§ 1. On the Worship of Latria

DEFINITION. The worship of LATRIA (or adoration) is honor exhibited to God on account of his supreme excellence, superior to all things, with a protestation of our every-kind submission toward him.

533. PRINCIPLES. I. God alone is to be worshiped with the worship of latria. It is established 1. from Matt. 4:10: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve; 2. by reason, because God, and he alone, has supreme and infinite excellence, communicable to no creature.

II. The most holy humanity of Christ the Lord, considered as joined to the Word, is to be worshiped with the worship of latria, absolute indeed, but simultaneous with the Word. The same is to be said concerning the species of bread and wine in the Eucharist, which, as sacramentally united to Christ the Lord, are co-adored. See the dogmatic theologians.

III. The most holy Name of Christ, drops of the most holy Blood left behind, the Cross and other instruments of the Passion are also to be adored with the worship of latria, but respective: with the worship of latria, because they represent Christ, or were in some way joined to him; respective, because they have only extrinsic excellence.

The same holds concerning sacred vessels and ornaments, churches, and other things or places specially deputed to the worship of God. "Their worship is reduced to the worship of latria by reason of the sacrifice to which they are ordered" (III, 132).

534. Let the following be noted FOR PRACTICE:

I. The most holy Blood which is preserved in certain churches as an eminent relic is not worshiped with absolute adoration, because in fact it does not retain the hypostatic union (S. R. C., n. 2660; Collius, de Sang. Christi, l. V, disp. 8, c. 6).

II. The true Cross is adored by a twofold title: 1. as an eminent relic of Christ, even if divided into the smallest parts; 2. as an image representing Christ crucified. Other crosses made in likeness of the true Cross are to be adored by reason of representation only (Salmant., tr. 21, c. 10, n. 24).

As regards specifically a particle from the wood of the most holy CROSS, these things are to be adverted to: 1. If it has been exposed in the principal place over the altar, those passing before it ought to bend one knee, and Mass before it is to be celebrated as before the enclosed Sacrament. But if it is put away in a case, those passing before it should incline the head. 2. Where immemorial usage carries this, it can be carried processionally under a canopy, with two thurifers incensing and with head uncovered. 3. After the procession or exposition, before it is put away, the officiant, standing, incenses it with three swings; then, having assumed the humeral veil and made one genuflection, he blesses the people with it, saying nothing (Kon., n. 327). 4. It is not licit on Friday in Parasceve after the ceremonies to expose a relic of the Holy Cross so that it remains exposed until the function of the next day (S. R. C., n. 2740).

535. III. Sacred things, in the broad sense, are called all things pertaining to the worship of God, although they have not been blessed, but insofar as they have been withdrawn from the profane commerce of men and dedicated to the service of God. Of this kind are candlesticks, lamps, canopy, cruets, vessel for holy water, etc.

STRICTLY SACRED THINGS are those which, through a special blessing (namely constitutive), or consecration (in which an anointing intervenes), are destined for the worship of God. Of this kind are blessed churches or chapels (sacred places), altars, chalices, corporals, priestly vestments, etc. Likewise sacred bibles, missals, and similar things, which of themselves, without blessing, are sacred (III, 40). See below n. 1444.

1. Sacred things of whatever kind must be treated reverently. Therefore: a) let them serve neither superstitious nor indecent uses; b) let them be consonant with liturgical prescriptions, at least decent and clean. See n. 1630 seqq.

2. Strictly sacred things must be treated with special reverence; nor can they be applied to profane uses, even honorable ones. "What has once been dedicated to God is not thereafter to be transferred to human uses" (Rule of Law in 6). See n. 583.

This rule ceases: a) If it is a question of things not strictly sacred, for example candles, branches, water, incense, the Paschal lamb, and similar blessed things, which are licitly applied to profane use; provided that you do not always and indifferently use them thus. b) If a strictly sacred thing is totally changed, so that it returns to common matter, for example if a chalice by fire or iron is reduced to a common mass of silver (III, 40, 41; VI, 94, 371). Cf. Gennari, Consult. mor. can., n. 33.

Those things which can no longer serve the use for which they have been destined are to be withdrawn from the same in a decent manner, and indeed: a) Ruined churches, no longer repairable, can be converted indeed into profane uses, but not sordid ones; yet with a cross erected there, as Trent prescribes (Sess. 21, c. 7), unless sacrilege is feared; in which case at least a commemorative inscription is to be placed. b) The sacred oils are to be burned each year (and the ashes thrown into the sacrarium); likewise vestments, after they have been worn out, unless perhaps they are applied to making or repairing others. 3. Baptismal water, on Holy Saturday and on the vigil of Pentecost, after the new water has been blessed, is to be poured into the sacrarium.