§ 2. On a Suitable Time of Celebration

— The principle concerning the day is that Mass can be celebrated on all days which are not excluded by the proper rite of the priest.

Now, in the Latin rite, Mass is prohibited under grave obligation on Friday in Parasceve; and, in itself, on Thursday in the Supper of the Lord and on Holy Saturday, only the Mass is permitted which is joined to the divine office.

On Thursday indeed, so that, in imitation of the Supper of the Lord, clerics may communicate by the hand of the Pastor; on Friday and Saturday, because in the Latin rite both are aliturgical days. In the Ruthenian rite, Mass is celebrated on Friday in Parasceve if it falls on the feast of the Annunciation. In the Armenian rite all celebrate on Holy Saturday.

But the functions of Holy Week can, with the bishop assenting, be carried out in smaller parishes without chant according to the form of the Ritual of Benedict XIII; which form, also from apostolic indult, local Ordinaries can concede to pious communities.

— Besides, on Thursday in the Supper of the Lord, if a feast of precept falls, the bishop must take care that so many Masses be said in churches as suffice for the people to be able to satisfy the precept of hearing the sacred rite. When the obligation of the feast has been suppressed, the reason for celebrating several sacred rites fails; but legitimate custom, which in this liturgical matter is not required to be centenary, since the Code does not treat of liturgical laws, can be more benign and can be observed (cf. Noldin, III, 200, 3).

In parochial churches in which the functions of the Sacred Triduum cannot be done, the pastor, from license of the bishop, can read a private Mass before the solemnities of the cathedral church. The license in itself would have to be sought each year; but not rarely, from custom, celebration is made without express license (Noldin, III, 200, 1). It is also at the judgment of the bishop that in parochial churches a private Mass be celebrated before the solemn one for the sick who cannot be present at the solemn Mass. Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, March 27, 1773. Noldin, l. c., again concedes that the necessity of seeking permission can be removed by custom.

If in a church of regulars the accustomed functions are not done, the regular Superior can, in a private oratory, or if such an oratory is lacking, in the church with doors closed, celebrate privately so that he may communicate his own (cf. Lehmkuhl, II, 287, note). And even where the functions are done, one Mass for the sick can likewise be read, from the privilege of the Society of Jesus.

From cc. 239, 4°, and 349, §1, 1°, Cardinals and bishops, unless they must celebrate in the cathedral, can celebrate Mass in the Supper of the Lord or permit another to celebrate one Mass before them.

The Nuncio or Apostolic Delegate can permit one read Mass in public oratories on Thursday in the Supper of the Lord; the Vicar and Prefect Apostolic can do so also on Holy Saturday.

By special indult, a private Mass is conceded to several communities.

On Holy Saturday, nothing is permitted except the Mass joined to the functions of the Sacred Triduum, so that a separated Mass is very rarely conceded.

But the function of Holy Saturday can be omitted, although the functions on Thursday and Friday have been had (Sacred Congregation of Rites, December 9, 1899, n. 4049). Can the function of Holy Saturday alone be celebrated? Nothing has been declared concerning this matter; we think it can probably be done.

— On the Hour. On days on which it is lawful to celebrate, Mass cannot be begun earlier than one hour before dawn, or later than one hour after noon (c. 821, §1). This time in itself is ordinary, with the faculty made of following local time, true, mean, or extraordinary, from c. 33. For our sacrifice is in itself morning. If legal time is assumed, legal dawn also will be that which differs from true dawn as the legal hour differs from the true hour.

The rubric of the Missal §15 permitted Mass only from dawn to noon, which was understood in such a way that it could be begun twenty minutes before dawn, but finished twenty minutes after noon.

The tables attached to calendars indicate dawn, which begins almost when the sun has reached about the eighteenth degree below the horizon, and in winter is drawn out longer. In Rome dawn is on January 1 at 5:45; March 8 at 4:45; April 9 at 3:45; May 10 at 2:35; July 29 at 3; September 6 at 4; October 28 at 5. But many regions exist where, through part of the year, dawn does not cease, for example in Belgium from May 26 to July 19; others, where for days, weeks, and months the sun does not set. But the same regions again have a longer, indeed perpetual, night to be endured through the other part of the year.

When there is perpetual day or dawn, it is fitting at least to take care of this, that Mass be distant from the last meal by the space of some hours, for example four. But when there are longer darknesses, from a response of the Holy See it seems that the time at which men are accustomed to rise at daybreak for works can be taken morally for dawn. Indeed it seems to have been conceded that Roman hours may be assumed. Cf. response of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, November 2, 1534 (n. 614), and February 6, 1858 (A. S. S., III, 602 and VII, p. 400 note, where the vote of Fr. Secchi is had).⁽¹⁾

That time is to be observed under grave sin, and indeed in such a way that greater anticipation is more strictly forbidden than delay. Grave matter, from the more common opinion, is understood as a space of one hour, so that he would sin gravely who, without just cause, had already completed Mass two hours before dawn, or had begun it after the second hour after noon. We judge this true if it is done habitually, because one acting thus seems, as it were, to usurp a privilege.

