CHAPTER III
: THE OFFERING MADE FOR THE CELEBRATION OF MASS
Can.
945 §1 In accordance with the approved custom of the Church, any priest who
celebrates or concelebrates a Mass may accept an offering to apply the Mass for
a specific intention.
§2 It is
earnestly recommended to priests that, even if they do not receive an offering,
they celebrate Mass for the intentions of Christ's faithful, especially of
those in need.
Can.
946 The faithful who make an offering so that Mass can be celebrated for their
intention, contribute to the good of the Church, and by that offering they
share in the Church's concern for the support of its ministers and its
activities.
Can.
947 Even the semblance of trafficking or trading is to be entirely excluded
from Mass offerings.
Can.
948 Separate Masses must be applied for the intentions of those for whom an
individual offering, even if small, has been made and accepted.
Can.
949 One who is obliged to celebrate and apply Mass for the intentions of those
who made an offering, is bound by this obligation even if the offering received
is lost through no fault of his.
Can.
950 If a sum of money is offered for the application of Masses, but with no
indication of the number of Masses to be celebrated, their number is to be
calculated on the basis of the offering prescribed in the place where the donor
resides, unless the donor's intention must lawfully be presumed to have been
otherwise.
Can.
951 §1 A priest who celebrates a number of Masses on the same day may apply
each Mass for the intention for which an offering was made, subject however to
the rule that, apart from Christmas Day, he may retain for himself the offering
for only one Mass; the others he is to transmit to purposes prescribed by the
Ordinary, while allowing for some compensation on the ground of an extrinsic title.
§2 A priest
who on the same day concelebrates a second Mass may not under any title accept
an offering for that Mass.
Can.
952 §1 The provincial council or the provincial Bishops' meeting is to
determine by decree, for the whole of the province, what offering is to be made
for the celebration and application of Mass. Nonetheless, it is permitted to
accept, for the application of a Mass, an offering voluntarily made, which is
greater, or even less, than that which has been determined.
§2 Where
there is no such decree, the custom existing in the diocese is to be observed.
§3 Members
of religious institutes of all kinds must abide by the decree or the local
custom mentioned in §§1 and 2.
Can.
953 No one may accept more offerings for Masses to be celebrated by himself
than he can discharge within a year.
Can.
954 If in certain churches or oratories more Masses are requested than can be
celebrated there, these may be celebrated elsewhere, unless the donors have
expressly stipulated otherwise.
Can.
955 §1 One who intends to transfer to others the celebration of Masses to be
applied, is to transfer them as soon as possible to priests of his own choice,
provided he is certain that they are of proven integrity. He must transfer the
entire offering received, unless it is quite certain that an amount in excess
of the diocesan offering was given as a personal gift. Moreover, it is his
obligation to see to the celebration of the Masses until such time as he has
received evidence that the obligation has been undertaken and the offering
received.
§2 Unless
it is established otherwise, the time within which Masses are to be celebrated
begins from the day the priest who is to celebrate them receives them.
§3 Those
who transfer to others Masses to be celebrated are without delay to record in a
book both the Masses which they have accepted and those which they have passed
on, noting also the offerings for these Masses.
§4 Each
priest must accurately record the Masses which he has accepted to celebrate and
those which he has in fact celebrated.
Can.
956 Each and every administrator of pious causes and those, whether clerics or
lay persons, who are in any way obliged to provide for the celebration of
Masses, are to transfer to their Ordinaries, in a manner to be determined by
the latter, such Mass obligations as have not been discharged within a year.
Can.
957 The duty and the right to see that Mass obligations are fulfilled belongs,
in the case of churches of the secular clergy, to the local Ordinary; in the
case of churches of religious institutes or societies of apostolic life, to
their Superiors.
Can.
958 §1 The parish priest, as well as the rector of a church or other pious
place in which Mass offerings are usually received, is to have a special book
in which he is accurately to record the number, the intention and the offering
of the Masses to be celebrated, and the fact of their celebration.
§2 The
Ordinary is obliged to inspect these books each year, either personally or
through others.
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