Ferdinand quoted as follows from Canon 1173 of the
Codex Iuris Canonici (the 1917 Code of Canon Law) and from a translation of the same:
CAN. 1173.
§ 1. In violata ecclesia, antequam reconcilietur, nefas est divina celebrare officia, Sacramenta ministrare, mortuos sepelire.
CAN. 1173.
§ 1. In a violated church, before it has been reconciled, it is nefarious to celebrate the divine office, to minister the Sacraments, or to bury the dead.
The latter evidently comes from the English translation of the Code by Dr Edward Peters, where “
divina celebrare officia” is rendered as “to celebrate the divine office”.
This is grammatically wrong and Dr Peters really should have known better.
What is wrong with it is that the expression “
divina officia” is in the plural and not the singular. If it were the singular, the original text would have said “
divina officium”.
Officium means: a duty, an obligation, a service.
To an English speaker “the divine office” refers to “the Breviary”.
Cf. The Catholic Encyclopedia: the divine office = the recitation of certain prayers in the Breviary.
Clearly, Canon 1173 is referring, not merely to the recitation of the Breviary, but to the celebration of divine services (plural) of all descriptions, and of course this especially includes the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Thus, Canon 1173 says that it is nefarious (wicked, iniquitous) to celebrate divine services in a church building that has been violated (defiled, desecrated), until it has been restored [viz: to its sanctified state].
What constitutes violation would be one or other of the four acts listed in Canon 1172, and the act that is most pertinent to the present discussion is No. 3:
Impii vel sordidis usibus, quibus ecclesia addicta fuerit.
Dr Peters renders this as “Impious and sordid use to which the church was put.” But here again he errs in his translation, because (a)
usibus is plural (uses) and not singular (use), and (b)
vel does not mean “and”, but “or”.
A more accurate translation would be:
Irreverent or sordid uses to which the church has been subjected. If the celebration of the
Novus Ordo Missae is objectively irreverent, then it defiles a church according to the meaning of Canon 1173.
Some of us have escaped the
Novus Ordo Missae precisely because we came to recognise it as objectively irreverent (if not worse). In fact, at the heart of the supposed “Words of Consecration” there is falsehood, and we cannot worship God with a falsehood, for Our Blessed Lord said:
God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth. [John 4:24; Douay Rheims]