ARTICLE II: ON THE PLACE OF CELEBRATION

1328. 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 Trent.⁴

As regards a polluted and execrated Church, see below n. 1329. 4° and 5°. But concerning an interdicted Church, n. 1695-1697.

II. The Bishop can no longer, as formerly, grant the faculty of celebrating in the houses of private persons, nor in a private Oratory.¹ This is established from the declaration of the S. C. C. 27 May 1617 and 23 Jan. 1847, in which it is said that it is not lawful for any Bishop to grant licenses of this sort, not even for a passing act, and that this faculty is reserved to the Roman Pontiff. An exception is made, however, if great and urgent causes are present, and then only by way of a passing act. Thus S. C. C. 20 Dec. 1856.

1329. Questions. - Query 1° In what Oratories can Bishops give permission to celebrate?

Resp. By common law, in public ones, and, outside private houses, in every religious or pious place. But a religious place is said to be that 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, palaces of Bishops, Seminaries, and the rest. ... But a pious place is called that which is constituted and deputed for works of piety and mercy, even without the authority of the Bishop or of an ecclesiastical Prelate. Hence any Hospitals and Orphanages whatever must be held as pious places, in which therefore the Bishop can permit the erection of an Oratory, even if places of this kind have been erected and constituted by the civil power. Thus S. C. C.² Add also Oratories which are erected in prisons, although prisons are not customarily called pious places.

Query 2° Is it sometimes lawful to celebrate outside a Church, or outside the Oratories of which in the preceding question?

Resp. Affirmatively, when grave necessity urges, e.g. 1° if the Church were destroyed or could not contain an immense multitude, and otherwise the people would lack Mass on a day of precept; 2° if a priest were making a long pilgrimage through deserted places or among unbelievers, and otherwise would be without Mass for a long time; 3° if an army were in camps, and otherwise would lack Mass on a day of precept; 4° in a port because of the arrival of a ship, lest those sailing, who cannot leave the ship, be deprived of Mass on a day of precept. Thus from various places of Canon Law according to St. Alphonsus. Nevertheless in these and similar cases the permission of the Ordinary is always to be sought and can be sought;¹ 5° concerning the permission of the Bishop in a private house in the case declared in n. 1328. II. and n. 1144. IV. 2°.

Query 3° What are the special faculties of our Bishops concerning the place of celebration?

Resp. "Of celebrating under the open sky and under ground, but in a becoming place, ... if it cannot be celebrated otherwise." See p. LXXII. n. 23.

Nevertheless this faculty, which can be and is customarily communicated to priests, as the tenor of it, "if it cannot be celebrated otherwise," already demands, is restricted by the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore² in such a way that "no priest ... may celebrate Mass in private buildings, unless in stations, and in those buildings which the Ordinary has designated, or while he is actually giving attention to the exercises of a Mission" (understand: spiritual assistance furnished to some place "far from any church," through one or more days). Therefore it is not lawful to use that faculty in cities or towns in which churches have been erected.³

As regards the becoming place of which in this faculty, Kenrick⁴ observes that the following are not judged such: a) A room where a sick person lies, unless in the country far from every church it is necessary to celebrate for giving him Viaticum.⁵ b) Where a more suitable place can be had, the house where there is the corpse of a dead person; a room where some are accustomed to sleep; huts and the houses of laborers. c) The lower part of a house. d) A ship, unless by special Papal indult, which is customarily granted only to Apostolic Missionaries. Except the case of which in the preceding question 2° under 4°. e) A theater. f) Buildings of Freemasons. g) A room of an inn in which dances are customarily held. h) Churches of heretics or schismatics; for the so-called "Simultaneous" churches, in which Clement XI permitted the Missionaries of Rhaetia to celebrate, are consecrated churches of Catholics occupied by heretics, such as, so far as I know, we have none among us.

Query 4° In what way is a Church polluted, and in what way must it be reconciled?

