Profane use is a term used in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

to refer to closed parish churches that will no longer be used as churches. This is often done in preparation to sell the former church building to another party. In this context, ''Profane'' does not refer to

swearing Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...

, but rather to the older definition of those things that take place outside the temple. With church buildings that are to be sold, first the sacred items (such as consecrated hosts) will be removed from the church. The

Diocesan In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

(or

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

) will issue a decree stating that the church building has been relegated to profane use. This has the effect of deconsecrating the church building. Once this decree has been made the building is no longer an official church building. The diocese will sell the building for any use as long as it is not sordid.

References

Catholic theology and doctrine Former churches {{RC-stub

See also

References