ELECTRIC LIGHT. - LITURGICAL USE. - By precise dispositions of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, electric light is forbidden in the liturgical use of worship, but it is permitted for illuminating churches or for adorning them with greater solemnity (decrees nos. 3859 and 4322).
1) On altars there must be only wax candles, and it is forbidden to place electric candles there (whether together with wax ones or for the groups; decr. no. 4097). It is forbidden to place electric candles before or around the throne for the exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament or inside the ciborium (4275), before sacred relics or sacred images placed above the altars (4206 and 4322). Before the altar, where the Most Blessed Sacrament is reserved or where sacred relics are exposed, there must be at least one oil lamp (4334 and 86). In the last two wars (1914-18 and 1939-45), given the difficulty of obtaining oil and wax at a reasonable price or in sufficient quantity, the use of electric lamps was permitted (4334 and 86), with the obligation to return as soon as possible to the age-old tradition, which came about with the decree of 18 Aug. 1949. This venerable use of wax and oil is founded on the symbolic meaning and on the character of worship in a visible destruction of the matter to be burned (86).
2) Electric light is used for the internal illumination of the church, for the adornment of pictures or sacred images (outside the altars) or for greater solemnity (4206 and 4322). The illumination must be serious and sober (3859). Figures, crowns, inscriptions, monograms, symbols, rays, stars, etc., composed of electric lamps are not permitted (4210 ad 1), still less of lamps of various colors (4322). Hidden light sources are preferred. In cemeteries, at the tombs of the dead, electric lamps are permitted instead of wax candles (4378).
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Pietro Siffrin