Vatican website translation:
79. The sacramentals are to undergo a revision which takes into account the primary principle of enabling the faithful to participate intelligently, actively, and easily; the circumstances of our own days must also be considered. When rituals are revised, as laid down in Art. 63, new sacramentals may also be added as the need for these becomes apparent.
Reserved blessings shall be very few; reservations shall be in favor of bishops or ordinaries.
Let provision be made that some sacramentals, at least in special circumstances and at the discretion of the ordinary, may be administered by qualified lay persons.
Latin text:
79. Sacramentalia recognoscantur, ratione habita normae primariae de conscia, actuosa et facili participatione fidelium, et attentis nostrorum temporum necessitatibus. In Ritualibus recognoscendis ad normam art. 63, etiam nova Sacramentalia, prout necessitas expostulat, addi possunt.
Benedictiones reservatae perpaucae sint, et in favorem tantum Episcoporum vel Ordinariorum.
Provideatur ut quaedam Sacramentalia, saltem in specialibus rerum adiunctis et de iudicio Ordinarii, a laicis congruis qualitatibus praeditis, administrari possint.
Slavishly literal translation:
79. The sacramentals are to be revised, for the sake of holding them to the primary norm of conscious, active, and easy participation of the faithful and with the necessities of our time considered. In revising Rituals according to the norm of article 63, even new Sacramentals, insofar as necessity demands, can be added.
Let there be fewer reserved blessings, and in favor of Bishops or Ordinaries.
Let there be provisions made that certain Sacramentals, especially in those yoked to special circumstances and according to the judgment of the Ordinary, can be administered by lay people having the appropriate qualities spoken of before.
Having treated the revisions of the sacramental rites, the Council Fathers now turn to the reform of the sacramentals. They declare that not only in the ritual celebration of the sacraments, but also in the sacramentals (presumably understood as liturgical rites established by the Church whose effects occur ex opere operantis) a primary desideratum is the participation of the faithful. Instead of the usual adjectives modifying this participation – full, active, and conscious – we have a new triad containing two of the previous modifiers – conscious and active – with a new modifier – “easy.”
Those with access to sacristies built prior to the Second Vatican Council, may discover there a copy of a special indult by which Franciscans had the right to bless and erect one of the Sacramentals, the Stations of the Cross, in a given worship space. Similarly, Carmelites were authorized to bless and invest people with another sacramental, the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Council Fathers removed these permissions from religious orders and reserved the formal oversight of sacramentals to those who served the Church as bishops and ordinaries.
Finally, among the responsibilities an Ordinary has in overseeing the liturgical life of his diocese, is his decision whether or not to allow lay people administer particular sacramentals.
Readers of Pray Tell might want to discuss: 1) the prevalence of sacramentals in the worship life of Catholics fifty years after Sacrosanctum Concilium; 2) what new sacramentals might be proposed for use in various cultures (e.g., the burning of sweetgrass in certain Native American cultures); 3) any contemporary sacramentals that might violate the norm of “conscious, active and easy” participation by the faithful.
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