Article III: On Interdict

1694. - Definition. Interdict is a censure by which, in penalty for some crime, the use of divine Offices, of some Sacraments, and of ecclesiastical burial is prohibited to certain persons or in certain places.

Hence interdict differs: 1° from excommunication, which deprives one of greater goods than interdict, and affects not places, but persons alone; 2° from suspension, which affects Clerics alone, and deprives them of sacred things only insofar as they are uses of some ecclesiastical ministry, but not insofar as they are goods of the faithful; besides this, interdict also affects places, and deprives of ecclesiastical burial, but suspension does not; 3° from irregularity and from cessation from divine things, which properly and per se do not have the nature of a penalty, and therefore not of a censure.¹

Division. Interdict is manifold, namely:

1° Personal, local, or mixed, according as it immediately affects a person, or a place, or both at once.

2° General or particular, according as it is extended to a whole region, city, and community, or is restricted to an Oratory, a particular Church, or determinate persons.

3° Total, which is brought simply as regards all effects of interdict, and partial, which is brought only as regards one or another effect.²

To the partial is to be counted interdict from entrance into a church, which constitutes a species of personal interdict, and prohibits those bound by it from celebrating, receiving, or assisting at divine things in a church (but not outside it, e.g., in a cemetery); those assisting, if it can be done, must be removed. But it is disputed whether they are permitted to enter a church in order to pray there privately. - Besides this, they are kept from burial in a church or in an ecclesiastical cemetery, unless, penitence having been done, they have been absolved from the interdict.¹

1695. Rule. - I. A general interdict does not fall except upon designated persons or places. Hence: 1° When the Clergy of some place is interdicted, the people are not therefore interdicted, nor are Regulars interdicted, unless they have a benefice or office in that people, nor other clerics who have no office there; for with the clergy they do not constitute one body; and vice versa.² 2° When a city is interdicted, innocent inhabitants are not interdicted, and they can go elsewhere, that they may be present at divine Offices. 3° When the citizens of a city are interdicted, the Churches are not subject to interdict; and there pilgrims can be present at Offices (Bishops are always exempt from a general personal interdict, unless they have been specially designated). Children also in this case are innocent, if they transfer domicile elsewhere. Likewise infants and the insane, who nevertheless are deprived of ecclesiastical burial.³

II. An interdict without limitation upon some whole affects all its parts. Hence: 1° An interdict of a city involves all the Churches of that city, even those exempt from the jurisdiction of the one interdicting; for otherwise the interdict would be illusory, and thus it is decreed in Law. And this interdict even the Bishop who brought it is held to observe.⁴ Concerning Regulars, however, see St. Alphonsus.⁵ 2° An interdict of a family or community embraces its individual members. 3° An interdict of a Church extends to the individual chapels contained in it; but the converse cannot be said.

III. An interdict brought upon certain places, e.g., a castle or a city, also affects the suburbs and contiguous buildings. Hence when a parish Church is interdicted, the chapels are interdicted, and also contiguous cemeteries; but not vice versa: because the accessory follows the principal, and not the principal the accessory.

1696. Questions. - Query 1° What are the effects of interdict?

Resp. They are three, as is clear from the definition given above, namely:

1° Prohibition from divine Offices, from those things namely which are solemnly exercised by Clerics in a place deputed for these things, namely from Mass, public and solemn prayer, public recitation of the Hours in choir, public blessing of water, oil, a temple, candles, etc. Clerics who do not fall under a general interdict can and ought to celebrate, but with doors closed and (unless for a sermon, the Angelic Salutation, or the death of someone) without the sound of bells, in a subdued voice, and those interdicted by name being excluded. - Also excepted, in a general local interdict, are certain Solemn Feasts, on which all interdicted persons can be admitted to divine Offices, and, if these Feasts are to be observed by precept, they ought to be present at the Sacred rite.¹ A sermon is also always excepted, as in the excommunicated person. L. VII. 177.

2° Prohibition from administering and receiving some Sacraments, namely the Eucharist, Order (outside the gravest necessity), and Extreme Unction. Viaticum can be ministered to the dying, and according to some also Extreme Unction. Baptism (even solemn), Confirmation, and Penance are permitted to all, except those who gave cause for the interdict, even by help or favor, and those who are interdicted by name, unless either they first have satisfied, or, if now they cannot satisfy, have given sworn caution concerning satisfying. Matrimony also, more probably,² but without solemn blessing.

3° Prohibition from ecclesiastical burial. It extends also to infants and the insane in a local and general personal interdict. Clerics not personally interdicted, and not violators of the interdict, can be buried without pomp in the Church; indeed (but without Mass) even if the Church were specially interdicted.³

Query 2° In what way do those violating an interdict sin, and what penalties do they incur?

Resp. 1° As to Clerics and Religious: They sin gravely by violating an interdict, whether personal or local, unless smallness of matter excuses, as if, for example, they were to leave the door of the Church open only for a brief time. Besides this they incur: a) Irregularity, if they exercise an act of their own Order; b) Suspension reserved to the Pope, if they receive Order from one interdicted and denounced by name (see n. 1747); c) Interdict from entrance into a church (n. 1694), if they knowingly celebrate, etc. in interdicted places (see n. 1751).

Resp. 2° Laypersons sin gravely if they violate a personal interdict, for example by receiving the Eucharist; likewise if they compel Clerics to celebrate Sacred things against the interdict, in which case they incur (as also do Clerics) personal interdict from entrance into a church (see n. 1751). More probably they sin only lightly if, the place being interdicted, they themselves, not personally interdicted, merely assist at divine offices.¹

Query 3° For what cause can an interdict be brought?

Resp. It cannot be brought, speaking per se, except because of a grave fault opposed to the public good. Thus for a personal interdict the fault of him who is interdicted is required; for a penalty is on account of a fault. But for a general and local interdict the fault of him who is head of the community, or of its principal members, suffices.²

Query 4° Who can absolve from interdict?

Resp. 1° From a particular personal interdict brought by Law, and not reserved, any confessor can absolve.

Resp. 2° From a local interdict not reserved, or from a general personal interdict not reserved, the Bishop absolves, or he to whom he communicates episcopal jurisdiction.

Resp. 3° If the interdict was brought by man, apply what was said in n. 1670. II.³

1697. - Cessation from divine things is a prohibition made to Clerics, that in some determined place they abstain from divine Offices, from administration of the Sacraments, and from ecclesiastical burial.

This cessation is distinguished from interdict: 1° Because interdict can be personal, but cessation from divine things cannot. 2° Because interdict is a censure, whence he who violates it becomes irregular; but the transgressor of cessation from divine things, although he sins gravely, nevertheless incurs no censure, nor becomes irregular. For this cessation is not employed for correcting delinquents. 3° Because, while a general interdict lasts, it is lawful to celebrate divine Offices with doors closed and in a subdued voice, and even solemnly on certain Feasts; but in cessation from divine things even these are prohibited.

Cessation from divine things is distinguished as twofold:

1° One by law, which exists by the very fact, when a Church is polluted or execrated.

2° Another by man, which, after preceding admonition, is imposed by a Superior having jurisdiction in the external forum (who can also remove it, or suspend it for a time), as a sign of mourning, or for reparation of a grave injury brought upon God; and then it affects all who are present in that place.

But the causes of cessation from divine things by law are referred to in the Treatise on the Eucharist, n. 1329. q. 4°. q. 5°. - The Sacraments which can be ministered during the time of interdict are granted also during the time of cessation.¹ Hence generally a private Mass once per week is permitted for renewing the Sacred Species for Viaticum. - But Clerics do not enjoy the privilege conceded to them during the time of interdict.