DECRETA AUTHENTICA SACRAE RITUUM CONGREGATIONIS. — This is the name given to the collection of the decrees and other decisions of the S. Congregation of Rites concerning liturgical matters. The liturgy, in fact, which constitutes the public and social worship that the Catholic Church officially offers to God, is founded upon divine institution. With regard, therefore, to the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the other sacraments, which are the principal elements of the liturgy, the Church took care at an early date to determine the form that was to adorn them, so as to enable the faithful ever more fully to understand their dignity and efficacy, through prayers, rites, and ceremonies that would give them greater prominence. She also instituted other acts of worship, such as the divine Office and the sacramentals, and for the edification of the faithful she has always proposed the heroic virtues of her most perfect members. Since, therefore, the object of the sacred liturgy is the worship of God and the saints, it follows that the relevant legislation must proceed from the supreme head of the Church, the Roman Pontiff. For the Latin rite, before the institution of the S. Congregation of Rites, he promulgated such laws through special constitutions or other acts, as, for example, the Rubrics of the liturgical books, confirmed by papal bulls. Subsequently, almost all the laws were promulgated by the same S. Congregation, constituted by the supreme pontiff as the competent organ in this matter, and such authority was attributed to its decisions that « decreta ab ca emanata et responsiones quaecumque ab ipsa propositis dubiis [formiter] editae, eandem habeant autocritatem ac si immediate ab ipso summo pontifice promanarent, quamvis nulla facta fuerit de iisdem relatio Sanctitati Suae » (Question submitted by the Order of Friars Preachers, with an affirmative response from the S. Congregation of Rites, 1846, fol. 109. In Decreta authent., II, Rome 1898, no. 2996, the word « formiter » does not belong to the original).
These decrees are divided into general and particular. The general decrees, having the force of law throughout the Church, bear the title: Decretum or Decretum generale, or else Urbis et Orbis, whereas the particular decrees have the force of law for particular places, classes of persons, or individual cases. It should be noted, however, that if a decree issued in response to a particular question declares the meaning of a general law, a Rubric, etc., this declaration constitutes an authentic interpretation of the law itself and has the force of law. This follows not only from the subject matter of the decree but also from the final clauses, which vary. Responsib or Rescript is a general formula and means only that the Congregation is replying to a question submitted to II. The clause Indulist or a similar one indicates the granting of a privilege, the confirmation of a custom, etc.; if sovereign grace had been required for this indulgence, the formula used would have been: Facto verbo cum Sanctissimo. The clause Declaravit states that the decree authentically interprets the law. Finally, the clause Servari mandanti reinforces the preceding response by imposing the precept of observing it strictly. The S. Congregation has not published the many thousands of its decrees, but only the general ones for the universal Church. These constitute the collection published in the years 1898–1899 by the presses of the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide, containing those issued from 1888, the year in which the S. Congregation of Rites was instituted, through 15 December 1899, sub auspiciis Leonis Papae XIII, by the Vatican Press; subsequently, in the years 1912–1927, sub auspiciis Pii Papae X and Pii Papae XI, through 14 May 1926, with no. 4403. The title is: Decreto authentica Congregationis Sacrorum Rituum, ex actis eiusdem collecta eiusque auctoritate promulgata. After that date the collection was not continued; the most important decrees, however, were published in AAS.
The individual decrees, irrespective of their inclusion in the collection, are authentic, but their existence would have remained unknown to most people. Publication therefore not only made them known but, as the decree of papal approval expressly states, ensures that decrees not agreeing with those in the collection «veluti abrogata esse censenda, exceptia tantum quae pro particularibus ecclesia indulti seu privilegio rationem habeant». These decrees, therefore, together with the Rubrics contained in the liturgical books, constitute the jurisprudence of the S. Congregation of Rites. It should be observed, however, that, as a result of the reform of the Rubrics introduced by Pius X in the Missal and the Breviary and of the CIC, many decrees have lost their force.