On Censures

"23. Excommunications are only external penalties and do not deprive a man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church. - 24. Christians are to be taught to love excommunication more than to fear it." Propositions of Martin Luther condemned by Leo X.

"44. With respect to the forum of conscience, when the guilty party has been corrected and his contumacy has ceased, censures cease." Proposition condemned by Alexander VII.

"90. The Church has the authority of excommunicating in order that she may exercise it through the chief pastors, with at least the presumed consent of the whole body. - 91. Fear of an unjust excommunication must never prevent us from fulfilling our duty: we never depart from the Church, even when through the wickedness of men we seem to be expelled from her, when we are attached through charity to God, to Jesus Christ, and to the Church herself. - 92. To suffer in peace an unjust excommunication and anathema rather than betray the truth is to imitate Saint Paul: so far is this from being to raise oneself against authority or to rend unity." Propositions of Pasquier Quesnel condemned by Clement XI.

"19. Through the ecclesiastical censures of excommunication, suspension, and interdict, the clergy subjects the lay people to itself for its own exaltation, multiplies avarice, protects malice, and prepares the way for Antichrist. An evident sign, moreover, is that such censures, which they call fulminations in their processes, proceed from Antichrist, and by them the clergy proceeds principally against those who lay bare the wickedness of Antichrist, who will especially usurp the clergy for himself." Article of John Hus condemned by the Council of Constance.

"11. No prelate ought to excommunicate anyone unless he first knows him to have been excommunicated by God; and he who excommunicates in this way becomes by this fact a heretic or excommunicated. - 12. A prelate excommunicating a cleric who has appealed to the king or to the Council of the kingdom is by that very fact a traitor to the king and the kingdom. - 13. Those who cease to preach or to hear the word of God on account of the excommunication of men are excommunicated and will be regarded as traitors in the judgment of God. - 30. The excommunication of the Pope or of any prelate is not to be feared, because it is the censure of Antichrist." Propositions of John Wycliffe condemned by the Council of Constance.

"31. Likewise, whether he believes that the Pope or other prelates, the proper names of the Pope then reigning being expressed, or their vicars, can excommunicate their ecclesiastical or secular subject because of disobedience or contumacy, so that such a person is to be regarded as excommunicated. - 32. Likewise, whether he believes that, when the disobedience or contumacy of the excommunicated increases, prelates or their vicars in spiritual matters have the power of aggravating and reaggravating, of imposing an interdict, and of invoking the secular arm; and that inferiors must obey those censures. - 33. Likewise, whether he believes that the Pope or other prelates and their vicars in spiritual matters have the power of excommunicating disobedient and contumacious priests and laymen, and of suspending them from office, benefice, entrance into the church, and administration of the ecclesiastical Sacraments." Articles concerning which those suspected of the errors of Wycliffe and Hus are to be questioned by mandate of Martin V in the Bull Inter cunctas.

Cf. no. 1084.

"Those who are excommunicated by name, or are declared excommunicated by name, whether by the Supreme Pontiff or by bishops, are even today to be avoided according to the norm of the Constitution Ad evitanda of Martin V. Those communicating with excommunicated persons who must be avoided, however, do not after the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis incur major excommunication, except in the cases included in this Constitution. Notorious assailants of clerics are likewise excommunicated persons who must be avoided according to the Constitution Ad evitanda." Holy Office, 9 January 1884.

"Nearly all commentators on the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis teach that minor excommunication was abolished by force of this Constitution. Can this opinion be safely taught in the Seminary? - Response. Affirmative." Holy Office, 5 December 1883.

"Whether, minor excommunication against those who communicate with persons excommunicated by name by the Supreme Pontiff having been removed, the prohibition is also considered to have been removed? - Response. Negative." Holy Office, 2 August 1893.

"Titius, a priest, while he was bound by a reserved occult excommunication, from which he afterwards obtained absolution, requested and obtained from the Sacred Roman Congregations certain personal favors which were granted to him by special Rescripts: namely, from the Sacred Congregation of the Index the faculty of reading prohibited books; from the Holy Office the faculty, or dispensation, from fasting; from the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences the faculty of blessing crowns and other objects with the application of Indulgences; from the Sacred Congregation of Rites the faculty of blessing sacred furnishings and other things.

"But, having now learned that the excommunicated are incapable of obtaining Pontifical favors, he finds himself in great straits from the doubt whether he can validly use the aforesaid faculties and favors, on account of which he asks through me:

"a) whether the aforesaid Rescripts obtained by Titius while he was bound by excommunication are to be regarded as valid;

"b) and, in the negative case, how Titius ought to conduct himself so as not to disclose the cause of the invalidity of the Rescripts obtained. - Response. Let the petitioner rest content concerning the foregoing. For the forum of conscience only." Sacred Penitentiary, 9 September 1898. Cf. M. E., vol. 15, pp. 166-167.

