Chapter V. Where Mass may be Said

By ecclesiastical law Mass may regularly be said only in churches and oratories dedicated solely to the service of God, and therein on duly consecrated altars. If, however, there be no church in the place, or if it be in ruins, or if it be too small to hold the number of worshippers, Mass may be said in a tent or in the open air on a portable altar with the leave of the bishop, if time permits of this being asked.

A bishop can erect public oratories in which Mass may be said in religious institutions, in monasteries and convents, in seminaries, hospitals, prisons, and in the bishop’s own residence. bishops also enjoy a personal privilege of saying Mass on a portable altar even in private houses where they happen to be staying. The Council of Trent¹ forbade bishops to allow priests to say Mass in private houses, and in consequence of this law and of repeated answers of the Roman Congregations, it is now settled that bishops have no power to grant leave for purely domestic oratories in private houses (Can. 822).

The power to do this is now reserved to the Holy See.

If there is an oratory duly erected on board ship, Mass may be said there when circumstances permit. The Holy See also grants leave for Mass to be said on board ship on a portable altar even when there is no permanently erected oratory on board. A priest who has obtained and desires to use this privilege is bound to observe the conditions under which it is granted. Those conditions are that the ship is safe and at a distance from shore, that the sea is tranquil, and that another priest or a deacon is at hand to hold the chalice in case of danger when the ship rolls. Mass should not be said in the passengers’ berths unless everything has been arranged so as to show due reverence to the Blessed Sacrament.

¹ Trent, sess. xxii, Decree on things to be observed in Mass.

If a church or public oratory has been polluted by the perpetration therein of certain crimes, it is forbidden to say Mass there until it has been reconciled. The crimes which pollute a church, provided that they are certain, notorious and committed in the church itself, are: homicide, the grave and injurious shedding of blood, the putting of the church to impious or sordid uses, the burial therein of an unbaptized ' person or of an excommunicated person after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence (Can. 1172). It is not allowed to celebrate the divine offices, to administer the sacraments, or to bury the dead in a polluted church before it has been reconciled.

If the church is only blessed it can be reconciled by its rector or by any priest with the presumed leave at least of the rector. one If the church is consecrated, its reconciliation belongs to the Ordinary of the place or to the higher superior if it is a church of exempt religious, or to a priest delegated by either of them. But in a case of grave and urgent necessity, the rector of a consecrated church can reconcile it and inform his Ordinary afterwards. The reconciliation of a blessed church can be done with common holy water. If the church is consecrated, the water should be specially blessed, but the priest who is deputed to reconcile the church can bless the water as well as the Ordinary (Can. 1176, 1177).

Private oratories are not polluted, even if any of the above crimes be committed in them, and so they do not need reconciliation.

Mass may not be said in a church or oratory which has lost its consecration. This happens when the greater part of it is destroyed at one and the same time, or when a new portion is added to it and what is added is greater than the old part. A church does not lose its consecration if the roof falls in or if the plastering of the walls is renewed. When a church loses its consecration it must be reconsecrated, or at least blessed, before Mass be again said in it.

When a church is polluted the altars in it are also polluted, but altars do not lose their consecration merely because the churches in which they are placed are desecrated. A fixed altar loses its consecration if the altar-stone is loosed from its foundation, and both fixed and portable altars lose their consecration if the tomb where the relics are placed is violated, or in consequence of a large fracture.

The sacred vessels and vestments lose their consecration when they are broken or torn so as to lose their shape, or when they are put to improper uses or exposed for public sale (Can. 1305). When the sacred vessels or vestments have lost their consecration, they must be mended and be reconsecrated before use.