[Question:]{.underline} What is to be done with holy things that are no longer needed?
[Answer:]{.underline} The virtue of religion requires that we treat all sacred things with respect. However, the Church makes a distinction between those items that have been blessed, and those that have not, such as books, pictures of saints or holy cards. There are no particular rules for the disposal of unblessed items, for they are not properly speaking sacred. However, it is always good to throw them into a fire or otherwise break them down to their component parts, so that they are no longer recognizable and cannot treated irreverently.
The Church, does, however, have special regulations for those items that are blessed with a “constitutive blessing”, which is a blessing that sets things apart permanently, by whose use the faithful obtain spiritual help. This includes such things as holy water, blessed statues and pictures, rosaries, scapulars and other such sacramentals. The Church’s law concerning such items is found in Canon 1150 of the 1917 Code, which states that such blessed things “must be treated reverently, nor may they be used for any profane use, or for any use for which they were not blessed, and this even if they belong to private persons.” They consequently cannot be simply thrown into the trash, nor used for secular decoration. This would be a desecration or irreverent treatment. If the 1983 Code (Canon 1171) limits this prescription to items destined for divine worship (the Liturgy), thus excluding most sacramentals, we will follow the traditional and much more demanding rule, for it protects the sanctity of all blessed items, and hence the value of all the Church’s blessings.
Two things can be done with blessed times. The first thing is that they can be entirely destroyed, as for example in a fire. There is no disrespect, since there is no irreverent use, and the blessing simply disappears. However, this is not always possible, for example with statues, crucifixes or rosaries. In such a case they can be broken into pieces, so that they lose the form and use that they previously had. According to Canon 1305, 1 (1917 Code), blessed articles automatically lose their blessing when this is done. The pieces are not blessed, and cannot be used irreverently, and so they can be disposed of in any way. It is likewise possible to shred holy pictures, if it is not convenient to burn them in a fire, and by the very fact they will lose their blessing. There are certain items that it may not be possible to break up into pieces, such as blessed medals. In this case, they can be discarded by burial in the ground, which prevents any disrespectful treatment of these items.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.