Article IV. On the Permanence of Particular Indults

I say. By these canons nothing is changed concerning particular indults, concerning vows of any physical or moral person, concerning the constitutions and rules of any approved religion or institute, whether of men or of women living in common, even without vows (Can. 1253).

Therefore those various indults which have been conceded to our region remain in their full force. If some person is bound by vow to abstain on certain days, notwithstanding the present canons the vow continues to oblige; the rules and constitutions also remain of any religion or approved institute living in common, whether with or without vows. In Apostolic Indults by which mitigations or dispensations are conceded from abstinence and fasting in regions within and outside Europe, religious families are comprehended as regards the general law of the Church, unless religious are excluded from the Indult; but they are not comprehended as regards abstinence and fasting established by their own Rules, unless express mention is made in the indult concerning this dispensation. If they do not observe this law of abstinence and fasting of the Order, they violate the rule and contract the guilt of the violated rule, but not the guilt of the violated universal law of the Church.

You Will Ask. Is the abrogation of Indults concerning fasting and abstinence under the title of the Bull of the Crusade and of the Summaries, declared by the Apostolic letters of January 1, 1910, to be extended to those regions which once belonged to New Spain and afterward were annexed to the Federated States of America?

Response. Negatively. P. Card. Gaspari - Jan. 1918.