"At every time the Church has been solicitous that not only should advancement to sacred orders be forbidden, but also that criminals should remain suspended from the exercise of those same orders.

"Since, however, an easy and prompt coercion of occult crimes also, which it would not be expedient to disclose, namely one free from judicial forms, is sometimes necessary for protecting the dignity of the sacred ministry and the welfare of the faithful, the Fathers of Trent with most wise counsel decreed in Session 24, chapter 1, On Reformation: 'For one whose advancement to sacred orders has been forbidden in any manner by his own prelate for any cause whatsoever, even for an occult crime, even extrajudicially; or one who has been suspended from his orders or grades or ecclesiastical dignities: no license granted contrary to the will of that prelate for having himself promoted, nor restoration to his former orders, grades, and dignities or honors, shall avail him.'

"From this provident decree, in that which relates to crimes of clerics which merit extrajudicial suspension from ecclesiastical offices, the penalty of suspension for causes known to the prelate has long been in use; this, namely, is called suspension ex informata conscientia. Therefore, in order that the Ordinaries of Catholic Missions may proceed in inflicting it with the greatest caution and security possible, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith judged that the present Instruction should be issued, to which those same Ordinaries will take care to conform themselves in employing this extraordinary remedy.

"1. Suspension ex informata conscientia, no less than that which is inflicted by a judicial sentence, prohibits an ecclesiastical person from exercising his orders or grades or ecclesiastical dignities.

"2. It differs from judicial suspension principally in this: that it is employed as an extraordinary remedy in punishment of a crime committed; and therefore neither judicial forms nor canonical admonitions are required for its imposition. It will accordingly suffice if the prelate inflicting this penalty uses a simple precept by which he declares that he imposes suspension from the exercise of sacred offices or ecclesiastical duties.

"3. A precept of this kind must always be intimated in writing, with the day and month designated; and therefore it must be done either by the Ordinary himself or by another person by his express mandate. In the same intimation, however, it must be expressed that a punishment of this kind is imposed by force of the Tridentine decree, Session 24, chapter 1, On Reformation, ex informata conscientia, or for causes known to the Ordinary himself.

"4. The parts of the exercise of order or office to which the suspension extends must furthermore be expressed; but if the suspended person is interdicted from an office for which another must be substituted in his place, as, for example, an administrator in the care of souls, then the substitute shall receive compensation from the fruits of the benefice in that portion which shall be assessed according to the prudent judgment of the Ordinary. But if the suspended person considers himself aggrieved in this assessment, he can seek moderation before the archiepiscopal curia or even before the Apostolic See.

"5. The time of duration of the same penalty must likewise be expressed. Let Ordinaries, however, abstain from inflicting it in perpetuity. But if for more grave causes the Ordinary judges that it should be imposed not for a determined time but at his good pleasure, then it is regarded as temporary and therefore will cease with the jurisdiction of the Ordinary inflicting the suspension.

"6. A just and legitimate cause for suspension ex informata conscientia is furnished by a crime or fault committed by the person suspended. This, however, must be occult and so grave that it merits such punishment.

"7. For it to be occult, however, it is required that it has been brought neither into judgment nor into the rumors of the people, and furthermore that it is not known to such a number and quality of persons that the offense must thereby be regarded as notorious.

"8. The suspension nevertheless holds even if one of several offenses was known among the people, or if the crime which had been occult before the suspension was afterwards divulged by others.

"9. It is left to the prudent judgment of prelates either to disclose to the delinquent, or to conceal, the cause of the suspension, that is, the fault itself. Otherwise, it will be the part of their pastoral solicitude and charity that, if they judge that a penalty of this kind should be manifested to the suspended person, through the paternal admonitions which they interpose it may serve not only for the expiation of the fault, but also for the amendment of the delinquent and for removing the occasion of sinning.

"10. But let the prelates remember that if recourse is made to the Apostolic See against the decree by which the suspension was imposed, then the fault which furnished the occasion for it must be proved before the same See. It will therefore be advisable that, before this penalty is inflicted, proofs of it be collected, although extrajudicially and secretly, so that, by the very fact that one proceeds with complete certainty of culpability in inflicting the punishment, if the case must afterwards be examined before the Apostolic See, the proofs of the crime may not encounter those difficulties which very often occur in judgments of this kind.

