Scholion I. On the Custody of the Holy Eucharist

I. Liceity of reserving the Holy Eucharist. That the Holy Eucharist can licitly be preserved in the sacrarium after the sacrifice has been completed is of faith from Trent: "If anyone says that it is not permitted for the Sacred Eucharist to be reserved in the sacrarium, but that immediately after the consecration it must necessarily be distributed to those present, or that it is not permitted for it to be carried honorifically to the sick, let him be anathema."¹

¹ Session 13, canon 7.

II. Places for reserving the Holy Eucharist. In order that the Holy Eucharist must or can be reserved in the places soon to be assigned, two things are required: 1. that there be someone who has care of it; 2. that regularly a priest celebrate Mass at least once a week in the sacred place (canon 1265, § 1). These things being posited:

1. It must be kept in a cathedral church, in the principal church of an abbey or prelature nullius, of a vicariate and prefecture apostolic, in any parochial or quasi-parochial church, and in a church attached to a house of exempt religious, whether men or women (canon 1265, § 1, 1).

2. It can be kept, with the permission of the local Ordinary, in a collegiate church and in the principal oratory, whether public or semi-public, both of a pious or religious house and of an ecclesiastical college which is governed by secular clerics or by religious (canon 1265, § 1, 2). The same seems to be applied a fortiori to succursal churches, over which a priest presides who is bound to exercise the care of souls for a determined part of the parish. The Pontifical Commission declared¹ that the Ordinary can permit this if immemorial custom is added.

3. In order that it can be kept in other churches or oratories, an apostolic indult is necessary; the local Ordinary can grant this permission only to a church or public oratory for a just cause and by way of act (canon 1265, § 2).

Note 1. It is permitted to no one to retain the Most Holy Eucharist with himself or to carry it with him on a journey (canon 1265, § 3). Exceptions: 1. if, insofar and for as long as otherwise the security of the Holy Eucharist would not be sufficiently provided for; 2. if, which is to be prevented so far as can be done, the Holy Eucharist cannot be kept decently in the church.

Note 2. Churches in which the Most Holy Eucharist is reserved, especially parochial churches, should be open to the faithful daily for at least some hours (canon 1266).

4. Any contrary privilege having been revoked, in the religious or pious house itself the Most Holy Eucharist cannot be kept except either in the church or in the principal oratory; nor among nuns within the choir or enclosure of the monastery (canon 1267). The cited canon sets forth to what extent the Holy Eucharist can be reserved in two places, that is, both in the church and in the principal oratory. Now, considering the response of the Pontifical Commission,² it must be established thus:

a) If a religious or pious house has a public church attached and uses it for carrying out ordinary and daily exercises of piety, the Most Holy Sacrament can be reserved only in that church.

b) If a religious or pious house does not use the attached church for ordinary and daily exercises of piety, by privilege or permission of the local Ordinary (cf. canon 1265, § 2), the Holy Eucharist can be kept in the principal oratory of the same religious or pious house, and indeed without prejudice to the right of the church, if it has any, for example because it is attached to a house of exempt religious; in this case it can be reserved both in the church and in the oratory. But it can be kept in only one oratory, unless in the same material building there are distinct and separate families, so that they are formally distinct religious or pious houses; this obtains, for example, in the case in which in a college there is a community of sisters who devote themselves to the service of the college; likewise in the case in which in a religious house there are, besides the students living in common, religious partly devoted to education and partly to other works. It is doubtful whether the novitiate constitutes a religious house formally distinct from the other community of the house.

¹ 20 May 1923 (A.A.S. 1924, p. 155).

² 2 June 1918 (A.A.S. 1918, p. 346).

