Title XIII: Of Delicts against Ecclesiastical Authorities, Persons, and Things

As regards the penalties established for delicts which can be committed in electing the Supreme Pontiff, one must stand solely by the constitution of Pius X Vacante Sede Apostolica, Dec. 25, 1904.

§ 1. Those who pertinaciously do not obey the Roman Pontiff or their own Ordinary legitimately commanding or prohibiting something are to be punished with congruent penalties, not excluding censures, according to the gravity of the fault.

§ 2. But those conspiring against the authority of the Roman Pontiff or his Legate or their own Ordinary, or against their legitimate mandates, and likewise those provoking subjects to disobedience toward them, are to be coerced by censures or other penalties; and, if they are clerics, let them be deprived of dignities, benefices, or other functions; if religious, of active and passive voice and office.

All and singular persons of whatsoever status, grade, or condition, even if they are of royal, episcopal, or cardinalitial condition, appealing from the laws, decrees, or mandates of the Roman Pontiff existing for the time to a universal Council, are suspected of heresy and by the fact itself contract excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See; but Universities, Colleges, Chapters, or other moral persons, by whatever name they are called, likewise incur an interdict reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See.

Those having recourse to lay power to impede letters or any acts proceeding from the Apostolic See or from its Legates, or directly or indirectly prohibiting their promulgation or execution, or by reason of them injuring or terrifying either those to whom the letters or acts pertain or others, are subject by the fact itself to excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See.

They are struck with latae sententiae excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See:

1° Who issue laws, mandates, or decrees against the liberty or rights of the Church.

2° Who directly or indirectly impede the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whether of the internal or external forum, by recurring for this to any lay power.

Those giving their name to a Masonic sect or to other associations of the same kind which plot against the Church or legitimate civil powers contract by the fact itself excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

§ 1. Clerics who have committed the delict of which in can. 2334, 2335, besides the penalties established in the cited canons, are to be struck by the penalty of suspension or of privation of the benefice itself, office, dignity, pension, or function, if perhaps they have any in the Church; religious however are to be struck by privation of office and of active and passive voice and by other penalties according to the norm of the constitutions.

§ 2. Besides, clerics and religious giving their name to a Masonic sect and to other similar associations must be denounced to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.

§ 1. If a pastor, for impeding the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, has dared to stir up disturbances, to promote public subscriptions for himself, to excite the people by sermons or writings, or to do other similar things, let him be punished according to the gravity of the fault, according to the prudent judgment of the Ordinary, not excluding, if the matter bears it, suspension.

§ 2. In the same manner let the Ordinary punish a priest who in any way excites a multitude to impede the entrance into a parish of a priest legitimately named as pastor or oeconomus.

§ 1. Those presuming to absolve without due faculty from latae sententiae excommunication reserved in a most special or special manner to the Apostolic See incur by the fact itself excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

§ 2. Those furnishing any help or favor to an excommunicate to be avoided in the delict on account of which he was excommunicated; likewise clerics knowingly and spontaneously communicating with him in divine things and receiving him in divine offices, incur by the fact itself excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

§ 3. Those knowingly celebrating or causing divine things to be celebrated in interdicted places, or admitting to celebrating divine offices forbidden by censure clerics excommunicated, interdicted, or suspended after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, contract by the law itself interdict from entrance into a church until, at the judgment of him whose sentence they have contemned, they have made congruent satisfaction.

§ 4. Those who have given cause for a local interdict or for an interdict against a community or college are by the fact itself personally interdicted.

Those who have dared to order or compel infidels, apostates from the faith, or heretics, schismatics, or others, whether excommunicated or interdicted, to be handed over to ecclesiastical burial against the prescription of can. 1240, Sec. 1, contract latae sententiae excommunication reserved to no one; but those voluntarily giving burial to the same contract interdict from entrance into a church reserved to the Ordinary.

§ 1. If anyone, with hardened mind, has remained for a year in the censure of excommunication, he is suspected of heresy.

§ 2. If a cleric has persevered in the censure of suspension for six months, let him be gravely warned; and if, a month having passed from the warning, he has not withdrawn from contumacy, let him be deprived of benefices or offices, if perhaps he has any in the Church.

If anyone, against the prescription of can. 120, has dared to drag before a lay judge any one of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church or Legates of the Apostolic See, or major Officials of the Roman Curia on account of business pertaining to their function, or his own Ordinary, he contracts by the fact itself excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See; if another Bishop, even merely titular, or an Abbot or Prelate nullius, or one of the major Superiors of religions of pontifical right, latae sententiae excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See; finally, if, permission not having been obtained from the local Ordinary, another person enjoying the privilege of forum, then if a cleric, he incurs by the fact itself suspension from office reserved to the Ordinary, but if a layman, let him be punished by his own Ordinary with congruent penalties according to the gravity of the fault.

