The Devil makes use of some consecrated ministers
to debase the sacrifice of the Holy Mass
in order to abolish it from the face of the earth.

Invalid consecration:
Sin of idolatry?

By Vladimir Kozina

n The Most Holy Eucharist is a mystery and the center of our faith, a sacrament by which we are sanctified, and a sacrifice in which Jesus Christ, Our Lord, body and blood, soul and divinity, is contained, offered, and received under the appearances of bread and wine.

Three things are necessary to effect the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist and the sacrifice of the Holy Mass (beside the validly ordained priest): (1) the matter; (2) the form; (3) the intention to do what the Church does in offering the sacrifice of the Holy Mass.

All these sacraments are dispensed in three ways, namely, by things as the matter, by words as the form, and by person of the minister conferring the sacrament with the intention of doing what the Church does; if any of these is lacking the sacrament is not fulfilled.1

Both the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist and the sacrifice of the Holy Mass are effected at the CONSECRATION. The Council of Trent stated:

. . . by the consecration of bread and wine a conversion takes place of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood. This conversion is appropriately and properly called transubstantiation by the Catholic Church (can. 2).2

The Code of Canon Law declares:

The Most Holy Eucharist is the most august sacrament, in which Christ the Lord himself is contained, offered and received, and by which the Church constantly lives and grows. The Eucharistic Sacrifice, the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord, in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated over the centuries, is the summit and the source of all Christian worship and life . . . .3

The faithful are to hold the Eucharist in the highest honor . . . worshipping it with supreme adoration; pastors . . . are to instruct the faithful thoroughly about this obligation.4

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy informs us that the Most Holy Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."5 And the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith."6

Assisted by the theological gift of faith, we believe in the true and real presence of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, in the unbloody sacrifice of the Holy Mass. The Mass is "the most august," the most sublime form of adoration. It is an act through which we give the greatest glory and the highest honor to God. There is nothing more sacred than to praise and worship God in the sacrifice of the Holy Mass!

It is not just an assumption, but a sad fact, that the center, "the summit and the source" of our Catholic worship, the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, is being desecrated by priests who ought to know the discipline laid down by the Church for the valid celebration of the Mass yet purposely use invalid bread for Mass.

In his immense aversion to God and in his hatred of the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, the Devil works for the total elimination of the Mass throughout the world. He employs all kinds of means, insofar as God permits, to get rid of the Mass. The Devil makes use of some consecrated ministers and theologians to debase the sacrifice of the Holy Mass in order to abolish it from the face of the earth all together.

Satan wants to be worshiped7 at the celebration of the Mass. He induces unfortunate priests into disloyalty to the Magisterium of the Church by persuading them to "do their own thing"; such as using invalid matter (bread or wine, or both), changing the words of consecration, or positively excluding the right intention.

I am inclined to believe that priests who- in defiance of the Church's Tradition and her guidelines dealing with this important matter-purposely use invalid bread are not only guilty of the sin of sacrilege but they lead the faithful into IDOLATRY.

In the Old Testament idolatry is strictly forbidden. Yahweh is a "jealous God" who tolerates no idol beside him.8 God must be recognized for what he is, and as so recognized, worshiped. "Some Fathers call idolatry the gravest offense to God, as it robs him of his honor by putting the Creator after creatures."9

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the sin of idolatry by stating: "Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God."10

Explaining idolatry to the faithful, they would immediately think of Dagon, the god of the Philistines; Astarte, the popular goddess in Canaan; Baal, the god of Jezabel, or any other pagan idol to which people give an act of worship due to God alone. If a person knows that what he worships is not God, but one of his creatures he is guilty of a formal mortal sin, a sin which has been regarded by both the Old and New Testaments as the gravest of all sins. The thought that the sin of idolatry could be committed during the celebration of the Holy Mass would never even cross the minds of most Catholic faithful. It sounds incredible, indeed! But it could happen. I think it is happening in some of our churches, perhaps every day. . . . How?

In most cases because of INVALID MATTER. The celebrant pronounces the words of consecration over a "host" which, according to the Tradition and the regulations of the Church, must not be used for celebration of the Holy Mass!

The guilt of idolatry could be incurred even by Christians offering worship to God. Thus, in adoration of the Eucharist there could be idolatry, at least material, if an unconsecrated host were exposed for veneration or given in communion.11

In a drawer of my desk I keep a large "host," a round brownish colored disk of about 5 inches in diameter, which is being used for the celebration of Mass in at least one parish church in California. It was prepared according to the following recipe:

Sift 2-1/2 cups white flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/3 cup melted margarine. Mix into above 1/3 cup honey-add water to make 1 full cup. Roll 1/8" thick and cut to size. Bake at 375 for 12 min. or til bottoms are brown.

I compared this recipe with the one which circulated around the parishes of my diocese some twenty years ago. It is almost a rubber stamp of the above.

A BREAD RECIPE. 1 c. wheat flour; 1 c. white flour; 1-1/2 t. soda; 1/2 t. salt; 2 T. honey; 1 c. buttermilk. Sift dry ingredients. Add honey and buttermilk. Roll into 6"-7" diameter round just over 1/8" thick. Bake at 350 degrees 10-15 min. IT'S GOOD BREAD!

Yes, indeed, it is a "good bread" for a party, but not for the Holy Mass! Did you notice that in the second recipe WATER is completely omitted and substituted by soda, salt, honey and buttermilk!

