Consecration of One or Both Matters for a Sacrilegious End, During the Eucharistic Celebration or Outside of the Holy Mass

Abstract

The crime of consecration in sacrilegum finem was introduced by the Normae of the motu proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela and, after the review in 2010, it punishes the priest who moved by an evil purpose, consecrates one matter without the other or even both, either during or outside of the Eucharistic Celebration. The evil intent of the priest doesn’t annul, however, the intention to achieve what the Church does with that gesture, so a valid transubstantiation of the species takes place. The crime is realized only in the presence of a real consecration. This aspect distinguishes actual felony from the simulation, where the priest doesn’t celebrate a valid Mass, due to a defect in the intention to celebrate or to the use of unsuitable matter. The crime also differs from the felony of profanation because it punishes the sacrilegious “premeditation” with which the priest moves to celebrate, irrespective of the fact that the execution of the sacrilege is actually accomplished.