4/14/2021
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| Giotto, "St. Francis Giving his Mantle to a Poor Man" |
Jorio’s Annotations to ‘29, Officially Published:
The Secretary of the SRC, in 1929 was the Protonotary Apostolic Domenico Jorio who would subsequently become the Prefect of the same Congregation and created a Cardinal of the HRC. He published annotations to the instruction which included summaries both of the recent history of the development of Eucharistic piety as well as of the present instruction.
His annotations include a striking paragraph from the Roman Catechism which, to my knowledge, finds no parallel in the current CCC. It is the paragraph on what punishments the faithful are to fear for treating the MBS without reverence and without religious observance:
“Just as among all the sacred mysteries which Our Lord and Savior commended to us as most certain means of grace, there is none that is comparable to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist: so, too, there is no graver punishment to be feared from God for any crime than that which must be feared if a thing which is full of all holiness, or rather which contains the Author and Source of holiness Himself, were treated by the faithful without sacredness and without religious observance."
Jorio refers to this paragraph as the premise to the present Instruction. His summary of the Instruction comprises paragraphs 10-13 of his Annotations. Since we have just summarized the Instruction, reviewing his summary risks redundancy. He does, however, add certain occasional emphases which can be helpful in interpreting the instruction, such as, the quotation from the Catechism mentioned above. How clean the altar linens are to be kept, which the Instruction describes as scrupulously, Jorio calls “perfect.” He mentions both the importance of the conspicuous mark which is to indicate to the faithful in which altar the MBS is kept in the Church and also that pastors are to instruct the faithful on entering the Churches to show reverence to the MBS.
These annotations give a helpful context to the mind of the Church in its '29 Instruction for the safekeeping of the MBS.
