. 3, ch. 3, dub. 4, res. 1) how far unjust homicide extends in this place. Busembaum, from Lugo, speaks thus: A church, as also a cemetery, is violated or polluted... 1. By homicide committed in it which is mortally evil or injurious, at least to the immunity of the Church, such as even that which would otherwise be just by the sentence of a judge, unless, however, a disturber of the Republic could not otherwise be apprehended.

⁴ Understand an emission unlawful either in itself or by reason of the sacred place. Therefore, it would not be polluted by marital intercourse when a just cause for having it was present, for example, to avoid incontinence. See what was said elsewhere, where Sacrilege was treated.

389. Reply to the second. 1. If the church was only blessed, it can be reconciled by a priest delegated by the Bishop, with the customary prayers and with water blessed by the Ordinary. If, however, such water could not easily be obtained, it could be blessed by the priest himself delegated to reconcile the church. - St. Lig., no. 363 ⁵.

⁵ St. Alphonsus (loc. cit.), as the VV. rightly observe (p. 933, no. 100), does not say that the water can be blessed by the priest himself if water blessed by the Ordinary cannot easily be obtained; but after other Authors he says absolutely: But the water can be blessed by the priest himself. Indeed, he adds, Benedict XIV, De Synodo, bk. 13, ch. 15, no. 2, says: If it (the church) was simply blessed, then the same Gregory IX (in Cap. Si Ecclesia, De Consecr. Eccl.) established that, without any delegation first obtained, a polluted church can be reconciled by a simple priest, using blessed water, which they call holy or lustral water.

2. But if that church was consecrated, it must be reconciled by the Bishop himself or by a priest delegated by the Pope, according to the rite of the Roman Pontifical. Nevertheless, if the divine Offices cannot be omitted without grave inconvenience, the Bishop, being detained by some impediment, can delegate a priest to bless the church with a simple blessing until he himself can consecrate it. - Cabassut, etc.

Private Oratories, however, although blessed and deputed for worship, are not regarded as capable of being polluted, and therefore do not need reconciliation.

390. QUESTION 3. How is a church execrated, or rendered fit for worship again? Reply 1. A church is execrated when it loses its blessing or consecration. It is regarded as execrated when it falls or is destroyed totally or for the greatest part, so that it must be rebuilt anew, at least for the greater part, or if all the plaster of the walls, or at least the greater part, is removed at the same time. - St. Lig., no. 368.

Reply 2. An execrated church must be blessed or consecrated again, according to the rite and form prescribed for the blessing or consecration of churches.

A fixed altar loses its consecration when the table or upper stone is removed from its support. - Thus the S. Congregation of Rites, May 15, 1819. Altars, whether portable or fixed, lose their consecration through the breaking of the sepulcher in which the sacred Relics are enclosed, or through the loss of those Relics. - S. Congregation of Rites, Sept. 23, 1848. Nor is it sufficient for other authentic Relics to be enclosed in them; rather, the altars must be consecrated anew. - Thus the S. Congregation of Rites, Dec. 7, 1844.

Finally, sacred vessels and other consecrated things are execrated when they lose their form and can no longer serve for their use.

From the things said, moreover, it is evident what the distinction is between the pollution of a church and its execration. When part of a church is polluted, the whole church is regarded as polluted, even together with the adjoining cemetery. On the contrary, when a church is execrated, the cemetery is not for that reason execrated, nor do fixed and intact altars lose their consecration.