Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 2. On Several Masses to Be Said on the Same Day
284. Three Masses can indeed, but need not necessarily, be said by any priest of the Latin rite: 1. on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord; 2. on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, November 2.430
Concerning Masses on the feast of the Nativity, the following must be noted:
a) If a priest celebrates only one or two Masses on this day, he must choose that which corresponds approximately to the hour of celebration, that is, the first if he celebrates at night; the second if around dawn; the third if after dawn.431
b) A priest is not prohibited from receiving a stipend for each of the three Masses.432
c) Blind priests who by indult are permitted daily to say the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary or another votive Mass can say this Mass three times on this day.433
d) Even in private oratories, where on other days only one Mass is permitted, it is lawful to say three Masses on the feast of the Nativity.
e) Although it seemed lawful to some434 that all priests could say at least one Mass at midnight on the Nativity,435 nevertheless it follows both from the general rubrics of the Missal436 and from the Code of Canon Law, c. 821, § 2, that by common law only one conventual or parish Mass is then permitted. In all religious or pious houses, however, which have an oratory with the faculty of habitually reserving the sacred species, it is lawful for one priest on the sacred night of our Lord Jesus Christ to celebrate the three ritual Masses, or even, according to the circumstances, only one, and to minister Holy Communion to all.437 Nevertheless, this indult "does not import the faculty of celebrating with the doors of the oratories also open, nor can it be extended to churches of religious which serve for the public use of the faithful people, yet without prejudice to the privilege of religious of celebrating a [solemn] Mass at midnight."438 In some places, however, there exists a custom or privilege whereby every priest can say three Masses on the night of the Nativity even in public churches, and every member of the faithful can receive Communion there.
430 Code of Canon Law, c. 806, § 1.
431 Sacred Congregation of Rites, January 19, 1875, and February 13, 1892 (Decr. auth., nn. 3354 and 3767 ad 21). Concerning the mystical signification of these three Masses, cf. S. theol. 3, q. 83, a. 2 ad 2.
432 Cf. Benedict XIV, Constitution Quot expensis, August 26, 1748; Code of Canon Law, c. 824, § 2.
433 Sacred Congregation of Rites, January 26, 1920, and January 12, 1921 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis XII, 122; XIII, 155).
434 From c. Nocte sancta 48, dist. 1, De consecratione.
435 Cf. Donoso, Instituciones de Derecho canónico, n. 204.
436 Title 15, n. 4.
437 Motu proprio, August 1, 1907; Code of Canon Law, c. 821, § 2.
438 Holy Office, November 26, 1908.
285. Concerning Masses on November 2, the following must be noted:
a) It is not lawful to accept a stipend except for one of these three Masses.439 Nevertheless, the privilege granted from ancient times in some regions of receiving three stipends for three Masses does not seem to have been suppressed.440
b) A priest saying three Masses is bound to apply the second for all the deceased, and the third according to the intention of the Supreme Pontiff;441 for these two Masses he can accept absolutely no stipend, except by reason of labor or an extrinsic inconvenience,442 for example, in a distant place.
c) The first Mass is that which is inscribed in the Missal on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed; the second is that which is contained there in the anniversary of the deceased; the third is that which is read among the daily Masses for the deceased.443 But he who wishes to celebrate only one Mass is to say that which is found in the Missal on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed; this same Mass is also to be used if a sung Mass is celebrated. A priest singing Mass can freely say the other two Masses either before or after the sung Mass. He who wishes to say two Masses on this day is to take the first and second indicated above; one is to be applied according to the intention of the celebrant, the other for all the faithful departed.444 A priest to whom, because of weakness of sight or another just cause, the Holy See has granted the faculty of always saying the daily Mass for the deceased can say the same Mass three times.445
By special indult, some priests are permitted to say two or three Masses on certain days. An indult to say three Masses is customarily granted very rarely and with difficulty. The Sacred Congregation of the Council granted an indult of this kind on September 9, 1899, to the Diocese of Tulancingo in the Republic of Mexico.446
439 Benedict XV, Constitution Incruentum altaris, August 10, 1915 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis VII, 403).
440 Cf. Donoso, loc. cit., n. 204.
441 Benedict XV, loc. cit.
442 Pontifical Commission, December 13, 1923 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis XVI, 116).
443 Sacred Congregation of Rites, August 11, 1915.
444 Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, February 28, 1917 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis IX, 187).
