Source: http://www.clsadb.com/document/0fe451d2-bb39-4f15-91bb-150293ca4e24
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 18:04:18+00:00

Document:
Cong. for the Clergy, Decree on Collective Mass Intentions Mos iugiter, 22 February 1991, AAS 83 (1991): 443-446.
Norms established by the Congregation for the Clergy concerning the practice of Mass stipends.
Formerly this contribution consisted predominantly in gifts in kind; in our day it has become almost exclusively monetary. However, the motive and purpose of the faithful’s offerings have remained the same and have also been sanctioned by the new Code of Canon Law.
Because the matter directly affects the Most Blessed Sacrament, even the slightest appearance of profit or simony would cause a scandal. Therefore, the Holy See has always followed the evolution of this pious tradition with attention, with opportune interventions, to provide for adaptations to the changing social and cultural situations, in order to prevent or correct any eventual abuses connected with these adaptations, wherever they might occur.
In recent times many bishops have appealed to the Holy See for clarification about the celebration of Masses for what are called “collective” intentions, according to a rather recent practice. It is true that the faithful have always, especially in economically depressed regions, had the practice of giving the priest modest offerings, without requesting expressly to have a single Mass celebrated for a particular intention. In such cases it is licit to combine the various offerings in order to celebrate as many Masses as would correspond to the fixed diocesan stipend.
The arguments in favor of this new practice are specious and pretentious, if not reflecting an erroneous ecclesiology. In any case this use can run the serious risk of not satisfying an obligation of justice towards the donors of the offerings and progressively spread and extinguish in the entire Christian people the awareness and understanding of the motives and purpose of making an offering for the celebration of the holy Sacrifice for particular intentions, therefore depriving the sacred ministers who still live from these offerings of a necessary means of support, and depriving many particular Churches of the resources for their apostolic activity.
1. According to c. 948, “separate Masses are to be applied for the intentions for which an individual offering, even if small, has been made and accepted.” Therefore the priest who accepts the offering for a Mass for particular intention is bound ex iustitia to satisfy personally the obligation assumed or to commit its fulfillment to another priest, according to the conditions established by law.
1. In cases in which the people making the offering have been previously explicitly informed and have freely consented to combining their offerings in a single offering, their intentions can be satisfied with a single Mass celebrated according to a “collective” intention.
2. In this case it is necessary that the place and time for the celebration of this Mass, which is not to be said more than twice a week, be made public.
3. The bishops in whose dioceses these cases occur are to keep in mind that this practice is an exception to the canonical law in effect; wherever the practice spreads excessively, also on the basis of erroneous ideas of the meaning of offerings for Masses, it must be considered an abuse which could progressively lead to the faithful’s discontinuation of the practice of giving offerings for the celebration of Masses for individual intentions, thus causing the loss of a most ancient practice which is salutary for individual souls and the whole Church.
1. In the cases described in art. 2, §1, it is licit for the celebrant to keep the amount of the offering established by the diocese.
2. Any amount exceeding this offering shall be consigned to the ordinary as specified in c. 951, §1, who will provide for its destination according to the ends established by law.
1. Priests who receive a great number of offerings for particular intentions for Masses, e.g., on the Feast of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, or on other special occasions, being unable to satisfy them personally within a year’s time, rather than refusing them, and thus frustrating the devout intention of those making the offering and keeping them from realizing their good purpose, should forward them to other priests or to their own ordinary.
2. If in these or similar circumstances that which is described in art. 2, §1 of this decree takes place, the priests must be attentive to the dispositions of art. 3.
It is also necessary that the faithful should be instructed in this matter through a specific catechesis, whose main points are as follows: the deep theological meaning of the offering given to the priest for the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice, the goal of which is especially to prevent the danger of scandal through the appearance of buying and selling the sacred; the ascetical importance of almsgiving in Christian life, which Jesus himself taught, of which the offering for the celebration of Masses is an outstanding form; the sharing of goods, through which by their offering for Mass intentions the faithful contribute to the support of the sacred ministers and the fulfillment of the Church’s apostolic activity.
Cong. for the Clergy, 22 February 1991, Decr. on Collective Mass Intentions, AAS 83 (1991): 443-446; Comm 23 (1991): 16-19; Origins 20 (1991): 705-707; TPS 36 (1991): 257-260.

References: art. 2
 §1
 §1
 art. 2
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 art. 3