ORATORIO (LITURGIA)

**ORATORY (LITURGY).** - It is a building or sacred place intended, not for the use of all the faithful, but for a college, a community, a family, or a private individual (can. 1188).

I. GENERAL CONCEPTS

The distinction between a church and an oratory begins to emerge when, with the cessation of persecutions and the spread of Christianity, to the places—generally narrow—in which acts of worship had been conducted in the early centuries, there were added spacious buildings exclusively intended for prayer and the celebration of sacred ceremonies. This distinction must, however, be limited to its essential sense, for both the name *ecclesia* and that of *oratorium* were in common use, even if the latter term better corresponds to the Christian concept, since Christ Himself called the place destined for divine worship the *domus orationis*. With the awakening of the Church, the term *oratorium*, and not merely its essential concept, acquired a meaning of opposition to the basilica and the *ecclesia* in consideration of the very size of the buildings; decisive, moreover, for a comparison is the restriction imposed upon oratories regarding the celebration of Mass and the administration of the Sacraments. Two particular types of sacred places included under the name of oratory became established as early as the 6th century, namely, the private chapels of the Supreme Pontiffs and of bishops, and those of princes.

II. DISTINCTIONS

Oratories are distinguished into private, semi-public, and public.

1. Private Oratories

With the decree *De obsercandis et vitandis in celebratione Missae* in the 22nd session of the Council of Trent on 17 September 1562, the power of bishops to permit the celebration of Mass in private oratories of private houses was revoked; this power remained unchanged, however, for private oratories of non-private houses, that is, those commonly called semi-public or semi-private oratories. The Apostolic See alone is competent to grant such concessions, and the indult is the form by which the privilege is conferred: it contains a certain number of clauses regarding: 1) the intervention of the bishop (before granting the license, the bishop must visit the oratory either personally or through others, to ensure that it meets all the conditions required by the indult and thus approve it); 2) the place of the oratory, which must be decently arranged, enclosed on at least three sides by a wall, equipped with all the furnishings necessary for the Divine Sacrifice, and free from any profane or domestic use; 3) the Mass and the celebrating priest (only one Mass is permitted, but if, by extraordinary indult, permission is given to celebrate on the day of the Nativity of the Lord, then three Masses may be celebrated in the oratory [S. Congr. of the Council, 13 January 1725]; 4) the