"11. From a decree of suspension ex informata conscientia no appeal is given to a tribunal of higher order. Therefore, after a cleric has received the intimation of suspension, if he nevertheless presumes to interpose an appeal and, under its pretext, to minister at the altar or solemnly to exercise his order in any manner, he immediately falls into irregularity.

"12. Access to the Apostolic See nevertheless always lies open, and in a case in which a cleric considers himself punished by this penalty without a sufficient and reasonable cause, he can have recourse to the Supreme Pontiff. Meanwhile, however, the decree of suspension remains in force until it has been rescinded or even moderated by the Pontiff himself or by the Sacred Congregation which must judge concerning the recourse.

"13. Finally, since a penalty of this kind is an altogether extraordinary remedy which is employed especially for the expiation of crimes without judicial forms, let prelates keep before their eyes that which the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV, of holy memory, most wisely admonishes in his Treatise On the Diocesan Synod, book 12, chapter 8, no. 6: namely, that a bishop would be blameworthy if in his synod he declared that henceforth, on private knowledge alone, he would punish with suspension from divine offices clerics whom he had discovered to have committed grave offenses, although their offense could not be conclusively proved in the external forum or it would not be expedient to bring it to the knowledge of others.

"Rome, from the offices of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 20 October 1884." A. S. S., vol. 19, p. 561 ff.

"The rite of the Church commands that the bodies of the faithful, in whatever manner they are conveyed (even by carriage), whether to the Church or to the Cemetery, must always be accompanied by a priest." Sacred Congregation of Rites, 15 July 1876; Santander.

"The practice of covering with branches and flowers the funeral monuments which are erected in churches on the occasion of funerals can be tolerated." Sacred Congregation of Rites, 16 June 1893; Goa, ad C.

"Bodies must be three cubits distant from the Altar; and three cubits are nearly one meter in length; and this distance of tombs from the Altar is sufficient." Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 January 1897.

"The Sacred Congregation of Rites, adhering to the Rubrics of the Roman Ritual and to several other Decrees previously published, declares:

"I. The bodies of the dead are to be accompanied with one cross only, which must be that of the Church to which the body of the deceased is being carried; provided that the chapter of the cathedral church does not take part, under whose cross all accompanying the funeral must walk.

"II. The parish priest always has the right and duty, even when the chapter of the cathedral church is present, but outside that church, to put on the Stole and to perform all offices over the body of a deceased person belonging to his church, until it has entered the church of burial from the place of death; and the body is to be carried to that church by passing freely through other parishes also (by a direct route, however, unless custom provides otherwise).

"III. The same parish priest has precedence over all the clergy, except the chapter of the cathedral church, if it is present, which in the procession shall walk after the parish priest himself; except also the Chapter of a collegiate church, if custom so provides. In this case, however, the senior dignitary of the cathedral chapter shall walk with a Stole and also with a cope, which the parish priest, however, shall not wear; and the same shall be observed if the chapter of a collegiate church walks after the parish priest.

"IV. If the deceased is to be buried in another parish church, the rector of that church alone, likewise vested with a Stole, has the right and duty of performing the remaining offices there over the body and of preceding all others, not even excepting the parish priest of the deceased, who, when the body has been brought to the threshold of the church, shall withdraw.

"V. The Sacred Congregation of Rites orders all these things to be observed for any churches whatsoever, even collegiate churches, whether belonging to the secular or to the regular clergy, any custom whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding.

"And thus it decreed and ordered to be observed on 23 April 1895."

"The Decrees and declarations previously made are to be observed; namely, parish priests, in the procession or on the occasion of the procession of bodies, are not permitted to enter the church of the aforesaid monks, but are bound to leave those bodies at the door of the churches, and there alone can bless them and give the final farewell; but the offices and other duties customarily employed in ministries of this kind must be performed by the monks themselves, and not by the parish priests." Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, 16 December 1661; Bizzarri, ed. 1885, p. 255. - "The Congregation, etc., has frequently responded: Whenever bodies are carried to churches of Regulars, the Office and the remaining things customarily employed in a ministry of this kind must be performed not by the canons or by the clergy, but by the Friars themselves." Sacred Congregation, 22 August 1670; Bizzarri, pp. 263, 304, 313, 339, 340, 346.

