Article III. On the Distribution and Transmission of Masses

I. To what extent someone must or can distribute or transmit Masses you may gather from these points:

1. One who has Masses to be celebrated by others should distribute them as soon as possible, with the prescription of canon 841 remaining firm; but the legitimate time for their celebration begins from the day on which the priest who is going to celebrate them received them, unless something else is clear (canon 837). There is question, for example, of the administrator of a pious cause, of an executor of a testament, of an heir. Let them distribute the Masses as soon as possible, lest the celebration be delayed too much.

2. Those who have a number of Masses of which they may freely dispose can give them to priests acceptable to themselves, provided they know well that these priests are above every exception or are recommended by the testimony of their own Ordinary (canon 838).¹ It is said to priests; hence it is not lawful to hand them over, for example, to booksellers, etc. Nevertheless nothing prevents their being handed over to a priest who distributes them among other priests. They can also be handed over to priests who live or are staying in another diocese,² since the Code does not distinguish and requires only that the priest be above every exception, that is, truly trustworthy, or recommended by his own Ordinary, that is, the Ordinary of the one accepting, although perhaps he is living in another diocese. Moreover, the disposition of some provincial councils, by which it is forbidden for stipends to be sent to another diocese without the permission of the Ordinary, is sustained only - unless a privilege is added³ - with respect to founded Masses, Masses after the manner of manual Masses, or manual Masses given with regard to a pious cause.⁴ From these things you may deduce what the local Ordinary can do in this matter.

3. All and individual administrators of pious causes, or persons bound in any way to fulfill Mass burdens, whether clerics or laypersons, at the end of each year should hand over to their Ordinaries, according to the manner to be defined by these Ordinaries, the Mass burdens for which satisfaction has not yet been made. This time, however, is to be taken in such a way that in Masses after the manner of manual Masses the obligation of depositing them runs from the end of that year within which the burdens ought to have been fulfilled; but in manual Masses, after a year from the day the burden was undertaken, with the different will of those offering preserved (canon 841, §§ 1 and 2). Namely, those offering manual stipends can grant that the Masses be delayed more than a year.

¹ Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Council, 17 July 1655.

² By these provisions the decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council (22 May 1897, Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. 40, p. 344), by which stipends could not be transmitted to priests residing outside the diocese except through their Ordinary, or at least after he had been heard and had consented, was removed. Likewise the decrees which prohibited the direct transmission of Masses to Oriental priests seem to have been removed.

³ A privilege of this kind was granted for a time to the bishops of Holland.

⁴ Sacred Congregation of the Council, 19 February 1921.

II. Those who hand over to others for celebration Masses received from the faithful or in any way committed to their trust are held by the obligation until they have obtained testimony from them of the obligation accepted and of the stipend received (canon 839). Thus positive law does not extend itself more broadly; but with natural law considered, one would not be immune from obligation if he transmitted a Mass whose obligation of celebration he himself had undertaken, and afterward learned that the celebration of the Mass was being neglected (cf. n. 224).

III. One who transmits Masses is bound to transmit the stipend, as follows:

1. One who transmits manual Mass stipends to others must transmit what has been accepted in full, unless either the offerer expressly permits something to be retained, or it is certainly clear that the excess above the diocesan tax was given in consideration of the person (canon 840, § 1). Thus, per se, the celebrant has the right to receive the whole stipend, and indeed either in its own species, or, if the priest who is going to celebrate consents, in an equivalent,¹ for example in books. Likewise, even without the consent of the celebrant, if there is question of vicars living in the pastor's house, the excess of the common stipend can be given to them in board and service.² Finally, as regards the same vicars, the custom can be sustained that they always celebrate according to the intention of the pastor, who grants them board and service, while they receive a determined pension from the treasury of the church or from the pastor.³

One who transmits a manual offering can retain something: 1. when the offerer expressly permits it; 2. when it is certain that the excess above the diocesan tax was given in consideration of the person, for example because the one to whom the Mass was offered is poor, or a relative, friend, or even pastor of the offerer;⁴ 3. if the excess of the customary tax pertains to stole fees, as if there is question of a nuptial or funeral Mass.⁵ In other cases the one who is going to celebrate has the right to the whole stipend. Nothing, however, prevents him, by yielding his right altogether spontaneously, from leaving the offering or part of it to the one transmitting. But now, just as before, it seems illicit to ask the one who is going to celebrate to yield the stipend or part of it. For, considering the Constitution of Benedict XIV Quanta cura,⁶ where a request of this kind is called an execrable abuse, and canon 827, it must be doubted whether the old law has been changed. In doubt, however, one must not depart from the old law (canon 6, 4).

