Chapter II. On the Place of Offering

I. Notion of sacred places. The sacred places which come to be considered here are churches and oratories.

1. By the name of church is understood a sacred building dedicated to divine worship, chiefly for this end: that it may serve all the Christian faithful for publicly exercising divine worship (canon 1161).

2. An oratory is a place destined for divine worship, yet not chiefly for this end: that it may serve the whole faithful people for publicly cultivating religion (canon 1188, § 1). An oratory is distinguished as threefold: public, semi-public, and private.

a) It is public if it has been erected principally for the benefit of some college or even of private persons, yet in such a way that all the faithful have a legitimately established right of approaching it, at least during the time of divine offices (canon 1188, § 2, 1).

b) It is semi-public if it has been erected for the benefit of some community or group of the faithful assembling there, and it is not free for everyone to approach it (canon 1188, § 2, 2).

c) It is private or domestic if it has been erected in private homes for the benefit only of some family or private person (canon 1188, § 2, 3).

II. Consecration and blessing of sacred places. 1. The consecration of a church, although it belongs to regulars, belongs to the Ordinary of the territory in which the place itself is found, provided the Ordinary is marked with the episcopal character, but not to the vicar general without a special mandate, with the right of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church to consecrate the church and altars of their title remaining firm (canon 1155, § 1). Cardinals, even non-bishops, can consecrate churches everywhere with the consent of the Ordinary (canon 239, § 1, 20); abbots and prelates nullius can do the same (canon 323, § 2).

b) The right of blessing a sacred place, if it belongs to the secular clergy or to a non-exempt religious institute, or to a lay institute, belongs to the Ordinary of the territory in which the place is found; if it belongs to an exempt clerical religious institute, to the major superior. Each, however, can delegate another priest for this (canon 1156).

Note. Notwithstanding any privilege whatever, no one can consecrate or bless a sacred place without the consent of the Ordinary, whether territorial or religious, according as the circumstances bear (canon 1157); and this also holds for Cardinals, if there is question of a church other than the church of their own title.

III. Places in which Mass can be celebrated. Mass can be celebrated:

1. In consecrated or solemnly blessed churches and public oratories (canons 822, § 1; 1165, § 1; 1191).

2. In legitimately erected semi-public oratories, all divine offices or ecclesiastical functions can be celebrated, unless the rubrics stand in the way or the Ordinary has excepted something (canon 1193). The oratories of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and of bishops, whether residential or titular, although private, nevertheless enjoy all the rights and privileges by which semi-public oratories rejoice (canon 1189).

3. In legitimately erected private oratories,¹ as follows:

a) If they have been erected from an indult of the Apostolic See, unless something else is expressly provided in the same indult, after the Ordinary has visited the oratory personally or through another and found it decently furnished, one Mass can be celebrated, and that a read Mass, on individual days, except the more solemn feasts; but other ecclesiastical functions are not to be performed there (canon 1195, § 1). The Ordinary, however, provided just and reasonable causes are present, different from those on account of which the indult was granted, can permit the celebration of Mass by way of an act even on the more solemn feasts (canon 1195, § 2).

b) Even if they have not been erected from an indult of the Holy See but by the authority of the Ordinary, the Ordinary can, in some extraordinary case, for a just and reasonable cause, permit one Mass by way of an act, even repeatedly, but not habitually (canon 1194).

c) In private cemetery chapels, of which canon 1190 speaks, the local Ordinary can permit habitually even the celebration of several Masses (canon 1194).

d) Nuncios, internuncios, and apostolic delegates, from the faculties granted to them, can grant to sick priests, during infirm health, and likewise to priests advanced in age, an indult of a private oratory in which they may celebrate Mass, with the canonical rules observed. Several bishops can do the same.

e) Regulars, by force of the communication of privileges, enjoy the privilege which Gregory XIII granted to the Society of Jesus, that Provincials can, personally and without the permission of the bishop, erect oratories in houses and colleges and in other places where some of the Society will reside; in these oratories several Masses can be celebrated on the same day even by outsiders, and those assisting can fulfill the precept.² Finally, Regulars, by force of the communication of privileges, have the faculty granted to several institutes of erecting private oratories in granges or rural houses; everyone who assists at Mass there can satisfy the precept.

4. Outside a church and oratories, it is lawful to celebrate as follows:

a) The privilege of a portable altar imports the faculty of celebrating everywhere upon a sacred stone, yet in an honorable and decent place, but not at sea (canon 822, § 3).

This privilege is conceded either by law or by indult of the Apostolic See alone (canon 822, § 2). By law it has been conceded to Cardinals and bishops, who can also permit another Mass to be celebrated while they are present (canon 239, § 1, 7; 349, § 1, 1).

b) The local Ordinary, or, if there is question of a house of an exempt religious institute, the major superior, can grant permission of celebrating outside a church and oratory upon a sacred stone and in a decent place, but never in a bedroom, only for a just and reasonable cause, in some extraordinary case and by way of an act (canon 822, § 4). It is said, however, never in a bedroom, that is, in a bedroom in which someone is actually lying sick.³ For the rest, the said faculty must be interpreted restrictively.⁴

c) In order that Mass can be said at sea or on a river, a special indult of the Holy See is required, so that the privilege of an altar does not suffice (canon 822, § 3). The special indult belongs to Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and to bishops (canon 239, § 1, 8; canon 349, § 1, 1).

