CHAPTER III

DIRECTORS, MISSIONARIES TO MIGRANTS, AND SHIP CHAPLAINS

18. a) The missionaries to emigrants and chaplains aboard ships and their directors will carry on theft work under the direction of the Consistorial Congregation and its Delegate for Migration Affairs.

    b) Neither the office of missionary to migrants nor of ship chaplains, nor that of director effect excardination from a diocese. Nor do they offer exemption either from one's own Ordinary or religious Superior, or from the Ordinary of the place in which the work of the missionary or chaplain is done.

19. Directors of missionaries to migrants and ship chaplains have, by virtue of their office, no jurisdiction, either territorial or personal, except that described below.

20. The rights and duties of a Director are chiefly:

    a) To make arrangements with the bishops of the nation or territory in which the missionaries maintain a settled residence, with respect to all those factors that concern the spiritual welfare of immigrants of their nationality or language.

    b) To direct, without prejudice to the rights of the Ordinaries, the missionaries or chaplains.

21. a) The Director should therefore investigate:

        1. Whether the missionaries or chaplains lead a life in conformity with the standards of the sacred canons and are careful to fulfill their duties.

        2. Whether these men properly carry out the decrees of the Consistorial Congregation and of their local Ordinary.

        3. Whether they preserve carefully the decorum and dignity of churches or chapels or oratories and of sacred furnishings, especially in regards to the custody of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the celebration of Mass.

        4. Whether the sacred rites are celebrated according to requirements of liturgical laws and decrees of the Congregation of Rites. Similarly, whether the church revenues are carefully administered, and the obligations connected with them, particularly those of Mass, are properly met. Also whether the parochial records, mentioned below in No. 25 c) and No. 35 b), are correctly written and preserved.

    b) To assure himself of all this, the Director must visit the missions or ships frequently.

    c) It is also up to the Director, as soon as he learns that a missionary or chaplain is seriously ill, to provide assistance, so that neither spiritual nor material aid will be lacking, nor, in case of death, a decent funeral. He must also take care that during the priest's sickness or on his death the records, documents, sacred furnishings and other mission property are not lost or carried off.

22. The Director may, where possible and for good reasons approved by the Consistorial Congregation, bring all the missionaries or chaplains together, especially in order to make a retreat or to attend conferences on the best methods for carrying on their ministry.

23. At least once a year, the Director shall send an accurate report to the Consistorial Congregation on the missionaries and chaplains, and on the state of the missions. He is to recount not only the good accomplished during the year, but also the evils that have crept in, what measures have been taken to obviate them and what seems necessary to promote the growth of the missions.

24. Missionaries to migrants engaged in the spiritual care of Catholics of their own nationality or language come under the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary, according to the norms of Chapter IV below.

25. a) It is the duty of the chaplains aboard ships to attend, throughout the voyage, to the spiritual care of all those who, for whatever reason happen to be aboard. The only exception would be in the case of marriage.

    b) The chaplains will be given, without prejudice to the provision of Canon 883 of the Code of Canon Law, special rules and faculties by the Consistorial Congregation.

    c) They must keep a record of baptisms, confirma­tions and deaths. At the end of each trip they are to send their Director a copy of this record, together with a report of their work done on that trip.

26. If there is a chapel legitimately erected on the ship, the chaplains shall, with due allowances, be deemed equiva­lent to rectors of churches.

27. a) Chaplains may celebrate the Divine Services, even solemnly, in the chapel aboard ship as long as they observe the canonical and liturgical laws and are careful to hold the services at a convenient time for all on board.

    b) The chaplains are to:

        1. Announce feast days to those on board.

        2. Give catechetical instructions, especially to the young people, and an explanation of the Gospel.

28. Chaplains on ships are to watch:

    a) That in the chapel, the Divine Services are celebrated properly according to the prescription of the sacred canons and that priests celebrating Mass be assisted by another priest if there is one, vested in a surplice, in order to avoid the danger of spilling the Sacred Species from the chalice.

    b) That the sacred furnishings are kept up and the decorum of the chapel looked after; that nothing be done there incompatible, in any way, with the holiness of the place or the reverence due the House of God, and that neither the chapel nor the altar nor the sacred vestments be used at the service of non-Catholic sects.

29. a) No one may celebrate Mass, administer the sacra­ments, preach, or perform other divine functions in the ship's chapel, without the permission, at least presumed, of the chaplain.

    b) This permission must be granted or refused according to the ordinary rules of the canon law.

30. The right to erect and bless a chapel on ship belongs to the Ordinary of the place in which the home port of the ship is located.

31. Missionaries and chaplains may, with the consent of the Director, and the Superior in case of a religious, be absent from their mission or ship for any one month within the same year, provided the needs of emigrants or seamen be met by a priest who has the proper rescript from the Consistorial Congregation. Directors, who must obtain the authorization of the Consistorial Congregation, and if they are religious, of their Superior, are granted this same privilege, provided they can find a priest approved by the Consistorial Congregation to substitute for them.