As early as 1979 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith became alarmed over the unauthorized practice in the United States of celebrating Masses with invalid matter and urged its bishops to correct the abuses. On June 4, 1979, Franjo Cardinal Seper, Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith, in a letter directed to Archbishop John R. Quinn, then president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, among other important items, the following:

. . . It may be helpful to note that recipes sent to the Sacred Congregation over the past several years vary greatly in the matter of "additions"; where there is question of slight additions (e.g. salt, condiments) the matter will be valid but illicit; where there is question of substitution of all or a large quantity of water by other liquids (e.g. milk, eggs, honey, etc.) the matter will be invalid . . . .

It is recommended to the Bishops of the United States that they recall to their priests the need to satisfy any obligation deriving from Masses celebrated with invalid matter. These decisions were approved by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II in the audience of May 11th 1979.12

In spite of the Vatican condemnation of the practice of baking altar bread following the directions of the above mentioned recipes and urging bishops to "correct abuses," dissenting priests still persist in saying invalid Masses in some of our parish churches. It looks as though the bishops must not have taken the Vatican Congregation's regulations on Eucharistic bread seriously! How else would these dissenting priests, even today, dare to celebrate Mass with invalid ingredients if they knew that their Ordinaries were opposed to the condemned practice, thus leading their congregations into idolatry?

The words of the prophet could rightly be addressed to those bishops who fail to use their God given authority to correct or to silence those of their priests who reject Catholic Doctrine on the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist and the sacrifice of the Holy Mass: "Our watchmen are blind, they notice nothing. . . . The upright perish and no one cares. Devout men are taken off, [deprived of the real Mass!]-and no one gives a thought."13 Shouldn't the words of Jeremiah be applied to them: "My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray . . . they have forgotten their fold."14

Not knowing of the lack of the validity of the "host," the faithful attending this kind of "Mass," pay supreme worship, not to the Creator, but to a creature, to BREAD they take for granted was changed, at the consecration, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. If they went to Holy Communion with the desire to receive the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ, what would be their reaction if someone told them that the "host" which was handed to them was not the Body and Blood of Christ but just ordinary bread? Would they realize the fact that their pastor committed the sin of sacrilege by using invalid matter at this "Mass" and was the cause for them to commit the sin of material idolatry?

The remote matter of the Eucharist is the bread and wine; but the proximate matter is the consecrated species of bread and wine.

Only wheaten bread is the valid matter of the Eucharist. This is in opposition to the Calvinists who hold that, if bread and wine were lacking anything which belongs to the order of food and of drink may be used. According to Trent, it is the matter of faith that the matter is bread; it is certain that this bread must be wheaten.15

The Code of Canon Law briefly states:

The most Sacred Eucharist must be celebrated with bread and wine, with which a small quantity of water is to be mixed.16

The bread must be made of wheat alone and recently made so that there is no danger of corruption.17

Can. 926. In accord with the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the priest is to use unleavened bread in the celebration of the Eucharist whenever he offers it.18

Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J., the renowned scholar and eminent liturgist, states that: "There can be little doubt that the bread used by Christ our Lord at the Last Supper was unleavened bread prescribed for the paschal meal, a bread made of fine wheat flour."

He serves us with a quotation taken from Alcuin, Ep 69 (alias 90); PL, C, 289: "The bread, which becomes the body of Christ, is to be free of any and every infection of admixture and must be the purest one (mundissimus)." Quoting Alcuin again, Jungmann explains: "However, the point directly insisted on here is that there be no admixture (fermentum) of salt."19

In another footnote, Jungmann enriches us with a timely quotation from Gossens, Les origens, 117: "Present usage requires bread made of wheaten flour, and therefore flour ground from rye, oats, barley or maize-though these are all classified as grain (fermentum)-is invalid."20

What should one do if he knows a priest is using invalid matter for the celebration of Holy Mass? He is obliged in conscience to bring this most serious abuse to the attention of his Ordinary, who is the authentic teacher and instructor of the faith for the faithful entrusted to his care.21 "On your walls, Jerusalem, I set watchmen. Day or night they must never be silent."22 St. Paul demanded that Timothy exercise his authority as bishop, saying "be urgent in season, out of season, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, call to obedience."23

In the days when priests were reciting-on their knees-"Preces ante Missam," in particular the last one: "Declaratio intentionis ante Missam." "Ego volo celebrare Missam, et conficere Corpus et Sanguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christ, juxta ritum sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae . . . ." (I intend to celebrate Mass, and confect the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord, according to the rite of the holy Roman Church), one never or seldom heard of priests celebrating invalid Masses!

Isn't it time to bring back those prayers? Maybe, just maybe, the abomination of idolatry committed at the consecration of invalid Masses would come to an end for the good of the Church and the salvation of the souls of the faithful. n

1 DS 1312.

2 DS 1642.

3 CIC Can. 897.

4 Ibid. Can. 898.

5 SC 47.

6 CCC 1327.

7 Cf. Luke 4:8.

8 Exod. 20:3-6.

9 Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology, First English Edition, The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, p. 129.

10 CCC, 2113.

11 Moral Theology, A Complete Course, John A. McHugh, O.P. and Charles J. Callan, O.P., Vol. II, New York City, Joseph F. Wagner, Inc.; London, B. Herder.

12 The Wanderer, August 16, 1979.

13 Isa. 56:5-10, 57:1.

14 Jer. 50:6-7.

15 Manual of Dogmatic Theology, Volume Two, A. Tanquerey, Desclee Company, 1959.

16 CIC, Can. 924, Sec. 1.

17 Ibid., Sec. 2.

18 Ibid., Can. 926.

19 The Mass of the Roman Rite, Its Origins and Development, Volume II, by Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J., Four Courts Press Ltd., Kill Lane, Blackrock, CO Dublin, Ireland, p. 32.

20 Ibid., p. 33.

21 Cf. CIC Can. 753.

22 Isa. 62:6.

23 2 Tim. 4:2.