3/22/2021
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| Lorenzetti, "Hermits" |
Nullo 6: Gravity
Next the Paragraph reemphasizes the gravity of the parish priest’s obligation diligently to keep the key. Then it expressly indicates his delegating to another priest the keeping of the key during his absence. It clarifies the universal practice of seeing that the sacristan is entrusted with the key to the location of the safe-keeping of the tabernacle key during the time the priest is away.
SRC indicates that the right of keeping the tabernacle key is exclusive and belongs, as such, to the parish priest. This is so even when there exists in a parish a confraternity for the adoration of the MBS.
Referring to non-parochial churches SRC names the chaplains or rectors of such churches as the ones who possess the exclusive right to keep the key. For such churches the key is never to be kept by laymen, “even though they be patrons.” To emphasize this last direction, Nullo 6 says an Apostolic Indult is required for the keeping of a tabernacle key by a layman.
Nullo 7: Religious Houses
SRC turns its attention to the question of those tabernacles that are part of the churches attached to religious houses and other pious institutes. It recalls that‚ within these houses, the MBS cannot be kept except in the principle oratory or main church. It specifies that it cannot be kept within the choir or within the enclosure of the monastery, and neither can the key. Rather, it specifies the sacristy as the place for the key in these houses. It elaborates on this question, in the case of a house of nuns, citing an 1878 decree of the SRC that the tabernacle key kept in the sacristy is itself to be kept under two other keys, one kept by the mother superior of the house the second by the priest responsible for the tabernacle, so that both are required for accessing the MBS when the need arises. It admonishes the bishops to be diligent in enforcing this.
