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CUSTOMS Lawful customs may be referred to the tacit
and general permission.
Custom in general is an unwritten practice
which has been introduced into a Community by
degrees, either to interpret or modify some point
of the Rule.
Lawfully established, custom has the force of a
true law, as well for prohibitions as for permissions. If it be not lawfully established, it has no
value.
A custom is lawful only on three conditions:
1. That it be reasonable;
2. That it exist really in the major part of
the Community and not be the act and custom
of only a few;
3. That it be sufficiently established by prescription of time, without any competent authority
reclaiming against it.
In a religious body, a custom which is authorized by a particular Superior only, is usually an
abuse and does not excuse those who follow it.
A custom may have been reprehensible in its
origin, even for the Superiors who have tolerated
it, and yet by the prescription of time, and to
avoid greater evil, this same custom can have become legitimate, at least so far as to be exempt
from sin. This has really happened in certain
Orders or Congregations with regard to different
points of the primitive Rule.
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