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Shrinking Synodality & Refilling Holy Water
Shrinking Synodality
Interesting fact: Germany is in the avant-garde on the synodal process and ‘progressivist reforms,’ inducing a call for women priests, but Infovaticana reports that only 6.8% of German Catholics go to Mass. That’s down from 10.9% in 2014.
At the same time, people are leaving the Church in droves: In just the last year, more than 307,000 people formally left the Church, funerals were nearly twice as many as baptisms, and the shortage of priestly vocations continues.
Faced with this grim scenario, the German Bishops’ ironically look to synodality as the solution. The Synodal Way promotes proposals on sexual morality, ecclesial government, blessings of homosexual couples and female ministry.
One has to ask: Is this the Catholic Church?
G.G.
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How to Refill Holy Water
In these chaotic, difficult, dangerous and dark times, the need for weapons to fight the increasing evil that permeates the atmosphere and threatens our lives and souls becomes more necessary.
Prayer, invoking the help of angels & saints, sacrifice, reception of the sacraments and the most powerful weapon, the Rosary, must be a part of our combat gear.
The use of sacramentals such as Holy Water is another strong aid and evil deterrent. Its mission is to purify, and to preserve and to put Satan to flight. The problem is how to get enough of it to be able to keep on hand for continual use when needed.
Do you have any suggestions as to how to obtain a sufficient supply and be able to get more? It is not an easy task. It is not available in many churches other than the font to bless yourself upon entering and leaving church. And there are many concerns as to how the water is blessed, especially in non-Traditional churches.
Would appreciate any help you can provide.
In Maria.
E.M.
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TIA responds:
Dear E.M.,
We appreciate your militant spirit and disposition to continue fighting in these adverse times.
As for how to multiply Holy Water, we give two answers: one simplified; another extensive.
The simplified answer: When you are low in Holy Water, add more water in the container in which you keep it, with the care of adding less than 50% of what you had. If you do it, the new water will become Holy Water. If you add more than 50% of what you had, the entire water will lose its blessing. This is an old tradition in the Church.
The extensive answer: A little background on question of Holy Water and possible refills is necessary.
Like you, there are many people who do not want to go to the Novus Ordo parishes to refill Holy Water. This is because, since the Paul VI Liturgical Reforms, the form and matter used to bless Holy Water have been greatly simplified and reduced. Therefore, these persons believe it may not carry with it the same efficacy of blessing or exorcistic effect. One argument they use is, for example, that the new rite of water blessing does not include the exorcised salt or the minor exorcism prayers. This can be verified in the traditional Roman Ritual which has the Latin prayers here (Title VIII, Chapter II), and also in English here.
From our research into this question about refilling Holy Water, we discovered that there is no official rule in the Church specifically about refilling Holy Water. In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the Roman Ritual (Rituale Romanum) or moral theology books, we found no specific norm such as: "When you run low on holy water, follow these rules to refill it."
However, there is a solid tradition, which we mentioned in the simplified answer above, which is based on the following rationale.
Holy Water is a Sacramental derived from the Sacrament of Baptism and the liturgical prayers that accompany it; canonists and theologians before Vatican II looked to the rules that govern Baptism – particularly refilling the baptistery water – in the Rituale Romanum in order to apply them simile modo to Holy Water. So, although before the Pius XII’s 1955 Liturgical Reforms there was no official rule governing the refilling of Holy Water, there was a solid custom that originated from the rules governing Baptism and the baptistery.
Regarding the rules for the water in the baptistery, the 1917 Code of Canon Law has Canon 757, which can be read in this English translation PDF here (p. 258).
It states: “Si aqua benedicta in baptisterio adeo sit imminuta, ut minus videatur sufficere, alia non benedicta admisceatur, etiam iterato, minore tamen copia.“ (§2)
This translates to: “If the blessed water in the Baptistery has been so diminished that it seems to be insufficient, other unblessed water may be mixed in, even if repeated times, but in a smaller quantity.”
The 1927 Roman Ritual repeats the same Canon in Title II, Chapter I, on the matter of Baptism here (p. 3).
The 1983 Code of Canon Law's corresponding Canon 853 says little to nothing about this: “Apart from a case of necessity, the water to be used in conferring Baptism must be blessed according to the prescripts of the liturgical books.”
The Manuals of Moral Theology repeat what the 1917 CCL determined as, for example, the Theologia Moralis Summa by Marcellinus Zalba here (p. 47).
Other Books on Sacraments comment on Canon 757 a bit more than the manuals. For instance, E. J. Mahoney's Questions and Answers: The Sacraments here (p. 18), after quoting Canon 757, says: "Each time it is desired to use the [baptismal] font, water may be added so as to make the quantity sufficient for Baptism, provided that what is added is less in quantity than that already in the font."
It is from these rules regarding the baptistery water that theologians derive the custom of refilling Holy Water.
The 1909 English translation of German Cistercian Fr. Heinrich Theiler's Holy Water and Its Significance for Catholics applies this rule to all Holy Water here (p. 60):
Q: “If the Holy Water at hand might not be sufficient for the occasion, may water that is not blessed by added?
A: “Yes. But care must be taken not to add as great a quantity as there is of holy water."
The last question to know is exactly what a lesser quantity means. The tradition has long established that the answer follows good sense: We must make sure to add less than 49% of the original blessed water. In other words: the unblessed water must be less than half of the quantity of blessed water.
We hope that this helps to answer your question.
Cordially,
TIA correspondence desk
Posted August 13, 2026
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The opinions expressed in this section - What People Are Commenting - do not necessarily express those of TIA
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YouTube showed me a rather peculiar video today. It may be of interest to you for your revolution in pictures.
"The scooter thing really helped to bring people in, but, you know, whatever works, works."
Cheers,
A.L.