Article I. On Adoration

Adoration taken more broadly is an act by which someone exhibits his own subjection to another in testimony of the other's excellence; thus princes and others constituted in dignity are said to be adored in some way. But more strictly adoration is the honor exhibited to God on account of his highest excellence and supreme dominion.

I Say. There is a true precept of adoring God. This is clear both from natural right, by virtue of which we are obliged to acknowledge the highest majesty of God and his supreme dominion over creatures, and from positive divine right, because it is said, Matt. iv, 10: "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." - But as pertains to practice, the faithful are not to be disturbed concerning the fulfillment of this precept who sufficiently satisfy the precept of praying to God, concerning which there will be treatment below; for it is altogether impossible to pray to God and not adore him.

Related to adoration is worship, which, insofar as it is habitually furnished to God, can be defined: the complex of those acts by which we testify to the infinite excellence of God and exhibit service to him. - Cf. Scavini, lib. 2, tract. 5, n. 7.

Omitting those things which are handed down at length in dogmatic theology concerning the necessity and divisions of worship, here we add certain things concerning the worship, relics, and images of the Saints, insofar as they can pertain to practice.

§ 1. To the Most Holy Trinity, to the single Persons of the same, to Christ the Lord, even under the sacramental species, the worship of latria is owed; to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the worship of hyperdulia; to others reigning with Christ in heaven, the worship of dulia.

§ 2. To sacred relics also and images there is owed veneration and relative worship of the person to whom the relics and images are referred (Can. 1255).

Worship, if it is offered in the name of the Church by persons legitimately deputed to this and by acts from the institution of the Church to be exhibited only to God, Saints, and Blessed, is called public; otherwise, private (Can. 1256).

It is good and useful suppliantly to invoke the Servants of God reigning together with Christ, and to venerate their relics and images; but before the rest, let all the faithful follow the Most Blessed Virgin Mary with filial devotion (Can. 1276).

§ 1. It is licit to venerate with public worship only those Servants of God who by the authority of the Church have been numbered among the Saints or Blessed.

§ 2. To those canonically numbered in the roll of Saints the worship of dulia is owed; Saints can be honored everywhere and by any act of that kind of worship; but the Blessed cannot, except in the place and mode which the Roman Pontiff has conceded (Can. 1277).

The ministers of the Church in exercising worship ought to depend solely on ecclesiastical Superiors (Can. 1260).

When the decree has been published by which in the name of the Supreme Pontiff it is declared that all the virtues of a Servant of God in heroic degree, or martyrdom, have been well proved, the Servant of God can be called Venerable; which title imports no permission of public worship. - Cf. can. 2115, § 2.

§ 1. Notable relics or precious images, and likewise other relics or images which are honored in some church by great veneration of the people, cannot validly be alienated nor perpetually transferred into another church without permission of the Apostolic See.

§ 2. Notable relics of Saints or Blessed are the body, head, arm, forearm, heart, tongue, hand, leg, or that part of the body in which a martyr suffered, provided it is whole and not small (Can. 1281).

§ 1. Notable relics of Saints or Blessed cannot be preserved in private houses or oratories without the express license of the Ordinary of the place.

§ 2. Relics not notable can be kept with due honor even in private houses and piously carried by the faithful (Can. 1282).

§ 1. Only those relics can be honored with public worship in churches, although exempt, which are established as genuine by an authentic document of some Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, or of the Ordinary of the place, or of another ecclesiastical man to whom the faculty of authenticating has been conceded by apostolic indult.

§ 2. A Vicar General cannot declare relics authentic without a special mandate (Can. 1283).

Ordinaries of places should prudently remove from the worship of the faithful a relic which they know certainly not to be authentic (Can. 1284).

§ 1. Relics, when they are exposed, must be enclosed and sealed in reliquaries or cases.

§ 2. Relics of the most holy Cross are never to be exhibited for public veneration in the same reliquary with relics of Saints, but must have their own separate reliquary.

§ 3. Relics of the Blessed, without a particular indult, are not to be carried about in processions, nor exposed in churches, except where their office and Mass are celebrated by concession of the Apostolic See (Can. 1287).

It is unlawful to sell sacred relics; and therefore Ordinaries of places, vicars forane, and others having care of souls should diligently take care lest sacred relics, especially of the most holy cross, be sold, or pass into the hands of non-Catholics. - Cf. Can. 1289.

An unusual image is not to be placed in Churches, even exempt ones, and in other sacred places, unless it has been approved by the Ordinary of the place; who is not to approve an image to be publicly exposed which does not agree with the usage of the Church, or which is of false dogma, or which does not display due decency, or which furnishes to the rude a particular occasion of error. - Cf. can. 1279.