Navigants

NAVIGANTS. - By "naviganti" [seafarers] are meant those who make a sea voyage on any vessel. Those who undertake air travel are equated with seafarers, as regards the privileges granted by the CIC (Pontifical Commission, 16 Dec. 1947, AAS, 40 [1948], p. 17).

The CIC deals with seafarers principally with regard to the administration of the Sacrament of Penance. In fact, can. 883 establishes the following: "All priests who undertake a sea voyage, provided they are duly furnished with the faculty of hearing confessions either from their own Ordinary, or from the Ordinary of the port of departure, or even from the Ordinary of any intermediate port through which they pass in the course of the voyage, may, throughout the entire voyage, hear on board ship the confessions of the faithful who are traveling with them, even though the ship in the course of the voyage passes through or even stops for some time in places subject to the jurisdiction of different Ordinaries. Whenever, moreover, the ship stops during the voyage, they may hear the confessions both of the faithful who for any reason approach the ship, and of those who wish to confess to them after momentarily having gone ashore, and may validly and licitly absolve them even from cases reserved to the Ordinary."

With regard to this provision of the CIC, the following must be noted: 1. by "own Ordinary" is to be understood only the local Ordinary, thus excluding the major Superior of Religious (Pontifical Commission, 30 July 1934, AAS, 26 [1934], p. 494). 2. Priests who are seafarers can probably hear the confessions of the faithful sailing with them, both in the place from which the ship begins the voyage and in the place where the voyage ends; as likewise also during a river voyage begun immediately after a sea voyage. 3. When the ship stops in some port for several days, the priest who is a seafarer may avail himself of his faculty, but not beyond three days, if it is easy to approach the local Ordinary (Pontifical Commission, 13 Dec. 1923, AAS, 16 [1923], p. 114).

As for the Mass, no one may celebrate it at sea without an apostolic indult. Such an indult is necessary even for one who enjoys the privilege of a portable altar, as is expressly declared in the CIC (can. 822 § 3). The apostolic indult is granted by common law to the cardinals of Holy Roman Church (can. 239 § 1, n. 8) and to bishops, even titular ones (can. 349 § 1). The apostolic indult to celebrate at sea is usually granted under the following conditions: a) that another priest be present; b) that the sea be calm; c) that there be no danger of irreverence. Sometimes one is dispensed from the obligation of the assistance of another priest, provided the danger of spilling the Precious Blood is likewise kept away (cf. F. M. Cappello, De Sacramento, I, Turin 1947, n. 753). It is thought that the apostolic indult is not necessary for those who, enjoying the privilege of a portable altar, celebrate on an aircraft; because the prohibition is made only for celebration at sea; nor is it valid to invoke the parity made by the Pontifical Commission between seafarers and air travelers, because that concerns only the Sacrament of Penance, and in odiosis one is not bound to adhere to such parity. Naturally, the precautions required by the case must also be used here. Moreover, in air navigation the dangers of irreverence are far fewer than those inherent in sea navigation. It is established that the Holy See granted, through the apostolic nuncio of Germany, the faculty of celebrating Holy Mass on the aircraft Hindenburg on the occasion of the voyage made by the ship from Germany to America on 23 March 1936 (cf. T. Bouscaren-S. I. Lincoln, The canon law digest, officially public document affecting the Code of canon law, II, Milwaukee 1936, p. 45).

Andres Gennaro