Can churches be renamed?

[droddick]

I’m reading The Da Vinci Hoax and on p88 it says, “The cult of Mary Magdalene was established at Vezelay in a Romanesque church in Burgundy that had been founded in the ninth century and was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary.” I thought hat once churches were dedicated to someone they were never renamed. Can you clarify? The authors got this from Jansen’s book Making of the Magdalen, according to the footnotes. Thanks.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Since this is not a matter of dogmatic teaching, it rests upon Church law at the particular time in history. Generally speaking, the Church does not rename dedicated churches in order to avoid confusion and assure consistency in historical and sacramental records.

Code of Canon Law:

Can. 1218 Each church is to have its own title which cannot be changed after the church has been dedicated.

However, the Pope possess “supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely” (canon 331). Under current canon law only the Pope can grant permission to change the name of a dedicated Church building. As previous stated, this is extremely rare and would only be done for a grave reason.

For further reading: Archdiocese of Detroit’s Canon Law Guidelines for the Naming a Catholic Parish