Article I: On the Ceremonies of the Sacraments

104. Ceremonies are accidental rites customarily used in the solemn administration of the sacraments. Whence they differ from the sacraments, because they are not of divine institution but of ecclesiastical institution; and because they are not ordered directly to conferring grace, but to promoting veneration toward the sacraments and devotion.

Protestants despise them as superstitious. But from the beginning certain ceremonies have always been used in the Church in ministering sacred things; and to the Church power has been given to institute all those things which pertain to the fittingness of worship and of the ministration of the sacraments, as the Council of Trent teaches, sess. 22, c. 5. Whence sess. 7, can. 13, defines: "If anyone shall say that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, customarily used in the solemn administration of the sacraments, can either be contemned, or be omitted by the ministers according to their pleasure without sin, or be changed into other new rites by any pastor whatsoever of churches, let him be anathema."

105. The utility of ceremonies is manifold: 1. they contribute to the adornment and majesty of divine worship and to reverence for the sacraments, so that holy things may be treated holily, while they excite greater reverence in ministers, recipients, and bystanders; 2. they vividly declare and, as it were, render visible to the eyes the marvelous efficacy of the sacraments, and they lead the intellect, as it were by the hand, so that it may grasp sacramental doctrine and retain it impressed upon itself; 3. thus they raise the mind to the contemplation of divine things, and excite faith and charity; 4. it can be added that they distinguish the members of the Church from heretics, who do not observe these ceremonies.

106. The obligation of observing ceremonies is grave from its genus, so that ministers are bound in conscience and under sin to observe ceremonies, whether prescribed by the universal Church or in their own particular region or order or rite, unless necessity excuses. But if the matter were left to the judgment of ministers, the greatest deformity and confusion would arise.

Even apart from contempt or scandal, those sin who without a just reason omit or change ceremonies, gravely or lightly according to the matter; this will more easily be grave in proportion as the ceremonies are of higher signification, or have a special effect, or are not observed in greater quantity, or as greater scandal of the faithful is apt to follow from it.