Title XIV: Of Delicts against Life, Liberty, Property, Good Reputation, and Good Morals

§ 1. Those procuring abortion, the mother not excepted, incur, once the effect has followed, latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Ordinary; and if they are clerics, moreover let them be deposed.

§ 2. Those who have laid hands upon themselves, if indeed death has followed, are to be deprived of ecclesiastical burial according to the norm of can. 1240, Sec. 1, n. 3; otherwise, they are to be barred from legitimate ecclesiastical acts and, if they are clerics, suspended for a time to be defined by the Ordinary, and removed from benefices or offices having the care of souls attached in the internal or external forum.

§ 1. With the prescription of can. 1240, Sec. 1, n. 4 observed, those perpetrating a duel or simply provoking to it or accepting it or furnishing any work or favor, and also those watching it by design and permitting it or not prohibiting it insofar as lies in them, of whatever dignity they may be, are subject by the fact itself to excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See.

§ 2. But the duelists themselves and those who are called their seconds are moreover by the fact itself infamous.

All, shining even with any dignity whatsoever, who in any way coerce either a man to embrace the clerical state, or a man or woman to enter religion or to emit religious profession, whether solemn or simple, whether perpetual or temporary, are struck by the fact itself with excommunication reserved to no one.

One who, with a view to marriage or for the sake of satisfying lust, has carried off an unwilling woman by force or fraud, or a consenting woman of minor age, but with parents or guardians unaware or contradicting, is to be held by the law itself excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts and besides is to be struck by other penalties according to the gravity of the fault.

§ 1. A layman who has been legitimately condemned for the delict of homicide, abduction of the impubes of either sex, sale of a human being into servitude or another evil end, usury, robbery, qualified or non-qualified theft in a very notable matter, arson or malicious and very notable destruction of things, grave mutilation or wounding or violence, is to be held by the law itself excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts and from any function, if he has any in the Church, the burden of repairing damages remaining firm.

§ 2. But a cleric who has committed some delict of those of which in Sec. 1 is to be punished by an ecclesiastical tribunal, according to the diverse gravity of the guilt, with penances, censures, privation of office and benefice, dignity, and, if the matter bears it, even deposition; but one guilty of culpable homicide is to be degraded.

If anyone, not by deed, but by words or writings or in any other way, has inflicted injury on someone or injured his good reputation, he can not only be compelled according to the norm of can. 1618, 1938 to furnish due satisfaction and to repair damages, but moreover be punished with congruent penalties and penances, not excluding, if there is question of clerics and the cause bears it, suspension or removal from office and benefice.

Bigamists, that is, those who, while the conjugal bond stands, have attempted another marriage, even only a civil one, as they say, are by the fact itself infamous; and if, having spurned the warning of the Ordinary, they persist in illicit cohabitation, according to the diverse gravity of the guilt they are to be excommunicated or struck with personal interdict.

§ 1. Laymen legitimately condemned for delicts committed against the sixth commandment with minors below the age of sixteen years, or for stuprum, sodomy, incest, or pandering, are by the fact itself infamous, besides other penalties which the Ordinary shall have judged are to be inflicted.

§ 2. Those who have committed the public delict of adultery, or publicly live in concubinage, or have been legitimately condemned for other delicts against the sixth precept of the Decalogue, are to be excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts until they have given signs of true repentance.

Clerics constituted in minor orders, guilty of some delict against the sixth precept of the Decalogue, are to be punished according to the gravity of the fault even by dismissal from the clerical state, if the circumstances of the delict counsel this, besides the penalties of which in can. 2357, if there is place for these.

§ 1. Clerics in sacred orders, whether secular or religious, who are concubinaries, after warning has been sent uselessly, are to be compelled to withdraw from illicit cohabitation and to repair scandal by suspension from divine things and privation of the fruits of office, benefice, or dignity, with the prescription of can. 2176-2181 observed.

§ 2. If they have committed a delict against the sixth precept of the Decalogue with minors below the age of sixteen years, or have committed adultery, stuprum, bestiality, sodomy, pandering, or incest with blood relatives or affines in the first degree, they are to be suspended, declared infamous, deprived of any office, benefice, dignity, or function, if they have any, and in graver cases deposed.

§ 3. If they have offended otherwise against the sixth precept of the Decalogue, they are to be coerced with congruent penalties according to the gravity of the case, not excepting privation of office or benefice, especially if they have care of souls.