point — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
Point V. *Ferendae Sententiae* Excommunications
- The following can be subjected to them: 1. the faithful who do not satisfy the precept of Paschal Communion. This censure has passed into desuetude in most places 1; nevertheless it is still in force at Rome. 2. Incestuous persons and adulterers, from various Synods of France. 3. Diviners, magicians, sorcerers, and those having recourse to them. Pichler. They incur a latae sententiae censure if their conduct savors of heresy. 4. Those striking a consenting Cleric. St. Alphonsus, no. 274. 5. Laics frequenting monasteries of Nuns in order to converse with them outside the enclosure. For Clerics there is the penalty of suspension, and for Regulars deprivation of office. St. Alphonsus, no. 232. 6. Those plundering gifts of hospitals and charitable loan institutions 2. Other ferendae sententiae excommunications are found in the common law, but in practice they are little encountered. Most are different for different regions and dioceses. Moreover, in practice knowledge of these appears to be of the least importance, since they cannot be incurred except after a sentence of the ecclesiastical judge, which very rarely has place, at least in our times.
1 The Author states a mere fact and signifies that in most places the faithful are not customarily compelled by the penalty of excommunication to fulfill the Paschal precept; for no one will say that the law itself has been so abrogated by desuetude that an ecclesiastical Superior, where the matter requires it, cannot use this means to break the contumacy of certain persons.
2 The Council of Trent, session 22, chapter 11, On Reformation, subjects to an anathema reserved to the Roman Pontiffs all presuming to usurp or convert to their own uses, by themselves or through others, the jurisdictions, goods, revenues, feudal and emphyteutic rights, fruits, emoluments, or any proceeds whatever of Churches, benefices, charitable loan institutions, or another pious place; or to impede them from being received by those to whom they belong by law; and Clerics who devise or consent to fraud and usurpation of this kind. See above, no. 975, XIX.
In practice the Confessor ought especially to attend to the cases in force in individual places, which are found in the booklet of censures and reserved sins proper to each diocese. But for the most part they are reserved to the Ordinary by particular law.