What are the norms governing the use of candles and oil lamps in the liturgy?
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) states the following with regard to the use of candles: “Candles are to be used at every liturgical service as a sign of reverence and festiveness” (no.269; see also no.79). In a 1974 interpretation of GIRM 269, the Congregation for Divine Worship noted that the GIRM “makes no further determination regarding the material” of which candles are made “except in the case of the sanctuary lamp, the fuel for which must be oil or wax.” The Congregation then went on to recall “the faculty that the conferences of bishops possess to choose suitable materials.” Since the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has never employed the above-noted faculty to permit the use of materials other than wax in the production of candles, the use of such other materials either as a substitute for or in imitation of candles is not permitted in the liturgy. Therefore, oil lamps may be used only “in the case of the sanctuary lamp,” as indicated above. Candles m
