DECRETA AUTHENTICA SACRAE RITUUM CONGREGATIONIS. - Under this name comes the collection of the decrees and other decisions of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in liturgical matters. The liturgy, in fact, which constitutes the public and social worship that the Catholic Church officially renders to God, has its foundation in divine institution. For the Eucharistic Sacrifice, therefore, and for the other sacraments, which are the principal elements of the liturgy, the Church took care to determine very early the form that was to adorn them, in order to make the faithful ever better understand their dignity and efficacy, with prayers, rites and ceremonies that would give them greater prominence. It also gave life to other acts of worship, such as the divine Office and the sacramentals, and for the edification of the faithful it has always held up the heroic virtues of its most perfect members. Since, therefore, the object of the sacred liturgy is the worship of God and of the saints, it follows that the relevant legislation must proceed from the supreme head of the Church, the Roman pontiff, who, for the Latin rite, before the institution of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, issued such laws by means of special constitutions or other acts, as, for example, the Rubrics of the liturgical books, validated by pontifical bulls. Subsequently, then, almost all the laws were issued by the same Sacred Congregation, established by the supreme pontiff as the competent organ in the matter, and to its decisions was given such weight that « decreta ab ea emanata et responsiones quaecumque ab ipsa propositis dubiis [formiter] editae, eandem habeant auctoritatem ac si immediate ab ipso summo pontifice promanarent, quamvis nulla facta fuerit de iisdem relatio Sanctitati Suae » (Dubium proposed by the Order of Friars Preachers, with affirmative response of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 1846, fol. 109. In the Decreta authent., II, Rome 1898, n. 2996, the word « formiter » does not belong to the original).
These decrees are distinguished into general and particular. The general ones, with the force of law throughout the whole Church, have as their title: Decretum or Decretum generale, or else Urbis et Orbis, while the particular ones have the force of law for places, classes of persons or individual cases. It is to be noted, however, that if some decree, issued in response to a particular question, declares the sense of a general law, of a Rubric, etc., this declaration constitutes an authentic interpretation of the law itself, and has the force of law. This is gathered not only from the object of the decree, but also from the final clauses, which vary. The Responsum or Rescriptum is a general formula, and means only that the Congregation is responding to a question put to it. The clause Indultum or the like indicates the granting of a privilege, the confirmation of a custom, etc.; if for this indult the sovereign grace had been required, then there would be used: Facto verbo cum Sanctissimo. The clause Declaravit says that the decree authentically interprets the law. Finally, the clause Servari mandavit reinforces the preceding response, imposing the precept of observing it rigorously. The Sacred Congregation has not published the many thousands of its decrees, but only the general ones for the universal Church. These form the collection published in the years 1898-99 with the types of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, which contains those issued from 1888, but in which the Sacred Congregation of Rites was established, up to 15 Dec. 1899, sub auspiciis Leonis Papae XIII, with the Vatican types, then, in the years 1912-1927, sub auspiciis Pii Papae X and Pii Papae XI, up to 14 May 1926, with n. 4403. The title is: Decreta authentica Congregationis Sacrorum Rituum, ex actis eiusdem collecta eiusque auctoritate promulgata. After this date the collection was not continued; however, the most important decrees have been published in the AAS.
The individual decrees, apart from their insertion in the collection, are authentic, but their existence would have remained unknown to most. The publication, therefore, not only made them known, but, as the decree of pontifical approval expressly says, brings it about that the decrees which do not agree with those of the collection «veluti abrogata esse censenda, exceptis tantum quae pro particularibus ecclesiis indulti seu privilegii rationem habeant». These decrees, therefore, together with the Rubrics contained in the liturgical books, form the jurisprudence of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. It is to be observed, however, that, with the reform of the Rubrics introduced by Pius X in the Missal and in the Breviary and with the CIC, many decrees have lost their value.
Alfonso Carinci