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REQUIEM

IV. Conditions for the Celebration of Re- quiem Masses. — The Mass of Requiem is by its very nature extra ordinem officii, according to the Rubric (Rubr. Miss.); that is, it has no relation to the Office of the day. From this point of \-iew, the Mass of Requiem may be rightly considered a votive Mass. Now, according to the laws of the Church (Rubr. Miss, ante Mis. Vot.), votive Masses may not be celebrated "except for some reasonable cause" (nisi rationabili de causa), since "the Mass should, as far as possible, accord with the Office" (quoad fieri potest Missa cum Officio conveniat); and there- fore neither may Requiem Masses be celebrated without reasonable motive; and this reasonable motive does not exist when the Mass is not to be oiTered for one, or several, dead, in particular, or for all the dead in general. For that reason, the custom that has grown up in our days, even in some of the Roman churches, of providing only black vestments in the sacristies on days of Semi-double, Non-festive, or Non-privileged, Rite, is not to be approved. It may be said, however, in justification of this practice, that at present alms for Masses are given, for the greater part, in behalf of the dead; yet it is true that many stipends are paid with the intention of obtaining special graces in behalf of the living, particularly at the sanctuaries to which the faithful resort to venerate the saints or the Blessed Virgin. The priest, however, who knows that he should offer the Mass in behalf of living persons, and not for the departed, has no reasonable cause to celebrate the Mass of Requiem, and therefore may not hcitly celebrate it. This seems to be a rule without exception. That Masses which are said according to the Office of the day may be applied to the dead, is easily understood, since the formulary of the Mass is separable from the application of the Sacrifice itself. So, also, there is no doubt about the application of the merits of the Sacrifice to the living, even though the formulary be that of Requiem (cf. Bucceroni, "Enchir. Mor.", 3rd ed., p. 282); but it is not licit, since the liturgical rules clearly and justly allow the reading of the Mass of Requiem only for the reason of its application to one or more of the dead.

There are other conditions for the celebration of the Requiem Mass; one is that the rite of the day should allow of the celebration; another that the celebrant be not obliged, by reason of his official position, to celebrate a Mass of the living. More will be said in regard to this impediment of the rite or of the solemnity of the day, when w-e come to speak of the various masses of Requiem. As to the impediment that arises from the celebrant's official charge, we may say at once that it can be either the obligation of saying the conventual Mass or that of saying the parochial Mass on a feast day. It is known that the conventual Mass, which should be celebrated by chapters, in cathedrals and in collegiate churches, is never to be omitted, since it is the chief and noblest part of the whole office (Benedict XIV, Constit., 19 Aug., 1744, n. 11); for which reason, if there should be but one priest at a collegiate cliurch, it would be his duty to say the conventual Mass, even if the solemn obsequies of one deceased were to be celebrated, as the Ritual ex- pressly provides (VII, i, 5). The same is to be said of the parochial Mass, which the parish priest is to celebrate pro populo on each feast day; for which reason, if there should be but one parish priest at a parish church on a feast day, and he should not be privileged to say more than one Mass, he may not celebrate the Mass of Requiem, even if it be a ques- tion of the obsequies of one deceased, prcesente cadavere. The reason for this prohibition is the rigorous obligation that binds each parish priest to offer the Mass on feast days for his people, an obliga-

tion which, according to the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIII, I, de ref.), arises from the Divine precept, for him who has the care of souls "to offer sacrifices for the people" {offerre sacrificia pro populo). Benedict XIV (op. cit., n. 2) declares: "Eos, quibus animarum cura demandata est, non modum sacri- ficium Missae celebrare, sed illius etiam fructum medium pro populo sibi commisso applicare debere", so that this is a common doctrine among canonists that has been confirmed at different times by the Congregation of the Council. Now if, in order to celebrate the Mass of Requiem, the Mass must be offered for the dead, and if there is only one Mass in a parochial church on a feast day which must be offered pro populo, it is manifest that this Mass may never be one of Requiem, but, on the contrary, as the Congregation of Rites has frequently declared, it must always be according to the Office of the feast. Also the Congregation of the Council (16 June, 1770, in Fesulana), being asked "An parochi in Dominicia aliisque festis diebus prae.sente cadavere, possint celebrare missam pro defuncto, et in aliam diem transferre missam pro populo applicandam", an- swered : Negative.

The Monday Privilege. — In the United States there is a faculty ("Fac. Ord.", Form I, 20) ordinarily communicated to priests through the bishops, which grants permission to celebrate a Requiem Mass on ^londays non impeditis officio novem lectionum. The phrase officio novem leclionum gave rise to a doubt as to whether semi-doubles only were referred to, or if doubles also were understood. The Congre- gation of Rites answered (4 Sept., 1875, n. 3370, ad. 1) that this Mass was allowed on all Mondays during the year, except (a) on the vigils of Christmas and the Epiphany; (b) in Holy Week; (c) during the oc- taves of Christmas, the Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi; (d) holy days of obligation; (e) greater doubles and doubles of the first and second class. If the enumerated cases hinder this Mass on Monday, the privilege is transferred to Tuesday, under the same conditions, but it lapses after that day.

V. Rite. — The Office and the Mass for the Dead, in their construction, as in their varied rite, are modelled on the offices and the masses of the litur- gical feasts; and, as these are divided by Double Rite, and Semi-Double Rite, with their various classes, so, also, are the Masses of Requiem divided. As is well known, it is characteristic of the Double Rite to double the antiphon in the Office (Rubr. Brev., I, 4) and to have only one prayer in the Mass (Rubr. Mis., I, 1); while in the Semi-Double Office, the antiphons are not doubled, and the Mass has several prayers. Now the same law governs the Office and the Mass for the Dead; the Mass of Requiem will be of the Double Rite (a single prayer), whenever the office to which it may be related is recited with Double Rite (doubling the antiphons); it will be of the Semi-Double Rite (with several prayers), when it corresponds to an office that is recited with the Semi-Double Rite. The Decree of the Congregation of Rites of 30 June, 1896, and the reformed Rubric of the Missal (V, 3) are inter- preted in that sense. Upon the basis of these prin- ciples, it is easy to establish the division of the masses of Requiem according to the various rites. As the Rubrics of the Breviary (ante Matut in. Def.) and of the Ritual (VI, iv) prescribe the duplication of the antiphons, in the offices for the dead (a) on All Souls Day, (b) on the day of the obsequies, and (c) on the 3rd, 7th, 30th, and anniversary days, the masses corresponding to tho.se offices will be of the Double Rite. It should be observed, however, that the days just named all have the Double Rite, but not all with the same privileges; wherefore, the masses also on those days will be of the Double Rite, more or less

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