They are struck by the fact itself with excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See:

1° Those violating the cloister of nuns, of whatever kind or condition or sex they may be, by entering their monasteries without legitimate permission, and likewise those introducing or admitting them; but if they are clerics, moreover let them be suspended for a time to be defined by the Ordinary according to the gravity of the fault.

2° Women violating the cloister of male religious, and Superiors and others, whoever they may be, introducing or admitting them of whatever age; and moreover religious introducing or admitting them are to be deprived of office, if they have any, and of active and passive voice.

3° Nuns illegitimately departing from the cloister against the prescription of can. 601.

§ 1. One who has laid violent hands upon the person of the Roman Pontiff:

1° Contracts latae sententiae excommunication reserved in a most special manner to the Apostolic See; and is by the fact itself to be avoided.

2° Is by the law itself infamous.

3° If a cleric, is to be degraded.

§ 2. One who does so upon the person of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church or a Legate of the Roman Pontiff:

1° Incurs latae sententiae excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See.

2° Is by the law itself infamous.

3° Let him be deprived of benefices, offices, dignities, pensions, and any function, if he has any in the Church.

§ 3. One who does so upon the person of a Patriarch, Archbishop, or Bishop, even only titular, incurs latae sententiae excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See.

§ 4. One who does so upon the person of other clerics or religious of either sex is subject by the fact itself to excommunication reserved to his own Ordinary, who moreover is to punish him with other penalties, if the matter bears it, according to his prudent judgment.

One who by public newspapers, sermons, or pamphlets, whether directly or indirectly, has affected with injuries the Roman Pontiff, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, a Legate of the Roman Pontiff, the Sacred Roman Congregations, the Tribunals of the Apostolic See and their major officials, or his own Ordinary, or has excited rivalries or hatreds against their acts, decrees, decisions, or sentences, is to be compelled by the Ordinary, not only at the instance of a party but also ex officio, even through censures, to furnish satisfaction, or is to be punished with other congruent penalties or penances, according to the gravity of the fault and the repair of scandal.

Those usurping or detaining, by themselves or through others, goods or rights pertaining to the Roman Church are subject to latae sententiae excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See; and if they are clerics, moreover let them be deprived of dignities, benefices, offices, and pensions and declared incapable of the same.

If anyone has presumed to convert and usurp for his own uses ecclesiastical goods of whatever kind, whether movable or immovable, whether corporeal or incorporeal, by himself or through others, or to impede that the fruits or revenues of the same be received by those to whom they belong by law, let him be subject to excommunication until he has entirely restored the goods themselves, removed the aforesaid impediment, and then obtained absolution from the Apostolic See; but if he was patron of the same church or goods, let him also exist by that very fact deprived of the right of patronage; but a cleric committing this delict or consenting in it is moreover to be deprived of any benefices, rendered incapable for any others, and suspended from the execution of his orders, even after complete satisfaction and absolution, at the judgment of his Ordinary.

The nullity of the act and the obligation, to be urged even by censure, of restoring goods illegitimately acquired and of repairing damages perhaps inflicted remaining firm, one who has presumed to alienate ecclesiastical goods or to furnish consent in alienating them against the prescriptions of can. 534, Sec. 1, and can. 1532:

1° If there is question of a thing whose price does not exceed one thousand lire, let him be punished by the legitimate ecclesiastical Superior with congruent penalties.

2° If there is question of a thing whose price is above one thousand but below thirty thousand lire, let the patron be deprived of the right of patronage; the administrator, of the function of administrator; the religious Superior or oeconomus, of his own office and capacity for other offices, besides other congruent penalties to be inflicted by Superiors; but the Ordinary and other clerics obtaining office, benefice, dignity, or function in the Church are to pay double in favor of the injured church or pious cause; other clerics are to be suspended for a time to be defined by the Ordinary.

3° But if the apostolic beneplacitum prescribed in the mentioned canons has knowingly been omitted, there remains moreover latae sententiae excommunication reserved to no one for all guilty persons in whatever way, whether by giving, receiving, or furnishing consent.

One who has obtained a legacy or donation for pious causes, whether by an act among the living or by testament, even through trust, and neglects to fulfill it, is to be compelled to that by the Ordinary, even through censure.

Those refusing payments legitimately owed according to the norm of can. 463, Sec. 1, 1507, are to be punished by the prudent judgment of the Ordinary until they have made satisfaction.