Chapter V — On suspension and its effects, and on deposition and degradation

I. QUESTION I. What is suspension, and of how many kinds is it? ANSWER. It is a privation of the use and exercise of any office and dignity, if it be regarded absolutely. But at present it is an ecclesiastical censure by which a cleric is deprived of the use of an office or of a benefice. It is divided into that which is from the office only, into another which is from the benefice only, and into that which is from both. Moreover one is from law, another from man. By the name of office is understood every spiritual power, whether of order, or of jurisdiction, or of administration ecclesiastical. But by the name of benefice comes the right of perceiving ecclesiastical proceeds by force of a spiritual title. Suspension is also divided into temporal and perpetual. The former is for a month, for a year, for a biennium, and so forth; the latter is limited by no duration. Partial suspension is subdivided into several other partial ones. For a priest is sometimes suspended from the celebration of Mass alone, sometimes from hearing confessions, sometimes simply from his Order. A bishop can be suspended from the collation either of the tonsure alone, or of the presbyterate, or of Order absolutely. Similarly in a benefice a man is sometimes suspended from the daily distributions, or from half the part of the fruits; and the same can be done in jurisdiction. For the form of suspension no words are designated in law, but those are employed which manifest the superior's will.

II. Those who violate a suspension absolutely sin mortally. One suspended from an Order, if he exercise it, besides the mortal sin contracts irregularity. Acts nevertheless exercised by one suspended are valid, although unlawful, if they be acts of Order, not of jurisdiction. But he who is suspended from jurisdiction, if he be one to be shunned, then exercises acts of jurisdiction invalidly, because suspension of jurisdiction is an actual privation of it. One suspended from an Order is not by that very fact suspended from jurisdiction.

III. QUESTION II. Whether one suspended from an office be suspended from a benefice, or conversely? ANSWER. One suspended from a benefice is not by that very fact suspended from the office. Wherefore he can and is bound to celebrate and to recite the other divine offices, because the penalty does not exempt from the burden. And although the office be on account of the benefice, yet in punishment of the delict the guilty party can be deprived of the fruits of the benefice, the burden of serving the Church remaining. One suspended from an office, even a most grave one, is not by that very fact suspended from the benefice, as the more probable opinion teaches.

IV. QUESTION III. What are the effects of suspension from an office, from jurisdiction, from a benefice? ANSWER. One suspended absolutely from an office remains deprived of all use of Order and of jurisdiction, and of any ministry whatsoever which can be exercised by a cleric alone. Wherefore he cannot administer the sacraments, celebrate, excommunicate, absolve, impart indulgences, approve for confessions, exercise pontifical functions, nor perform the other ministries which depend upon Order. It is nevertheless certain that if he be suspended from Order only, he is not suspended from jurisdiction.

V. Suspension from jurisdiction passed absolutely deprives one of all use of spiritual jurisdiction, and of an act of Order which cannot be exercised without jurisdiction, as the collation of Order and sacramental absolution. But one thus suspended can celebrate and minister the other sacraments; unless nevertheless he should administer them by office as a parish priest, because then he would exercise an act of jurisdiction of which he is deprived. If a man be suspended from a determinate part of jurisdiction, he is not suspended from another; as if a parish priest be suspended from hearing confessions, he can celebrate and administer the other sacraments.

VI. Suspension of Order passed absolutely and simply deprives one of every act of any Order whatsoever, both major and minor, because an indefinite proposition in moral matter is equivalent to a universal one. Similarly he who is suspended from the collation of Orders can confer no Order. I omit other little questions, whose decision depends upon the formula by which the suspension is prescribed.

VII. QUESTION IV. For what cause can suspension be passed? ANSWER. It cannot be passed for a venial sin, as has been said above. For suspension by its own nature is a grave penalty, which cannot by right be inflicted save for a grave fault. Obnoxious to suspension are clerics even marked with the first tonsure. Censures passed in law absolutely against clerics do not comprehend Cardinals and bishops. Suspension can be passed directly against the community itself, and indirectly against the members. It does not nevertheless affect distributively the individual persons as regards their particular ministries, but according as they constitute one body, and according to the offices and ministries common to them.

VIII. Suspension can be hindered by a lawful appeal interposed at a congruous time, as has been said above of an appeal from censures. The appeal nevertheless ought to precede the suspension itself, that it may hinder it, if it be a suspension from office and from entrance into the Church, as is had in chapter Is qui 20 on sentences of excommunication in the Sixth. Any other suspension is hindered by a subsequent appeal.

IX. A suspension passed for a time ceases of itself, that time having elapsed, without absolution. From a suspension passed by man he can absolve who passed it. From a suspension passed by law the Ordinary of the suspended person can absolve, or his Vicar. From a suspension reserved to the Pope, if it proceed from an occult delict, a bishop can absolve his own subjects, if it have not been brought to the contentious forum.

X. QUESTION V. What do deposition and degradation signify? ANSWER. Often deposition and degradation are taken for the same; authors nevertheless distinguish the one from the other. Simple deposition they describe in these words: It is a penalty depriving a cleric of office and benefice in perpetuity by ordinary right irremissibly. Degradation is divided into verbal and real. Each deprives a cleric in perpetuity of office and benefice; but the former retains the privilege of the canon and of the forum; the latter utterly loses it. A cleric nevertheless struck with either verbal or real degradation is bound to recite the canonical hours, if he be constituted in sacred Orders, nor can he validly contract matrimony.

XI. Verbal degradation was formerly made for adultery, theft, homicide, and other graver crimes. According to the present-day discipline of the Church only the more atrocious crimes are struck with degradation. The crimes expressed in canon law for which a cleric ought to be struck with real degradation are heresy, the falsification of apostolic letters, sodomy, and conspiracy against his own bishop with incorrigibility acceding. Several things are wont to be said of the solemnity to be observed in real degradation, which do not pertain to our purpose.