Article 19

All litanies, except the most ancient and common ones, which are contained in Breviaries, Missals, Pontificals, and Rituals, and except the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin, which are customarily sung in the sacred House of Loreto, and the Litanies of the Most Holy Name of Jesus already approved by the Holy See, are not to be published without the review and approval of the Ordinary.

Which litanies are common

90. 1. The most ancient and common litanies are the Litanies of All Saints¹ and the Litanies of the Dying.

Litanies of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

2. To the Litanies approved by the Holy See must now be ascribed the Litanies of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which by decree of April 2, 1899, were approved for the whole Church.

Force of episcopal approval

3. The other Litanies which only a Bishop has approved can have only private use, so that publicly, even without the intervention of a sacred minister, they are prohibited from being recited in Churches or public oratories.

What if litanies are published without approval

4. Yet if the necessary approval is lacking, the use of a sheet or writing exhibiting Litanies is not prohibited. The general reason already repeated more than once returns. Thus the common opinion. But booklets or books of litanies which lack approval incur the reprehension of the immediately following article 20.

¹ These, with a few changes, recur in various sacred ceremonies, as in the Office of Holy Saturday, in Rogations, in sacred Ordination, etc.