What Constitutes Desecration or Sacrilege?

[Micky2014]

What is the official definition of sacrilege and desecration?

I recently replated a blessed crucifix, this involved removing old polish with white spirits and a brush, renewing a coating on the metal, followed by high quality waxing with a brush. I did it with the best of intentions to renew it; but I worry sincerely in my heart, if the process was somehow disrespectful or nullified the blessing. From what I gather, renewing a blessed image is feasible if it doesn’t outdo the old. It took a few goes to get it just right and the final result was beautiful and dignified, but I worry the process may have been sacrilegious despite intention? Have I done something morally wrong?

 

[ChibiViolet]

Desecration or sacrilege implies that the intention was to be disrespectful.

 

[pianistclare]

***The deliberate violation of sacred things. Sacred things are persons, places, and objects set aside publicly and by the Church’s authority for the worship of God. The violation implies that a sacred thing is desecrated precisely in its sacred character. It is a sin against the virtue of religion.

Personal sacrilege is committed by laying violent hands on clerics or religious of either sex; by unlawfully citing them before secular courts, i.e., without just cause and without express permission of their ecclesiastical superiors; by unlawfully demanding of them the payment of civil taxes or military service; and by the commission of acts of unchastity by or with a person bound by the public vow of chastity.

Sacred places are violated by sacrilege through defilement, e.g., serious and unjust shedding of blood, as in willful homicide or by putting the sacred place (church or shrine) to unseemly use, e.g., secular trading, acts of debauchery; by grave theft from the Church or consecrated edifice; and by violating the immunity of a place as having the right of sanctuary.

Sacred objects are desecrated by sacrilege whenever something sacred is used for an unworthy purpose. This includes the Mass and the sacraments, along with sacramentals; sacred vessels and church furnishings; and ecclesiastical property. Desecration in each of these areas includes the deliberate invalid reception of the sacraments, simulation of Mass, grave irreverence to the Eucharist; gravely profane use of sacred vessels or vestments; and the unlawful seizure of sacred things or ecclesiastical property.

Sacrilege is many times reprobated in Sacred Scripture, notably in the second book of Maccabees and in the writings of St. Paul. Grave sacrilege in the Old Testament was punishable by death, and in the Catholic Church is considered a mortal sin. (Etym. Latin sacrilegium, the robbing of a temple, the stealing of sacred things.) ***

taken from Fr. John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary,

 

[therese14]

I don’t think what you do is disrespectful or a sacrilege.

 

[pianistclare]

What is the official definition of sacrilege and desecration?

I recently replated a blessed crucifix, this involved removing old polish with white spirits and a brush, renewing a coating on the metal, followed by high quality waxing with a brush. I did it with the best of intentions to renew it; but I worry sincerely in my heart, if the process was somehow disrespectful or nullified the blessing. From what I gather, renewing a blessed image is feasible if it doesn’t outdo the old. It took a few goes to get it just right and the final result was beautiful and dignified, but I worry the process may have been sacrilegious despite intention? Have I done something morally wrong?

I didn’t read the second part of your post. you did nothing wrong.

 

[Micky2014]

Thank you all for your kind reassurance and taking time to reply. It has set me at ease. I think I’ve just been a bit stressed and my mind isn’t the clearest. I had a blessed crucifix I loved; I provided in home palliative care for a friend and gave it to one of her family members, as I was holding it when she passed. She found great comfort in it.

The one I ‘replaced’ it with needed a little work on the finish, but had been blessed. I should have asked a priest first for clarification, but everything I’d read seemed to say it was okay.

I suppose when crucifixes are made by hand (or crucifix medals) there is much hash burnishing and finishing of the metal. - But then the blessing had me worried. But then again, I suppose blessed and consecrated things in churches need regular or semi regular maintenance without the loss of blessing or being disrespectful. It just felt later I’d somehow gravely sinned taking a brush and chemistry to a blessed image of our Lord…

Thank you!