ARTICLE II: ON THE OBLIGATION OF CELEBRATING BY REASON OF OFFICE

1322. - I say I. All Pastors of souls, by natural and divine law, are bound at some time to celebrate for their sheep. The reason is because they ought to feed them. This is also established from Trent,³ where it says thus: "Since by divine precept it has been commanded to all to whom the care of souls has been committed, to know their sheep, to offer Sacrifice for them," etc.

I say II. The same, by ecclesiastical law, are bound to celebrate for their sheep on all Sundays and on the days brought forward by Our Most Holy Lord Pius IX in the Encyclical Amantissimi Redemptoris, 3 May 1858 (see p. 87), from several Decrees of the Church, but especially from the Constitution of Benedict XIV, Cum semper.⁴ To this, however, not only secular Pastors are bound, but also Regulars; likewise those who for a time or removably, e.g. on account of the absence or infirmity of the Pastor, are deputed to supply his office, as Vice-pastors.⁵ Indeed a Pastor set over two parishes (but not a Bishop set over two dioceses¹) is bound, outside the case of an indult, to apply 2 Masses, unless the union of the two parishes is plenary and extinctive, so that from two parochial Churches there has entirely come to be one, by the extinction of the title of the other.² That burden belongs a fortiori to Ordinaries after possession of the See has been obtained,³ but not to Vicars Capitular.⁴ Missionaries, however, and Vicars Apostolic (provided there is not question of places in which Episcopal Sees and Parishes have already been canonically erected, and Vicars Apostolic and Missionaries have been sent to them to perform the duties of legitimate Pastors), and titular Bishops, are by no means bound to apply Masses, although from charity it is becoming that they do so. V. T. I. (§), p. 471.

Query. Is a Pastor or Bishop who is ill, or prevented from celebration for another cause, bound on feast days to celebrate for the people through another?

Resp. It must be answered affirmatively, because that burden is not merely personal, but at the same time real, not otherwise than the burden of preaching, which consequently can and must be fulfilled through another.⁶