Case 1. Public Worship

Albertus, a priest who knows well the prescriptions of the Church concerning Litanies that must be approved by due authority, is doubtful about the lawfulness of certain Litanies that are found in a book of prayers approved by the bishops of the Province of Westminster, commonly called the Manual of Prayers. The same man found, on the walls of the church whose care he recently undertook, painted images of English martyrs not yet beatified, and beneath them, with the name of the martyr, the inscription—“Martyred”—on such a day and year. He doubts, however, whether due observance toward the Holy See and care for procuring the beatification of those martyrs require that the images be removed. Hence it is asked:

1. What are private prayer and public prayer; private worship and public worship?

2. What is prescribed concerning formulas of public prayer? And what specifically concerning Litanies to be published or recited?

3. What worship of those beatified and of those not yet beatified is lawful?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. What is public and private prayer, public and private worship ? According to Suarez, in order that prayer may be public in the technical sense, it is necessary that it be offered by a minister duly appointed by the Church to act in her name, that he should have the intention of fulfilling his office, and that he should use the forms approved by the Church for the purpose. Prayer which has not these conditions is private. There is the same distinction between public and private worship.¹

1 Suarez, De Rel., vol. ii, lib. iii, c. 2, n. 2.

2. What is prescribed concerning the forms of public prayer, and what especially about publishing or saying Litanies?

Only those forms must be used in public prayer which are approved for the purpose by the Church. The right of ordering the liturgy belongs to the Pope, whose approbation is required in the Latin Church for the Breviary, Missal, Pontifical, Ceremonial of Bishops, and the Ritual. Bishops may approve forms of prayer for public use outside the strictly liturgical functions of the Church. Only those Litanies may be publicly said in churches and public oratories which are in the Breviary or in the later editions of the Roman Ritual approved by the Holy See, and no others may be printed even for private use without the approbation of the Ordinary.²

2 S. R. C., Nov. 28, 1895; Const. Leo XIII, Officiorum, n. 19.

3. What worship may be paid to beatified saints and to the non-beatified ?

Private worship may be paid to such as have died by those who have moral certainty that they are with God. In order that public worship may be paid to them they must at least be beatified by the Pope, and even to the beatified only those signs of worship may be paid which the Church expressly permits in the brief of beatification.

4. The case. Albert, a priest, is doubtful about the lawfulness of certain Litanies to be found in the “Manual of Prayers” approved by the English bishops. It follows from what has been said that only the Litanies of the Saints, of the Holy Name, of the Sacred Heart, of the Blessed Virgin, and of St. Joseph, may be said publicly; the other Litanies in the “Manual” may be used for private devotion. Albert finds in his church pictures of English martyrs not yet beatified with the inscription “Martyred” on such a day, in such a year. If the pictures have no signs of religious worship about them, such as an aureole or rays, and they are not placed over the altar, they are permitted. The inscription would only mean that the person represented was put to death for the Faith, but would not be intended to forestall the judgment of the Church on the fact of martyrdom.