The indult is customarily granted under this law: that the sea be so calm that no danger is present of spilling the sacred species from the chalice; that another priest, if present, assist; and that, if on the ship there is not a proper chapel or fixed altar, nevertheless the chosen place bear nothing indecent or unbecoming. Nor is celebration in cabins prohibited when all the circumstances remove dangers of irreverence.⁵

d) If necessity urges, and recourse cannot be had to the Ordinary, it is lawful by epikeia to celebrate anywhere, even in the open air, provided the place has nothing unbecoming. Necessity urges, for example, if a church has collapsed and a Sunday or feast still in force as a day of precept is at hand; if an army is in camp and Mass must be heard from precept; if otherwise Viaticum cannot be administered, etc. (St. Alphonsus, VI, 356, 359).

¹ Oratories, both semi-public and private, must be reserved for divine worship alone and free from all domestic uses (canon 1196, § 2).

² Constitution Decet Romanum Pontificem, 3 May 1575.

³ Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, 23 December 1912.

⁴ Pontifical Commission, 16 October 1919, ad 12 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1919, p. 478). Then the Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, in its letters to the Ordinaries of Italy, 26 July 1924, declared that this just and reasonable cause must be taken from the good of divine worship and the spiritual good of souls (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1924, p. 370). From the response of the same Sacred Congregation, 3 May 1926, the Ordinary also cannot permit celebration at home, with the corpse present in a place commonly called camera ardente, except in some extraordinary case, when a just and reasonable cause exists. Such an extraordinary case together with a just and reasonable cause, according to the response of the same Sacred Congregation, is had on the occasion of the death of the local Ordinary or of a person from a princely family, or otherwise distinguished because of merits and good deeds toward the Church or the state, or because of most munificent largesses to the poor and needy. In this case, provided that the due obsequies are always fulfilled in the church, the Ordinary can permit the celebration of one or another Mass, but not more than three Masses, the indult of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of 29 April 1894 having been abrogated (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1926, p. 388). Thus Aertnys-Damen, II, n. 232.

⁵ Cf. Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, 1 March 1902, compared with 13 March 1902.

IV. Places in which Mass cannot be celebrated. Mass cannot be celebrated in the temple of heretics or schismatics, even if it was formerly rightly consecrated or blessed (canon 823, § 1); nor in an execrated, violated, or interdicted church or public oratory, until it has again been consecrated or blessed or reconciled, or the interdict has ceased (canons 822; 1170; 1173, § 1; and 2270, § 1, compared with canon 1191, § 1).

1. Execration is had when the holiness of a church or public oratory, inhering in it from dedication, is lost. This, with canon 1170 considered and explained, happens: 1. when the whole building is simultaneously destroyed or collapses; 2. when the greater part of the walls is simultaneously destroyed or collapses; 3. when the building is reduced by the local Ordinary to profane uses. But it does not happen: 1. when the plaster partly or entirely falls from the walls or is removed;¹ 2. when a part which is not the greater part collapses, for example only the roof or only the facade of the church; 3. when walls fall or are destroyed and restored at intervals, even if the whole church becomes new, provided, however, that the greater part does not fall or be destroyed at once (St. Alphonsus, VI, 367, 368).

Note. Once a church has been execrated, the title perishes, as does the recitation of the office and commemoration of the titular patron. An execrated church must again be consecrated or blessed as new.

2. Violation consists in this: that the holiness inhering in a church or public oratory is not indeed lost, but nevertheless is contaminated. This happens through certain criminal or at least very indecent acts. Moreover, "a church is violated only by the acts listed below, provided that they are certain, notorious, and placed in the church itself: 1. the crime of homicide; 2. injurious and grave shedding of blood; 3. impious or sordid uses to which the church has been assigned; 4. the burial of an infidel or of an excommunicated person after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence" (canon 1172, § 1). See these things set forth in vol. I, n. 616. Now:

a) In a violated church, before it is reconciled, it is forbidden to celebrate divine offices (canon 1173, § 1); moreover, a violated church must be reconciled as quickly as possible (canon 1174, § 1).

b) The rector of the same church or any priest with at least the presumed consent of the rector can reconcile a blessed church (canon 1176, § 1). The valid reconciliation of a consecrated church belongs to the bishop or, if it belongs to an exempt clerical religious institute, to the major superior; each can delegate another priest for this (canon 1176, § 2, compared with canon 1156). In a case of grave and urgent necessity, if the Ordinary cannot be approached, it is permitted to the rector of a consecrated church to reconcile the same church, after the Ordinary has afterward been informed (canon 1176, § 3).

c) The reconciliation of a blessed church can be done with common holy water; but the reconciliation of a consecrated church should be done with water blessed for this according to liturgical laws, which nevertheless not only bishops but also the priests who reconcile the church can bless (canon 1177).

3. An interdict of a church, insofar as it prevents the celebration of Mass, is explained in the treatise on ecclesiastical penalties.

¹ Once the plaster has been renewed, the crosses made in testimony of consecration should again be painted or applied (Sacred Congregation of Rites, 4 May 1882, n. 3545).