2. In Masses after the manner of manual Masses, unless the mind of the founder stands in the way, the excess is legitimately retained, and it suffices to remit only the manual alms of the diocese in which the Mass is celebrated, if the ample alms takes the place in part of the endowment of the benefice or pious cause (canon 840, § 2). Whether or not the added condition has place is to be gathered: 1. from the tables of the foundation themselves, when they expressly testify that the whole annual fruit of the foundation was designated as stipend; 2. from the nature of the benefice to which the foundation is annexed, namely if all or the greatest part of the revenues of the benefice consist in these stipends; 3. from custom, when more ample stipends have always been held as a part of the revenues; and 4. from an authentic declaration of the Ordinary.⁷

¹ The decree Ut debita prescribed that stipends were to be handed over in full and in their own species (article 9).

² Sacred Congregation of the Council, 25 February 1905, in the Breda case, ad I (Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. 38, p. 15); 25 February 1910, in the Luxembourg case (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1910, p. 203).

³ Sacred Congregation of the Council, in the Breda case, ad III (Acta Sanctae Sedis, loc. cit.); 10 January, in the Montesson case (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1920, p. 70).

⁴ Cf. Sacred Penitentiary, 6 April 1742 (Collectio, n. 336); Sacred Congregation of the Council, 31 January 1880.

⁵ Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Council, 25 July 1874 (Collectio, n. 1422); 11 May 1888.

⁶ 30 June 1741.

⁷ N. K. Stemmen, 1918, p. 9; Aertnys-Damen, II, n. 212.

Corollary I. At the request of either party it is lawful to exchange intentions, while the unequal stipend is retained, if this is done so that offices are exchanged;¹ otherwise, if it is done principally for the sake of taking profit.² The reason for the former is that every base gain is absent. The reason for the latter is that illicit gain does not seem to be absent; cf. canon 827 (St. Alphonsus, VI, 322, doubt 4).

Corollary II. One who by office has care of distributing stipends can demand a moderate payment from those to whom the Masses are distributed (St. Alphonsus, VI, 322, doubt 8). And generally, one who transmits Masses can deduct expenses of administration and transfer.³ Administrators of churches, however, cannot retain part of the stipend for the expenses of altars, servers, light, wine, hosts, etc., unless the church is pressed by poverty⁴ (St. Alphonsus, 322, doubt 5). Nor is it lawful to subtract anything from the manual alms which the faithful are accustomed to hand over to more celebrated shrines, in order to provide for their dignity and ornament.⁵

Corollary III. One who unduly retains part of a stipend sins against strict justice, and therefore is bound to restitution from the same virtue, as follows:

1. An executor of a testament who retains part of the sum to be expended in Mass stipends certainly violates strict justice. The same, according to the Constitution of Benedict XIV Quanta cura, § 1 sq., must be said of those who collect stipends for this end: that Masses be celebrated elsewhere, where stipends are smaller.

2. There is dispute about others; but with St. Alphonsus (VI, 322, doubt 1) it seems altogether to be affirmed. For ownership of the stipend is not acquired except according to the intention of the giver. But the intention of the giver seems to be that the one who fulfills the burden also receive the stipend. Objection. Nothing prevents the recipient of the stipend from fulfilling the burden through another. Response. Granted; but from the intention of the one giving the stipend, in other words, by force of this contract, that other person who fulfills the burden seems to receive a right in the stipend given. From what has been said, against some authors it is also deduced that the stipend must be restored to the celebrant, not to the one giving the alms (St. Alphonsus, VI, loc. cit.).

¹ For example, a missionary occupied with spiritual exercises takes upon himself the Mass and intention announced for the sixth hour, so that a chaplain, a sufficiently sick old man, may be able to celebrate; and he hands over to this chaplain his own intention to be discharged, without any discussion about exchanging stipends.

² For example, someone has a Mass with an ample stipend to be celebrated today. But, hindered unexpectedly from celebrating, he summons another priest and proposes to him, who has a smaller stipend, that the Masses be exchanged, namely so that he himself takes upon himself the other priest's intention to be discharged on the following day.

³ Sacred Congregation of the Council, in the Breda case, 25 February 1905, Mens est.

⁴ Constitution of Innocent XII, Nuper, ad VII.

⁵ Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council Ut debita (article 11).