From observing the time there excuses: a) necessity, for example, of giving Viaticum to one dying: then already at midnight it is lawful to celebrate; b) a reasonable custom, so that workers and servants, even on a weekday, can hear the sacred rite; c) a reasonable cause of delaying beyond the first hour, as if a traveling priest on a feast day could not celebrate earlier; in such a case they permit a delay of one hour, and Noldin, III, 204, concedes something beyond; or if because of an overly prolonged procession, sermon, or even solemn Mass, it is to be feared that part of the people will lack Mass on a feast day unless a private Mass is joined afterward: then they concede two hours, nor do we see why as much as necessity demands could not be conceded; or if a nuptial Mass is to be celebrated and the spouses had to be awaited, for example because of the civil ceremony; d) dispensation of the Ordinary, whether of places or proper, from whom they judge that even without privilege one hour can be conceded.⁽²⁾

Regulars and religious are not rarely given a privilege in this matter. Thus to the Congregation of Purity, it was conceded by Pius VI that everywhere they could celebrate two hours before dawn or after noon.

To missionaries of the Society of Jesus a faculty can be made by the Father General that, whether because of travel or devotion, they may celebrate two hours after midnight. But Alexander VI conceded to the Benedictine Fathers the privilege that, during the whole time of the year, they could celebrate Mass two hours after midnight. St. Alphonsus, VI, 342, thinks that this privilege has been revoked. Ballerini-Palmieri, IV, 1050, think diversely. Moreover, these privileges through communication, which probably still endures in already acquired effects, have been made common to very many regulars and to some congregations.

⁽¹⁾ The response is "according to the vote of Fr. Secchi." A. S. S., VII, p. 400, says his opinion is reduced to this, that "with the distribution of hours according to the Roman method retained, noon would have to be determined by the passage of the sun on the local meridian."

⁽²⁾ By force of the faculties of Propaganda Fide, celebration can be permitted, in a case of necessity, from one hour after midnight; but Nuncios or Apostolic Delegates can permit celebration from the third hour after midnight for a reasonable cause.

— "On the night of the Nativity of the Lord only the conventual or parochial Mass can be begun at midnight, but not another, without apostolic indult" (c. 821, §2).

The Sacred Congregation of Rites, June 2, 1883 ad X (n. 3577), denied that this Mass can be begun before midnight. Chant is not required by the canon. Can communion be furnished to those present in that Mass? Before the Code, this was denied several times by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (cf. Gasparri, De Euch., II, 1901), and from the manner in which in c. 821, in §3, the faculty of communicating the faithful is expressly conceded, which in §2 is passed over in silence, you might say that the same still holds. The Commission for the Interpretation of the Code very recently admitted the more benign opinion, which, relying on the general words of cc. 846, §1 and 867, §4, inculcates this principle agreeable to the liturgy: when the sacrifice of the Mass is permitted, communion of the faithful present is also permitted in itself.

But in other churches, that is, those which are not parochial or conventual, nothing in itself is permitted without indult. By special law, the public parochial Mass itself is sometimes prohibited.

— "Nevertheless in all religious or pious houses having an oratory with the faculty of habitually reserving the Most Holy Eucharist, on the night of the Nativity of the Lord one priest can celebrate three ritual Masses, or, with the things to be observed being observed, only one which may avail for all present also for satisfying the precept, and administer Holy Communion to those asking" (c. 821, §3).

Pious houses are those which are devoted to a pious end of charity or beneficence. Such also, from the mind of the Church, is judged a prison, insofar as in it chaplains give labor to the amendment of offenders.

Observe that the faculty is circumscribed to one priest. But from the authentic declaration of the Holy Office, November 26, 1908, these Masses cannot be celebrated with the doors of the oratory open or in churches which serve the public use of the faithful people. We have interpreted this in such a way that nevertheless it would be lawful, with doors closed, to celebrate these Masses in the church of religious, if not any people whatever, but only selected faithful, were admitted (cf. Periodica, IV, 311).

Cardinals from c. 239, §1, 4°, and bishops, even titular ones, who do not have to celebrate in the cathedral church, from c. 349, §1, 7°, can themselves celebrate three Masses on the night of the Nativity of the Lord, or permit another to celebrate the same before them. By force of the faculties of Propaganda Fide, three Masses with distribution of Holy Communion can be permitted in the churches of their territory by Vicars and Prefects Apostolic.