*Concerts in Churches?


Our (catholic) pastor allows the local university to come into our church and give concerts. They do sing some religious music, but it’s what they do to our sanctuary that concerns me most.

They push our altar toward the back of the sanctuary, and they move our ambo, priest chairs, candles and sometimes the processional cross. Then they put up four-tier bleachers in the sanctuary area. The Blessed Sacrament is removed to a wooden box in the sacristy. There is also a charge for the concert.

Do Catholic Church regulations allow all this? 


Fr. Rocky: Let’s begin this answer by calling to mind what is stated in the Code of Canon Law regarding the use of a Catholic church: “In a sacred place only those things are to be permitted which serve to exercise or promote worship, piety and religion. Anything out of harmony with the holiness of the place is forbidden. The ordinary may, however, for individual cases, permit other uses, provided they are not contrary to the sacred character of the place” (Canon 1210).

Therefore, concerts of sacred and religious music are allowed in churches only with the express permission of the ordinary, which is to be given on a case by case basis and never for an entire concert series. The relevant document which deals with the matter is “Concerts in Churches, Protocol number 1251/87, Nov. 5, 1987,” a declaration on the matter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Among other points, that declaration specifies: “Entrance to the church must be without payment and open to all; the performers and the audience must be dressed in a manner which is fitting to the sacred character of the place; the musicians and the singers should not be placed in the sanctuary; the greatest respect is to be shown to the altar, the president’s chair and the ambo; and the Blessed Sacrament should be, as far as possible, reserved in a side chapel or in another safe and suitably adorned place (Cf. C.I.C., Canon 928, par. 4)” (Prot. No. 1251/87, no. 10).

So Catholic Church regulations do not allow everything you have described.


FR-ROCKY-SIGNATURE

Originally published in The Catholic Answer.