What are the laws on perpetual adoration of the Eucharist in the parish? What are the liturgical abuses that we should avoid in relation to this?

- Parochial Vicar

There are three canons that directly pertain to this in the New Code. The first is in Canon 941 that says we should follow the liturgical law on the Exposition of the Eucharist. This refers to the Roman Ritual under the title “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass”. For one, it allows the rite of simple exposition and a rite of exposition and benediction. It also distinguishes three kinds of exposition: Exposition 1) for a lengthy period, 2) for a brief period, and 3) for adoration by religious communities. Another provision is Canon 942 which deals with the lengthy period of exposition with a recommendation that it takes place solemnly once a year in churches and oratories where the sacrament is reserved. The third is Canon 943 which reflects the liturgical law on the ministers of exposition and benediction.

The current liturgical norms were spearheaded by the late Pope John Paul II who, in his Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), prompted the Roman Congregations to develop an instruction explaining the deeper level of liturgical norms in the light of recent abuses of liturgical law throughout the world. As a result on March 25, 2005 the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacrament published an Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (Latin for Sacrament of redemption) which includes a list of liturgical abuses and categorized them in three classes, namely: 1) Graviora delicta (the most grave crimes), 2) Grave matters and 3) Other abuses (i.e. lesser matters).

Graviora delicta, are liturgical abuses “against the sanctity of the Most August Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist (RS, no.172).” Because of their gravity they are also canonical crimes reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF), such as the taking away or retaining the consecrated species for sacrilegious ends, or the throwing them away. In such cases the special procedural norms of Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela or The Safeguarding of the Sanctity of the Sacraments promulgated by John Paul II himself in April 30, 2001 are to be followed. According to this, after receiving a report of this nature with “a certain semblance of truth” [notitiam saltem verisimilem], the bishop is to make a preliminary investigation and communicate the matter to the CDF (SST, Art.14).

Grave matters are those acts that put at risk the validity and dignity of the Most Holy Eucharist and those that are judged as such in accordance with the common teaching of the Church and the norms established by her objectively to be considered grave matters. Based on the norm that says, “the Most Holy Sacrament, when exposed, must never be left unattended even for the briefest space of time (RS, no.138)” Leaving the exposed Eucharist unattended is listed as one of the twenty-four acts listed in this document that are considered grave matter (RS, no.173).

Other abuses or lesser matters are “those actions that are brought about which are contrary to the other matters treated elsewhere in this Instruction or in the norms established by law are not to be considered of little account, but are to be numbered among the other abuses to be carefully avoided and corrected (RS, no.174-175).”

On a pastoral note, Eucharisticum Mysterium prescribes that the Blessed Sacrament be reserved in a solid and inviolable tabernacle and recommends “as far as possible that it be placed in a chapel called a Blessed Sacrament Chapel that is, “suitable for private prayer so that the faithful may easily and fruitfully, by private devotion also, continue to honor our Lord in this sacrament (EM, 53 also RS, 130).” Lastly, according to Redemptionis Sacramentum, the Bishop and not the parish priest, is the competent authority to “designate a church building for perpetual adoration” that is, not in any place but “in cities and the larger towns (RS, 140).