445 Sacred Congregation of Rites, January 26, 1920.
446 Cf. Analecta ecclesiastica VII, 452.
286. The faculty of bination, or of saying two Masses on Sundays and feast days, occurs very frequently today, whether from common law or from a special pontifical privilege.
In the primitive Church bination does not seem to have had a place. But already before the time of Innocent III bination occurred rather frequently, wherefore this Pontiff established: "Except on the day of the Lord's Nativity, unless a cause of necessity persuades otherwise, it suffices for a priest to celebrate one Mass once in the day."447 In the following centuries abuses sometimes crept in concerning this matter, because priests said several Masses more from greed for the stipend than from love of piety, and thence they also neglected other duties of the care of souls. Wherefore the Council of Trent, session 22, and Benedict XIV448 established that it is never lawful to celebrate two Masses on the same day except in a case of the spiritual necessity of the people, namely, if otherwise a notable part of the people could not satisfy the Sunday precept, or if some sick person could not receive Viaticum.
Concerning the faculty of bination, the following must be noted according to present common law or according to indults of the Supreme Pontiff:
1. It is not lawful to binate except on days of precept, in order that a notable part of the faithful may be able to hear Mass.449
Therefore it is not lawful to say two Masses on other days or on suppressed feasts,450 nor in a private oratory in order that some family may be able to hear Mass. Sometimes, however, the faculty of bination is granted in favor of nuns who are subject to strict enclosure.
When the Holy See was asked several times by various bishops how great a number of the faithful or how great a distance between churches is required for a Mass to be repeated, it did not wish to give a response, but left this to the prudence and conscience of the bishops. For the rest, one must not proceed in this matter with excessive severity. Wherefore Leo XII wrote on March 13, 1828, to the Archbishop of St. Louis in North America: "You ought to lay aside every anxiety of mind, and, lest you be disturbed by the rigor of the words, he [namely, His Holiness] entrusts it to your conscience and prudence, so that you may judge in which cases, with account taken of the circumstances of your diocese, grave causes are to be considered present for imparting to priests the faculty of which there is question. But wherever you have judged these grave causes to be present according to your conscience and prudence, His Holiness benignly declared that you can use this faculty without any doubt." In these letters it is held to be a sufficient cause if 30-50 faithful cannot hear the prescribed Mass without bination. The Holy Office indeed judged on January 28, 1688, that the number of 15-20 persons who would otherwise lack Mass did not suffice; but a few months later in the same year the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith judged the number of 10-12 servants to suffice. "Nor ought it to be surprising if this Congregation [for the Propagation of the Faith] yielded to a more benign interpretation; for there was question of servants who, because of their peculiar condition, deserved indulgence, since the sacrifice of the Most Holy Mass was perhaps their only consolation." Thus the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith of May 24, 1870, in which even the distance of half a league, that is, half an hour, of one church from another is not rejected, although neither is it expressly acknowledged as a sufficient cause of bination. This also depends upon the difficulty of the road and the weather.
447 c. 3, X 3, 41.
448 Constitution Declarasti nobis, March 16, 1746.
449 In mission territories the faculty of bination is sometimes granted even on weekdays. Likewise during a Eucharistic Congress. Cf. Acta Apostolicae Sedis XVI (1924), 157.
450 Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, May 24, 1870.
287. 2. By common law, yet dependently upon the Ordinary, to whom it pertains to judge concerning these matters, bination is not only permitted but also commanded in two cases: a) When a pastor "holds two parishes or two peoples so separated that one of them can in no way be present with the celebrating pastor on feast days because of the very great distance of the places." Thus the cited Instruction. This case can easily occur, especially in mission territories. b) "When there is only one church in which Mass is celebrated and to which the whole people cannot assemble at the same time." Thus the same Instruction.
Although even in this second case the pastor must seek the previous permission of the bishop, nevertheless in a case of necessity, for example, when his assistant or the pastor himself suddenly becomes ill, this permission can and even must be presumed, since otherwise the faithful people would suffer harm. Afterward, however, the matter is to be reported to the bishop as soon as possible. The people are considered unable to assemble in the church at the same time not only because of the narrowness of the building, as some hold, but also because of distance and other inconveniences. Thus, for example, in nearly all rural parishes which are distant from one another by at least the space of half a league and in which only one priest celebrates Mass, such a necessity is considered present. For the faithful cannot leave homes, infants, animals, etc., without custody. Hence, when one part of the family assists at Mass, the other must remain at home. Therefore in these places the pastor must say two Masses so that all the faithful can satisfy the precept of hearing Mass.
