Cathcon offers a reward

For anyone identifying the document which attaches indulgences to the Mysteries of Light Rosary. So far, I have not been able to find it!

This from Canon Mahoney, Questions and Answers on the Sacraments.

Additions to the Rosary.

Is it true that the Holy See has discountenanced the custom of adding certain 1 to the first part of the '' Ave Maria*', an addition which is common in some parts j order to recall the mystery to mind? Also, is it permitted, without endangering indulgences, to recite "Requiem Aeternam, etc." in place of the "Gloria Patri when saying the Rosary during November for the dead?

(i) It is true that the Sacred Penitentiary, 27 July, 1920, gave a negative answer to the query whether, in view of canon 934, §2, the custom of adding words to the Ave Maria could be continued without prejudice to the indulgences attached. The concluding words of canon 934, §2, state that the indulgence attached to a prayer ceases "ob quamlibet additionem, detractionem, vel interpolationem". The custom in question is very widespread in some parts, especially in Germany and in German-speaking Switzerland; it consists in adding, for example, to each Ave Maria in the first sorrowful mystery the words: "Der fur uns ist gekreuzigt worden"—'Who was crucified for us".

Certain German and Swiss bishops, when this reply became known, informed the Holy See that the custom was of such long standing that it could not be removed without causing scandal and disturbance. The custom, in fact, goes back to the beginning of the fifteenth century and is of Carthusian origin.1 It was sanctioned by Pius IX in 1859. Receiving these observations of the bishops, the Sacred Penitentiary issued another declaration, 22 January, 1921, which, practically speaking, revoked that of the previous year: "Itaque Sacra Poenitentiaria re mature perpensa censuit: (1) declarandum esse canonem 934, §2, Codicis Iuris Canonici continere legem generalem, quae indultum pianum nullimode revocat; (2) supplicandum SSmo pro extensione eiusdem indulti, favore omnium qui iuxta praedictum morem in quibuslibet locis SS. Rosarium recitare consueverint. Facta autem de praemissis relatione SSmo Dno. nostro Benedicto. . . - Sanctitas Sua enuntiatam declarationem approbavit, et indulti extensionem, uti supra, benigne concedere dignata est."2

(ii) An excellent definition of the rosary is that of the fourth lesson or the Feast of the Rosary in the Roman Breviary: "Est autem Rosarium certa precandi formula, qua quindecim angelicarum salutationum lecades, oratione Dominica interiecta, distinguimus, et ad earum singulas totidem nostrae reparationis mysteria pia meditatione recolimus." It is beyond all dispute that the addition of Gloria Patri to each decade, t0 say nothing of the other additions at the beginning and at the end of he devotion, does not pertain to the integrity of the exercise and is not required for gaining any indulgences attached.3 It is, nevertheless, an excellent custom, and is in conformity with the addition of Gloria Patri to the recitation of the psalms. But, since it is not essential, we are not forbidden to replace Gloria Patri by Requiem Aeternam, etc.; that is to say the Rosary remains the rosary with all its indulgences.4

What is lawful is not always expedient, particularly in public prayers and devotions which the faithful are accustomed to perform in one particular way. In giving these replies to the queries we are not recommending any changes in the public recitation of the rosary; on the contrary, nihil innovetur.

1. Beringer: Les Indulgences, I, p. 516
2. A.A.S., XIII, 1921, p. 163.
3. 'Gougnard, De Indulgentiis, p. 251.
4. 'Cf. Fanfani: De Rosario, 1930, p. 3, n. 2.