3/9/2021
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| Martini, "St. Martin" |
CIC 943
This canon indicates, for the purposes of the administration of the liturgical rite of exposition of the MBS, the priest or deacon. It names “special circumstances” for when the administration for exposition and deposition alone may be an acolyte or other extraordinary minister. Further instruction on the clergy’s collaboration with the non-ordained is given in the inter-dicasterial 1997. This question will have implication that concern the practice of “perpetual adoration.”
CIC 944
This canon has two paragraphs that concern the Bishop and public processions in honor of the MBS. In the first, eucharistic procession through the streets is simply provided for as a possibility respecting the judgment of the bishop. The second paragraph makes the bishop responsible for regulating such processions with due dignity.
CIC
Thus conclude the CIC’s eleven canons concerning the safe-keeping and veneration of the MBS. Recapping, they dealt with the
- obligation and permission needed for reservation in certain places
- person responsible for its custody
- unlawful personal transportation
- limited locations of more than one tabernacle
- accessibility for public adoration
- dignity, honor and security of the church’s tabernacle, including its key
- refreshing of the reserved hosts themselves
- burning of the lamp
- liturgical prescriptions and recommendations for exposition and processions
The CIC’s prescriptions outline what constitutes the sufficient and necessary elements of MBS security & veneration. Again, this linking of the two, security and veneration, is itself informative. They are not merely two, different sides of the same coin, co-existing somehow in opposition to the other. Rather they are expressions of the same reality. We keep safe what is holy. We venerate what we keep safe. Excessiveness and deficiency are to be avoided in both security and veneration.
We will explore this moral question later, after we’ve seen in what safe-keeping consists.