"The Sacred Congregation of the Council, under date of 24 January 1846, established that Regulars, with the Stole and the cross of the convent and without the intervention of the parish priest, can carry to the common cemetery the body of a deceased Regular who, because civil law prevents it, cannot be buried in the convent, provided this is done without solemn pomp and the deceased is carried to the cemetery by a direct route. It is therefore asked whether a Decree of this kind can also be extended to nuns subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinaries of dioceses, so that their bodies can be carried by the ordinary chaplains of the monasteries, without the intervention of the parish priests, with a moderate funeral, to the common cemetery. - Response. Affirmative, provided that the body is carried with Stole and cross, but without pomp and by a direct route to the cemetery." Sacred Congregation of the Council, 24 February 1872.

"1. Whether, and to whom, the right belongs of accompanying bodies from churches of Regulars, to which they were brought for the performance of the funeral rites, to the common cemetery where they must be buried.

"2. Whether parish priests have the right of receiving the emoluments which are given by the heirs to the priest accompanying the bodies to the cemetery.

"3. Whether the Religious, in the procession of the bodies in question, must summon the parish priest to accompany the deceased to the cemetery.

"4. Whether Regulars can proceed with the Stole and the conventual cross as far as the grave.

"Response. To 1. Affirmative, in favor of the Regulars. - To 2. Negative. - To 3. Negative. - To 4. Affirmative: without pomp and by a direct route." Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, 17 September 1880.

"It is lawful in another church, and among Regulars, to sing a Requiem Mass which the faithful request to be celebrated for deceased relatives or friends after the funeral rites have been completed in the parish church, even if the funeral Mass is not celebrated in the parish church. Nor, indeed, does anything prevent relatives and friends from being summoned or invited to the aforesaid Mass by letters, as is customary to be done at funerals. It is furthermore lawful in another church to sing for the deceased a Mass of the feast or of the feria, even if a funeral Mass for the same person is not celebrated in the parish Church." Sacred Congregation of Rites, 13 May 1879; Order of Friars Minor Conventual of Saint Francis.

"Ecclesiastical burial is denied to pagans, Jews, and all unbelievers; to heretics and their supporters; to apostates from the Christian faith; to schismatics; and to those publicly excommunicated with major excommunication; to those interdicted by name and those who are in an interdicted place while the interdict lasts; to those who kill themselves through despair or anger, but not if it happened from insanity, unless before death they gave signs of repentance; to those dying in a duel, even if before death they gave signs of repentance; to manifest and public sinners who perished without repentance; to those concerning whom it is publicly established that they did not receive the Sacraments of Confession and Communion at Easter once in the year and died without any sign of contrition; and to infants who died without Baptism." Roman Ritual, On Funerals, Those to Whom It Is Not Lawful, etc.

"Whether it is lawful to give ecclesiastical burial to suicides and to celebrate solemn funerals and Masses for them? - Response. Let it be written to the Most Reverend Lord Ordinary of the petitioner that parish priests are to be admonished that, in individual cases, insofar as it can be done, they are to have recourse to the Most Reverend Lord Ordinary; and that the rule is that ecclesiastical burial may not be given to those who kill themselves through despair or anger, but not if it happened from insanity, unless before death they gave signs of repentance; and further that, when anger or despair is certainly established, ecclesiastical burial must be denied and the pomp and solemnities of funerals must be avoided; but when insanity is certainly established, ecclesiastical burial is to be given with the solemnities of funerals; when, however, a doubt remains whether someone caused his own death through despair or through insanity, ecclesiastical burial can be given, but with the pomp and solemnities of funerals omitted." Holy Office, 16 May 1866; M. E., vol. 3, part 3, p. 115.

"Whether non-Catholics, by reason of a bond of consanguinity or Marriage, can lawfully be interred in the family tomb of Catholic families? - Response. It can be tolerated." Holy Office, 30 March 1859.

"The tolerance spoken of in the preceding Decree is to be understood as merely passive, for preventing greater evils." Holy Office, 14 November 1888.

"1. Let the bishop direct every effort to this, that Catholics may have their own cemetery separated from the cemetery of non-Catholics. - 2. But if the circumstances of affairs by no means permit this, and Catholics are compelled to give the bodies of the faithful departed burial in the cemetery of Protestants, let him at least take care that a distinct and separate place be established in the same cemetery for the burial of Catholics. - 3. Finally, if not even this can be obtained, and likewise until it shall have been possible to achieve it, whenever it happens that a Catholic is to be buried, the place in which he is given burial must first be purified by a blessing." Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 16 April 1862.

"To those enrolled in societies condemned by the Apostolic See, if they are notorious, neither the Sacraments nor funerals nor ecclesiastical burial can be granted unless, after issuing a due retraction, they have been reconciled to God and the Church through absolution. But if at any time, overtaken by death, they could not duly issue a retraction, yet before death gave signs of repentance and devotion, then ecclesiastical burial can be granted to them, but ecclesiastical pomp and funeral solemnities being forbidden." Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 10 May 1898.

