Chapter II: Of Peculiar Vindicative Penalties of Clerics

Vindicative penalties which are applied only to clerics are:

1° Prohibition of exercising sacred ministry except in a certain church.

2° Suspension in perpetuity or for a predefined time, or at the good pleasure of the Superior.

3° Penal transfer from an office or benefice obtained to an inferior one.

4° Privation of some right joined with a benefice or office.

5° Incapacity for all or for some dignities, offices, benefices, or other functions proper to clerics.

6° Penal privation of benefice or office with or without a pension.

7° Prohibition of dwelling in a certain place or territory.

8° Prescription of dwelling in a certain place or territory.

9° Privation for a time of ecclesiastical habit.

10° Deposition.

11° Perpetual privation of ecclesiastical habit.

12° Degradation.

§ 1. If a cleric obtains an irremovable benefice, he can be deprived of it as a penalty only in cases expressed by law; if a removable one, also for other reasonable causes.

§ 2. Clerics obtaining benefices, offices, dignities can also be prohibited for a certain time only from some ministry joined with the same, e.g., the ministry of preaching, of hearing confessions, etc.

§ 3. A cleric cannot be deprived of a benefice or pension by title of which he was ordained unless provision is made elsewhere for his honorable sustenance, with the prescription of can. 2303, 2304 preserved.

If a cleric gives grave scandals and, having been warned, does not become wise again, nor can the scandal be removed otherwise, he can meanwhile be deprived of the right of wearing ecclesiastical habit; this privation, while it lasts, brings with it the prohibition of exercising any ecclesiastical ministries and privation of clerical privileges.

The Ordinary cannot prescribe that a cleric dwell in a certain place outside the limits of his diocese, unless the consent of the Ordinary of that place accedes, or unless there is question of a house of penance or correction destined for clerics not only diocesan but also outsiders, or of an exempt religious house, with its Superior consenting.

Both prescription and prohibition of dwelling in a certain place and placement in a house of penance or in a religious house, especially if they are going to last long, are to be imposed only in grave cases in which, in the prudent judgment of the Ordinary, those penalties are necessary for the amendment of the cleric or the repair of scandal.

§ 1. Deposition, with obligations arising from the order received and clerical privileges remaining firm, brings with it both suspension from office and incapacity for any offices, dignities, benefices, pensions, functions in the Church, and also privation of those things which the accused has, although he was ordained by their title.

§ 2. But in this last case, if the cleric is truly in need, the Ordinary, according to his charity, is to take care to provide for him in whatever better way can be done, lest he be compelled to beg with disgrace to the clerical state.

§ 3. The penalty of deposition cannot be inflicted except in cases expressed by law.

§ 1. If a deposed cleric gives no signs of amendment and especially if he continues to give scandal and, having been warned, does not become wise again, the Ordinary can perpetually deprive him of the right of wearing ecclesiastical habit.

§ 2. This privation brings with it privation of clerical privileges and cessation of the prescription of can. 2303, Sec. 2.

§ 1. Degradation contains in itself deposition, perpetual privation of ecclesiastical habit, and reduction of the cleric to the lay state.

§ 2. This penalty can be borne only on account of a delict expressed in law, or if a cleric, already deposed and deprived of clerical habit, still continues to give grave scandal for a year.

§ 3. One degradation is verbal or edictal, which is imposed by sentence alone, yet in such a way that it has all its juridical effects immediately without any execution; another is real, if the solemn prescriptions in the Roman Pontifical are observed.