There are sacred places, things and persons. Mistreatment of a sacred place, thing or person is the sin of sacrilege.
By blessings and consecrations, places, things and persons are taken from the secular, temporal, profane realm and given to the sacred.
Sometimes sacred places, such as churches or cemeteries, are mistreated to the point of being desecrated. These churches must then be put back into sacred order before they can be used again. As we read in the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church:
Can. 1211 Sacred places are violated by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful, actions which, in the judgment of the local ordinary, are so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place that it is not permitted to carry on worship in them until the damage is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books.
In the older, traditional way of doing things, a church or cemetery could be “reconciled” after profanation by a bishop or a priest with (at least) presumed permission. You can see the traditional rite HERE. I especially like this prayer:
Almighty and merciful God, who conferred on your priests above all others this great grace, that whatever they do worthily and exactly in your name, is regarded as being done by you; we pray that in your kindness you may be present wherever we are present and may bless
whatever we bless. And at our lowly coming, through the merits of your saints, may demons flee and the angel of peace be at hand; through Christ our Lord.
whatever we bless. And at our lowly coming, through the merits of your saints, may demons flee and the angel of peace be at hand; through Christ our Lord.I just read a story of the “reconciliation” of a desecrated church in Missouri. HERE The Bishop of Jefferson City, Most Rev. John R. Gaydos, carried out the rite.
“Christ restored completely what Satan had taken from us,” Fr. Peckman, pastor of St. Clement Parish, said. “It was as if the sun was breaking over the horizon to let us know that the Light of Christ conquers the darkest sorrow the devil can inflict.”
The Devil hates sacred places, things and persons. His agents will attack them constantly.
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Imagine if this had happened to a mosque. There would be riots in the streets and people left for dead. “You will know them by their fruits.” Prayers for the community and the perp, who seems to have her head back on straight after surrendering to the police.
I remember John Cardinal O’Connor doing this in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral following a murder on the steps. A very different New York City than today.
This is a good distinction between the presence of the devil, requiring an exorcism, and evil committed solely by man, requiring the above action.
Does anyone know if there is a similar ritual/prayer for a secular place? For instance, at a home where murder, sodomy or other serious and publicly known mortal sin/crime happened?
wolfeken:
There are blessings for places in the older Ritual. Also, there is a rite of exorcism for places which priests can perform only with the permission of the local bishop.
A parish I once attended in my hometown was attacked on several occasions by self avowed satanists. Mostly breaking and entering with vandalism. But once they disrupted Mass and turned over a podium. I wonder if the pastor at the time reconciled the buildings afterword? Hopefully so.
It has always been a comfort to me how much the satanists and such hate the Church. It just confirms to me that the Catholic Church is true.
The news story in the link indicates that the perpetrator was identified and arrested. It appears there may be mental health issues involved. The parish is praying for her.
The priest from this parish is wonderful; I know him through his Facebook postings. He said they were doing some things in the parish, like spiritual warfare, that he thinks riled up the devil to go after it.
When a man shot himself to death inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, three years ago after placing a letter on the altar, I was surprised that one of the auxiliary bishops celebrated a Mass of reparation the same afternoon so that they could re-open the church for a planned service that same night. The Mass of the Body and Blood of Christ was private, with only a few officials present. One of the Cathedral priests explaind that the issue was not that the man had killed himself, but that blood had been spilled in the sanctuary.
Sorry, I coudn’t find an English-language article.
Back in the mid 70s, someone went into our church (which up until then had always been open) and trashed the place and worst of all, they stole the tabernacle. Our pastor was shocked to his soul and so was everyone in the parish. We had a vigil, the church was reconciled and we found a new tabernacle that exactly matched the old one. Our church has been closed and locked ever since. We have a small adoration chapel that is accessed through a keypad.
Just 2 comments:
First of all there have been plenty of “liturgies” in the past 45 years from which I have walked out because I believed they were as close to desecration of the church or chapel and Christ’s Body and Blood as to warm Satan’s heart. Not smeared feces but smelling to high Heaven just the same.
Secondly, on a more general level, I am so tired of laity, clergy, journalists, government leaders pronouncing an action and its bad actor as “sick” rather than EVIL. I leave the diagnosis of a true mental illness to the professionals but I refuse to characterize evil as something which can merely be corrected with some sessions and meds from a psychiatrist. [Robert Spencer at Jihadwatch.org has a great video on the amazing outbreak of mental illness across Europe as authorities scramble to blame machete attacks, truck attacks, beheadings, shootings, torture on spontaneous mental illness rather than the Religion of Peace.]