Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Churches Dedicated and Consecrated
ROME, OCT. 8, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Pursuant to our comment that a "blessed" church that has passed into common use is not usually dedicated or consecrated (Sept. 23), several readers pointed out a certain usage once common in some parts of the United States.
One wrote: "From talking to older priests, it seems that in the Eastern U.S. what is now called the Rite of Blessing a Church was commonly referred to its 'Dedication,' and the formal elaborate rite (now called 'Dedication') was called its 'Consecration.'
"The distinction made in these dioceses was that in many cases a parish would take out a mortgage in a secular bank in order to finance the building of its church. Once the church was built, the civil title was held by the lending institution until the mortgage was paid, which could take upward of 30 years or more. What would happen then is that the church would be blessed upon completion of the building project and then consecrated once the mortgage was paid."
Effectively this appears to have been common and was rooted in canonical principles that the consecration could only take place when there was no doubt that the building could be permanently used for the purpose of a church. As this was guaranteed only after the building was substantially debt-free, the consecration would often take place many years after the building was complete and in regular use.
Since this model of financing the building of new churches was less common in other countries, most of them were either dedicated or blessed shortly after completion.
Some readers asked about the opposite end of the stick and the thankless burden of desacralizing churches. We addressed this topic last Dec. 18 and Jan. 1.
Pursuant to our comment that a "blessed" church that has passed into common use is not usually dedicated or consecrated (Sept. 23), several readers pointed out a certain usage once common in some parts of the United States.
One wrote: "From talking to older priests, it seems that in the Eastern U.S. what is now called the Rite of Blessing a Church was commonly referred to its 'Dedication,' and the formal elaborate rite (now called 'Dedication') was called its 'Consecration.'
"The distinction made in these dioceses was that in many cases a parish would take out a mortgage in a secular bank in order to finance the building of its church. Once the church was built, the civil title was held by the lending institution until the mortgage was paid, which could take upward of 30 years or more. What would happen then is that the church would be blessed upon completion of the building project and then consecrated once the mortgage was paid."
Effectively this appears to have been common and was rooted in canonical principles that the consecration could only take place when there was no doubt that the building could be permanently used for the purpose of a church. As this was guaranteed only after the building was substantially debt-free, the consecration would often take place many years after the building was complete and in regular use.
Since this model of financing the building of new churches was less common in other countries, most of them were either dedicated or blessed shortly after completion.
Some readers asked about the opposite end of the stick and the thankless burden of desacralizing churches. We addressed this topic last Dec. 18 and Jan. 1.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
4:44 PM
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