III. The manner of reserving the Holy Eucharist. 1. The Most Holy Eucharist cannot be kept continuously or habitually except on one altar only of the same church (canon 1268, § 1). It is said, habitually; hence nothing prevents the Holy Eucharist from sometimes being kept also on another altar for some time, for example so that Communion may be distributed more conveniently. It is to be kept in the most excellent and noble place of the church, and therefore regularly on the high altar, unless another place seems more convenient and becoming for the veneration and worship of so great a sacrament, with the prescription of liturgical laws being observed as regards the last days of Holy Week (canon 1268, § 2). But in cathedral, collegiate, or conventual churches in which choral functions must be performed at the high altar, lest an impediment be brought to ecclesiastical offices, it is fitting that the Most Holy Eucharist regularly not be kept on the high altar, but in another chapel or altar (canon 1268, § 3). Let rectors of churches take care that the altar on which the Most Holy Sacrament is reserved be adorned before all the others, so that by its very arrangement it may move the piety and devotion of the faithful more (canon 1268, § 4).

2. The Most Holy Eucharist must be kept in an immovable tabernacle placed in the middle part of the altar (canon 1269, § 1). Nevertheless, if some grave cause approved by the local Ordinary persuades it, it is not forbidden that the Most Holy Eucharist be reserved at night outside the altar, yet on a corporal, in a safer and decent place, with the prescription of canon 1271 being observed (canon 1269, § 3); the cited canon prescribes that a lamp be lit before the tabernacle (cf. p. 94). For the rest, note:

a) The tabernacle should be skillfully constructed, solidly closed on every side, decently adorned according to the norm of liturgical laws, empty of every other thing, and so carefully guarded that danger of any sacrilegious profanation is kept away (canon 1269, § 2). It is said: adorned according to the norm of liturgical laws. Now the said laws prescribe that the tabernacle be covered within with white silk, unless it is gilded;¹ that it be blessed and outwardly covered with a conopaeum or veil of a color either white or adapted to the office; for black, violet is used.² But if the form of the tabernacle does not allow the use of a conopaeum, at least a broad cloth hanging from above, a baldachin, is to be used, which covers the altar. Nor is it permitted to place images or relics of Saints before or above the tabernacle, even of the Holy Cross. Nevertheless a cross with an image of the Crucified can be placed above the tabernacle. It is said: empty of every other thing; hence not even the sacred oils can be kept in the tabernacle.³

b) The key of the tabernacle in which the Most Holy Sacrament is reserved must be guarded most diligently, the conscience of the priest who has care of the church or oratory being gravely burdened (canon 1269, § 4). It no longer seems, as formerly, to be prescribed that the priest himself guard the key.

3. The Holy Eucharist must be kept in a pyx of solid and decent material, clean and well closed with its own lid, covered with a white silk veil and, as far as the matter allows, adorned. The consecrated particles should be of such a number as can suffice for the Communion of the sick and of other faithful (canon 1270). Now the pyx or ciborium, likewise the monstrance and lunette, can be of gilded copper, although it is more fitting that the pyx and lunette be silver. It is not prescribed that the pyx and lunette, if they are silver, be gilded. But the pyx and monstrance, or at least the lunette, are to be blessed, not consecrated, and this more probably under sin, though only venial (St. Alphonsus, VI, Quaestiones reformatae, 74).

4. Before the tabernacle in which the Most Holy Sacrament is reserved, at least one lamp should shine continually day and night, to be nourished with olive oil or beeswax; but where olive oil cannot be had, it is permitted to the prudence of the local Ordinary that it be changed for other oils, as far as possible vegetable oils (canon 1271). The obligation of the lamp is grave from its genus, so that neglect through an entire day or through several nights would constitute mortal sin (St. Alphonsus, VI, n. 248).

5. Consecrated Hosts, whether for the Communion of the faithful or for exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament, should both be fresh and be frequently renewed, the old ones being duly consumed, so that there be no danger of corruption, with the instructions which the local Ordinary has given concerning this matter being carefully observed (canon 1272). The Ceremonial of Bishops wills that hosts be renewed every week;⁴ nevertheless it seems to suffice that this be done within two weeks. Moreover, new consecrated Hosts should not be mixed with old, but the old should first be distributed or consumed.⁵

¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 20 June 1899, reply to IV, n. 4035.

² Sacred Congregation of Rites, 20 June 1899, reply to IV, n. 4035.

³ Roman Ritual, title IV, chapter 1, n. 6; Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 March, reply to IV, n. 2740.

⁴ Book II, chapter 6, n. 51.

⁵ Roman Ritual, title IV, chapter 1, n. 7.