Resp. to the first. A Church is polluted (likewise a crypt blessed together with it), when in it those indecent actions and injuries to a sacred place are done, on account of which it is reputed unbecoming that the immaculate Host be offered there, and that the divine Offices be celebrated, until it is reconciled. Hence it is polluted: 1° by voluntary homicide (therefore also by suicide), and one injurious, at least to the immunity of the Church, such as also is that which otherwise would be just by sentence of a judge; unless, however, a disturber of the republic could not otherwise be seized; 2° by a gravely culpable and copious shedding of blood from a blow or from a wound gravely injurious to the church; but it is required that he against whom the savagery of which under 1° and 2° is exercised, suffer it in the church itself, although perhaps the one wounding is outside the church, or although the shedding of blood or death follows outside it; 3° by a voluntary shedding of human seed, and one illicit either of itself or by reason of the sacred place. Therefore it would not be polluted by marital intercourse, when a just cause of having it was present, namely to avoid incontinence; 4° by the burial of an unbaptized person, or of an unbeliever. Except the infant of whom in n. 1699. q. 1°. R. 1°, and catechumens (ib.);¹ but not an infant already born (even of Christians) dead without Baptism (S. C. Immun. apud Craisson, Man. n. 4800); 5° by the burial of a baptized excommunicated person to be avoided; but not if he is indeed excommunicated, but not to be avoided. Concerning these things there is evidence from Canon Law. - See St. Alphonsus.² But that a Church be judged polluted, these crimes must be notorious either by fact or by law, either immediately from the beginning, or afterwards. They must also be committed in the Church itself, i.e. in some part of it from the upper vault to the pavement and from the interior door to the last wall; therefore not in the sacristy, etc.³

Resp. to the second. 1° If the Church was only blessed, it can be reconciled by a priest (according to the Roman Ritual to be delegated by the Bishop, which however is not of precept), with the customary prayers, and with water blessed for reconciling the Church by the priest himself delegated (or not delegated).⁴

2° But if that Church was consecrated, it must be reconciled by the Bishop himself, or by a priest delegated by the Pope [n. 1247. IV. b)], or among us by the Bishop (p. LXXI. 13), according to the rite of the Roman Pontifical. Nevertheless, if the divine Offices cannot be omitted without grave inconvenience, with the permission of the Bishop, if it can be had (otherwise without it), it can be celebrated.

Domestic Oratories in private houses, although blessed (which nevertheless cannot be blessed except with the blessing of a place or of a new house¹) and deputed to worship, are not judged to be polluted.

Query 5° In what way is a Church execrated, or an execrated Church rendered fit for worship?

Resp. 1° A Church is execrated when it loses its blessing or consecration. But it is judged to be execrated when it totally or for the greatest part collapses, or is destroyed, so that it must be built anew, at least for the greater part, or if the whole plastering of the walls, or at least the greater part, is removed at the same time.²

Resp. 2° An execrated Church is again to be blessed or consecrated, according to the rite and form prescribed for the blessing or consecration of Churches.

But a fixed altar loses its consecration when the table or upper stone is removed from its base, or through an enormous fracture of the table. - Thus S. C. R. 15 May 1819, 3 March 1821. Altars, whether portable or fixed, lose it when the sepulcher is opened or broken (or when the cover of this is broken or removed, but not precisely the seal),³ in which the Sacred Relics are placed, or through the loss of the same. - S. C. R. 23 Sept. 1848. Nor is it sufficient to bury other authentic Relics in them; but the altars are to be consecrated anew. - Thus S. C. R. 7 Dec. 1844. - Note, however, the faculty conceded to our Bishops and which through them can be and is customarily communicated to priests,⁴ of celebrating, ... even if the altar is broken or without Relics of Saints; ... if it cannot be celebrated otherwise. See p. LXXII. n. 23.

Finally, sacred vessels and other consecrated things are execrated when they lose their form, and can no longer serve for their use. - Hence also paraments lose their blessing if they become so torn or worn by use that by the estimation of moral men they can no longer be employed for their end, or if they lose their essential form even for the briefest time, so that, while this separation stands, they cannot serve for their use: hence also, if by one act a part is added which is greater than the blessed part; but not if they are repaired gradually by smaller parts. De Herdt.¹

Moreover, from what has been said it is clear what the distinction is between the pollution of a Church and its execration. When part of the Church is polluted, the whole Church is judged polluted, even together with the adjacent cemetery and fixed altars (but not portable ones). On the contrary, when a Church is execrated, the cemetery is not for that reason execrated, nor are the altars. L. VI. 368-371. (Z) p. 403.