Article III. On the Obligation by Reason of a Benefice

259. Notions. A benefice (or chaplaincy, of which there is question here) is a pious foundation duly made and accepted by a legitimate ecclesiastical superior, with the perpetual burden of saying Masses either in a determinate church or at a determinate altar or on a determinate day or hour, etc. This obligation is sometimes called briefly "perpetual burdens of Masses." The priest who receives the revenues of the foundation is called the beneficiary. Although so-called founded Masses, according to modern discipline, cannot properly be called benefices, nevertheless the rules to be given apply also to them.

260. Rule 1. All clauses placed in a pious foundation and accepted by legitimate ecclesiastical authority must be duly applied and faithfully observed. Cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 1475, § 1.

The reason is evident. For the pious foundation of a benefice is a bilateral contract by which the founder gives certain temporal goods, while legitimate ecclesiastical authority promises to institute from the revenues of those goods a beneficiary who must celebrate Masses according to the intention of the founder. The clauses placed in the foundation must be duly interpreted, and accordingly the rules concerning the interpretation of laws or contracts must be applied. A beneficiary sins gravely, however, if at any time without cause or dispensation he does not apply or even does not celebrate the founded Masses. If a daily Mass is established in the foundation of the benefice, it must be considered whether this obligation is annexed principally to the place, for example, to an altar or chapel, or to the person of the beneficiary. If the obligation is annexed principally to the place (for example, if the founder said: I will that Mass be said daily in this chapel), then Mass must truly be said on all days of the year, except the last three days of Holy Week; and if the beneficiary himself cannot say Mass, he must take care that another say Mass in that place. But if the obligation is annexed principally to the person of the beneficiary, it is lawful to presume that the founder wished to contribute to the support of a poor priest. Moralists then commonly teach that a beneficiary of this kind is not bound to celebrate Mass on absolutely all days of the year, but that by reason of illness, religion, or another reasonable impediment he can sometimes omit Mass.

First, by reason of illness he can omit Mass without being obliged to restore the fruits of the benefice. For a kindly master is not presumed readily to wish to deduct from the wages of a servant because of his brief illness. It is otherwise, however, if the illness endures for a long time; for then the fruits of the benefice must be restored, unless the beneficiary altogether needs them for his support. Authors dispute what illness is to be called long-lasting. To some, an illness of fifteen days seems brief; to others, one which does not exceed one month; finally, to others, one which does not exceed two months. St. Alphonsus³⁵⁷ and Lugo³⁵⁸ hold all these opinions probable. By reason of religion the beneficiary can omit Mass sometimes, that is, once in a week or in a month. Therefore, for example, Mass is licitly omitted because of humility, because of a better preparation for the tremendous sacrifice, or because of making spiritual exercises. Finally, by reason of another legitimate impediment, for example, because of making a necessary journey, the beneficiary can licitly abstain from saying Mass. Authors further concede that the beneficiary may apply Mass five or six times a year for himself or for his own. It is not lawful, however, for him then to take a stipend, because the beneficiary already has another stipend from the foundation.

³⁵⁷ Theol. mor. l. 6, n. 333.

³⁵⁸ De euchar., disp. 21, n. 49.

261. Rule 2. Although the Ordinary (the diocesan bishop or major religious superior) can interpret or even dispense from conditions annexed to the foundation in matters of lesser importance, nevertheless, according to the discipline now in force, recourse must be had to the Sacred Congregation of the Council whenever there is question of a reduction or remission of Masses.³⁵⁹

Therefore Benedict XIV³⁶⁰ says that "today no faculty of reducing Masses has been left to the bishop, except only in that kind of case in which the testator himself is known to have granted this faculty." Indeed, when the question was proposed, "Whether a bishop can reduce the burdens of Masses not yet accepted, without the good pleasure of the Apostolic See or of this Sacred Congregation, whenever, because of the smallness of the legacy, he judges a reduction to be necessary from the fact that the pious place refuses to accept the legacy unless the burden is diminished?" the Sacred Congregation of the Council replied on June 20, 1682: "Negative."

When the goods conferred in the foundation have totally perished without the fault of the beneficiary, the obligation of celebrating the Masses then ceases, because the beneficiary has a right to a fitting stipend for the Masses to be celebrated. But if those goods have perished only in part or their revenues have been greatly diminished, recourse must then be had to the Sacred Congregation of the Council, if the number of Masses was determined by the founder. A fortiori, no one except the Supreme Pontiff can remit Masses not said, if they ought to have been said from justice. The reason is that the founder of the Masses has a strict right to the ministerial fruits of the Masses to be said. But when the Supreme Pontiff remits Masses not said, he then compensates for the ministerial fruits of the Masses from the treasury of the Church, in which are the merits of Christ, which proceed especially from the sacrifice of the Cross. Therefore no injury accrues to the founder from such a remission, since the ministerial fruits of the Mass also derive from the sacrifice of the Cross.

³⁵⁹ Innocent XII, Constitution Nuper a Congregatione, December 23, 1697; Code of Canon Law, c. 1517, § 2.

³⁶⁰ De syn. dioec. l. 13, final chapter, n. 19.