"Whether it is lawful to celebrate funeral rites and grant ecclesiastical burial to those who received the Sacraments before death but nevertheless enrolled in the Masonic sect and have the emblems of the same sect on the bier. - Response. Affirmative, with the form of Innocent III, chapter A nobis, On the Sentence of Excommunication, observed, the insignia of the sect condemned by the Church having been removed, and provided that the placement of the emblems had not been commanded by the deceased after the reception of the Sacraments, or had been revoked by him; and let them be removed immediately when their placement becomes known and entirely before the procession of the body. Let the confessors of the place be admonished concerning the obligation of requiring a retraction before sacramental absolution." Holy Office, 2 December 1840.

"When a notorious excommunicated person or a public sinner comes to death without having been reconciled with the Holy Church, yet had desired the assistance of a priest, by whom he was found either already dead or bereft of his senses, and had given signs of repentance, either by kissing the Crucifix or by performing other acts of piety, must the parish priest deny him burial?

"Response. In these cases, when the signs of repentance have been made public, ecclesiastical burial can be given, but ecclesiastical pomp and funeral solemnities being forbidden. But if extraordinary circumstances concur in some case, let the parish priest consult the Ordinary and stand by his commands." Sacred Penitentiary and Holy Office, 6 July 1898.

"Whenever there is question of those whose bodies are subjected to cremation not by their own will but by that of another, the rites and suffrages of the Church can be employed both at home and in the church, but not as far as the place of cremation, scandal having been removed. Scandal can also be removed if it becomes known that cremation was not chosen by the deceased's own will. But where there is question of those who chose cremation by their own will and certainly and notoriously persevered in this will until death, with consideration given to the decree of Wednesday, 19 May 1886, they are to be dealt with according to the norms of the Roman Ritual, title Those to Whom It Is Not Lawful to Give Ecclesiastical Burial. But in particular cases in which a doubt or difficulty arises, the Ordinary must be consulted, who, after carefully weighing all the circumstances, shall decree that which he judges more expedient in the Lord." Holy Office, 15 December 1886.

The Decree of the Holy Office of 19 May 1886 is as follows: "1. Whether it is lawful to enroll in societies whose purpose is to promote the practice of burning human bodies? - 2. Whether it is lawful to command that one's own body or those of others be burned? - Response. To 1. Negative; and if there is question of societies affiliated with the Masonic sect, the penalties enacted against it are incurred. - To 2. Negative. - His Holiness approved and confirmed the resolutions of the Most Eminent Fathers and ordered them to be communicated to the Ordinaries of places, so that they may take care that the Christian faithful be suitably instructed concerning the detestable abuse of burning human bodies, and that with all their strength they deter the flock entrusted to them from it." Holy Office, 19 May 1886.

"1. Whether it is lawful to minister the Sacraments to dying faithful who indeed do not adhere to the Masonic sect and are not led by its principles, but, moved by other reasons, ordered their bodies to be cremated after death, if they are unwilling to retract this command?

"2. Whether it is lawful for the Sacrifice of the Mass to be offered publicly, or even applied privately, for faithful persons whose bodies were cremated not without their own fault, and likewise to accept foundations for this end?

"3. Whether it is lawful to cooperate in the cremation of bodies, whether by command and counsel or by labor furnished, as physicians, officials, and workmen serving in a crematorium do; and whether this is lawful at least if it is done under some necessity or to avoid great harm?

"4. Whether it is lawful to minister the Sacraments to those cooperating in this way if they are unwilling to cease from this cooperation or affirm that they are unable to cease?

"Response. To 1. If, when admonished, they refuse, negative. But, as to whether the admonition is to be made or omitted, let the rules handed down by approved authors be observed, with special account taken of avoiding scandal.

"To 2. Concerning the public application of Holy Mass, negative; concerning the private application, affirmative.

"To 3. It is never lawful to cooperate formally by command or counsel. Material cooperation, however, can sometimes be tolerated, provided that: 1. cremation is not regarded as a sign of protest by the Masonic sect; 2. nothing is contained in it which, of itself, directly and uniquely expresses disapproval of Catholic doctrine and approval of the sect; 3. it is not evident that Catholic officials and workmen are constrained or called to the work in contempt of the Catholic religion. Nevertheless, although in these cases they are to be left in good faith, they must always be admonished not to intend to cooperate in cremation.

To 4. Provision was made in the preceding. And let the Decree of Wednesday, 15 December 1886, be given." Cf. preceding paragraph. Holy Office, 27 July 1892.