288. 3. The Ordinary can permit a priest to say two Masses, even if other priests say Mass in the same church or in the same place, provided that otherwise a notable part of the faithful cannot assist at Mass.451
In large parishes where the faithful people are very numerous, two or three Masses often do not suffice for all to be able to assist, whether because of the narrowness of the church itself or for other reasons. Then the bishop, who is unable to send as many priests as are necessary, can grant that some priest say two Masses, even if other priests celebrate Mass on the same day in the same church or place. Thus runs the practice in several places.
4. It is not lawful for a priest celebrating two Masses by an indult of bination to accept a stipend for the other Mass or to satisfy any obligation of justice,452 unless he has special permission of the Holy See.
Therefore a pastor cannot apply one Mass for the people and take a stipend for the other Mass. But if special labor is joined to the second Mass, for example, a long journey, a late hour, an instruction to be given, etc., remuneration for this labor can certainly be accepted.453 Nothing prevents one celebrating two Masses from satisfying another obligation, for example, of charity, gratitude, obedience to the statutes of a sodality, etc., through the other Mass, as when he applies it for the deceased according to the constitution of the Order. For only an obligation of justice cannot be fulfilled through the other Mass. If a priest, contrary to a grave precept of the Church, took two stipends for two Masses, he must restore the other, since a title for retaining it is lacking. By a special pontifical indult, however, it is lawful to accept two stipends in mission territories and in some dioceses, for example, of Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.; but then it is customary to command that the other stipend be expended for pious causes determined by the bishop.454
451 Code of Canon Law, c. 806, § 2.
452 Sacred Congregation of the Council, September 25, 1858, March 21, 1863, and often.
453 Sacred Congregation of the Council, May 23, 1861; Code of Canon Law, c. 824, § 2.
454 Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Council, May 8, 1920 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis XII, 541).
289. 5. The rite to be observed in bination is prescribed in this manner by the cited Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith of May 24, 1870: The priest must say the second Mass fasting, and accordingly he cannot drink the ablution. A twofold manner of acting must be distinguished, according as another Mass is to be said on that day at the same altar after the first Mass has been said or not.
a) If the other Mass is to be said at the same altar, the priest is to proceed in this manner: "After carefully consuming the Blood of the Lord in the first Mass, with the customary purification omitted, leaving the paten covering the chalice and the pall covering the paten upon the corporal, he will say with joined hands: What we have received with our mouth, O Lord, etc. Then he will wash the fingers with which he touched the Most Holy Sacrament in some clean vessel prepared for this purpose on the altar. (This can be the vessel in which the fingers are customarily washed after Communion has been distributed outside Mass.) While washing his fingers he is to say: May Thy Body, O Lord, etc.; and after drying his fingers with the purificator, he will cover the chalice with the veil and place it, veiled, upon the unfolded corporal. When Mass is completed, if there is no sacristy in the church, he will leave the chalice upon the altar; otherwise he will carry it into the sacristy, and there place it upon a corporal or pall in some becoming and closed place until the second Mass, in which ... he will carry the chalice back to the altar and replace it upon the unfolded corporal." When he pours wine and water for the second Mass, he is not to wipe the chalice with the purificator.
b) If the other Mass is to be said in another church, then the Instruction given by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on September 12, 1857, and contained in the first appendix of the Roman Ritual must be observed. The manner of acting is nearly the same as above under letter a). After the Last Gospel has been completed, however, the priest is again to uncover the chalice and inspect whether any of the divine Blood has settled at the bottom or not, which will generally occur. Therefore, if some drop of the divine Blood remains, it is again to be carefully consumed; this must in no way be omitted, because the sacrifice morally endures and, while the species of wine remain, must be completed by divine precept. Afterward the priest is to pour into the chalice as much water, at least, as he had previously placed wine, move it around over the same part from which he drank the sacred Blood, and pour it into the prepared vessel. He is then to wipe the chalice with the purificator, cover it, and carry it with him into the sacristy. After laying aside the sacred vestments, he is either to preserve the water poured into the vessel until the following Mass and drink it in the second ablution, or absorb it with cotton or tow and burn it, or pour it into the piscina.455
455 Cf. Collectanea de Propaganda Fide, n. 1352.