§ III. On the Indulgences of Confraternities

1790. Questions. - Quaer. 1° 1) What are confraternities? 2) What is their origin? 3) By whom can they be erected?

Resp. to 1st. They are congregations of the faithful (but not of Religious) instituted by ecclesiastical authority for exercising pious works.² But by the name of Archconfraternity is understood a confraternity having the privilege of aggregating others to itself, and of communicating to them the spiritual graces granted to itself by the Holy See.

Resp. to 2nd. Confraternities owe their origin remotely to the zeal of association, which always flourished in the Church;³ but especially to the Orders of Regulars, to whom it was granted to erect congregations of laypeople, and to communicate to them various spiritual graces.⁴ The more celebrated Confraternities of this kind are, e.g., the Rosary, which owes its origin to the Dominicans, - the Scapular, which owes its origin to the Carmelites, - the Blessed Virgin Mary, which owes its origin to the Jesuits, - the Holy Family J. M. J., which owes its origin to the Redemptorists, etc., etc.

Resp. to 3rd. They are erected either by Ordinaries (under whose name Vicars General do not come here⁵), or, with the consent of the Ordinary, by Superiors of Orders to whom this has been granted. But confraternities erected by Ordinaries are customarily aggregated to some Archconfraternity, so that they may participate in its Indulgences, etc.⁶

Quaer. 2° What things are to be observed in instituting, - aggregating, - governing confraternities?

Resp. The principal things are these: 1) Only one confraternity of the same kind can be instituted or aggregated in the same church, or even in the same or another place within three miles. Except confraternities of the Most Holy Sacrament, of Christian Doctrine, which can be instituted in individual parishes, and those for which a similar grace shall have been obtained from the Holy See.

Addendum and Corrigendum to Resp. under 1. - Add the following response, or rather indult. "The Vicar General N. N., prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, humbly sets forth as follows. As regards the erection of confraternities of the same name and institute, the law requires a certain distance of churches. But among us, and in most cities of the United States of North America, in the same place there are quasi-parochial churches for diverse nations speaking diverse languages, chiefly English and German. The parishes have boundaries so distinguished one from another as to the others, that the faithful of the English language, for example, belong to their own churches, and those using the German language to other churches of their own language, and have almost no communication among themselves. By this law it happens that very often two churches, although of diverse language, have almost no distance between themselves. This division and separation is of greater difference in reality than mere local distance. For morally it is impossible that, if there is question of a confraternity erected in a church of one language, the faithful using another language should approach this for enrollment, and especially for public devotion in a different vernacular language. Therefore it is asked whether the law concerning the distance of confraternities also avails for these circumstances or not?

"From the Audience of His Holiness, held on 21 October 1883. Our Most Holy Lord Leo XIII, Pope by Divine Providence, upon the report of me, the undersigned Secretary of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, deigned graciously to consent in favor of the grace of dispensation from the required distance, yet under this condition, that each instituted Confraternity can enroll only those who belong to the determinate nation for which, as is said, the same Confraternity has already been erected or is to be erected. And this under penalty of nullity of the Indulgences." The Pastor, vol. II, p. 22 (124).

The response contains an indult, which avails only for the diocese of that Vicar General.

2) Let the statutes of confraternities be examined and approved by the Ordinary of the place, and they can be corrected and changed by him. He also constitutes the moderator, with power, if it so pleases him, of subdelegating another.

3) Those instituting or aggregating a confraternity should communicate to the same: a) expressly and in species the privileges, Indulgences, etc., granted by name to the Order instituting or aggregating, but not by way of communication; b) they should observe the formula prescribed by the Holy See, which see in Acta.¹

4) Graces and Indulgences communicated to a confraternity are to be promulgated only after recognition by the Ordinary.¹

Thus from the Constitution of Clement VIII, Quaecumque, December 7, 1604, and later decrees.

Quaer. 3° What confraternities, with the Indulgences annexed to the same by the Holy See, can our Bishops institute?

Resp. The confraternities of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, of the Most Holy Rosary, of a Good Death (see p. LXXIII. n. 9).

Note. - It is pleasing to add in this place a summary of certain other declarations of S. C. Ind. concerning Confraternities useful to know.

1. Partial or general non-observance of the statutes of some Confraternity on the part of the members does not hinder the acquisition of Indulgences; for the statutes are given rather for the governance and right administration of the Confraternity, but by no means as works enjoined for gaining Indulgences. Prinz. n. DXXV. 2°. Therefore they can also be changed by Ordinaries according to circumstances. If nevertheless some articles of the statutes propose certain works to be performed by the members, which from Pontifical concession are enriched with indulgences, these must be held as essential and can in no way be changed by the Bishop, lest the members be defrauded of the spiritual benefit of Indulgences. Ib. n. DLI.

2. For gaining Indulgences it suffices that someone has been legitimately enrolled in the Confraternity and fulfills the conditions under which they were granted. Ib. 1°. 3°. Therefore that public reception of members is not necessary which, according to the statutes of certain Confraternities (e.g., of the Most Holy Family), is celebrated with some solemnity at some time after the private reception.

3. Where no daily prayers are prescribed to confreres for the effect of gaining Indulgences, they are not held to recite any determinate prayers. Ib. n. DCI.

4. Confraternities of laypeople cannot be erected in the churches of Nuns, as has often been decided by S. Congr. of Bishops and Regulars.¹

5. No one absent can be enrolled in any Confraternity: understand this according to the Response of S. C. Ind., November 26, 1880, whose summary is handed down at (50) p. 429.

Several kinds of Scapulars are given, for example, of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows, of Mount Carmel, of the Immaculate Conception, of the Passion, etc.

From Fr. Ulrich we transcribe the following.