One of our hospitals is going to be demolished. There is a chapel and I’m wondering if the altar needs to be deconsecrated. Or if we should just remove the relics.
Sacred places lose their dedication or blessing if they have been in great measure destroyed, or if they have been permanently made over to secular usage, whether by decree of the competent ordinary or simply in fact (canon 1212).
The very fact of the hospital’s demolition seems to be sufficient to remove the consecration from the altar, but it would be more appropriate for those in charge of the demolition project to approach the local diocese and ask the bishop if he would like to have the altar removed and put to another fitting use. In any case, yes, the relics—and the altar stone inside the altar in which the relics are contained—should be removed first if the altar is allowed to be destroyed.
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