§ I. On The Reservation Of Cases, Or On The Principle And Nature Of Reservation

1400. Principles. - I. There is given in the Church the power of reserving certain cases or causes of graver crimes, from which inferior confessors cannot absolve without a special faculty. For to the Church, as was said in n. 1392. q. 4°, belongs the power of conferring and limiting jurisdiction; therefore also of reserving cases. - Besides, this is clear from the definition of Trent.

II. The power of reserving sins belongs only to those who have jurisdiction in the internal forum and, today at least, also in the external. The reason is that it pertains to those alone who can confer jurisdiction over the society of the faithful to limit the same.

Hence: 1° the Pope can reserve cases in the whole Church; 2° Bishops in their own diocese; which reservation, according to the common opinion and the opinion truer to St. Alphonsus, is valid even as regards non-exempt Nuns, since they are not excepted in the law. Whether it is also valid as regards exempt Nuns in exempt matter is disputed probably on both sides; 3° others having episcopal jurisdiction, with respect to their own subjects.

III. Three things are required, from the custom of the Church, in order that a sin be considered reserved, namely, that it be 1° grave internally and externally; 2° consummated in its own species, and hence those favoring a homicide do not incur its reservation, since they have not consummated it, nor those committing imperfect sodomy incur the reservation of sodomy, since they have not consummated it in its own species; 3° so certain that no prudent doubt remains whether it has been perpetrated; whether it is internally and externally grave; whether it is consummated in its own species; whether it is comprehended under the reservation. The reason is that only external crimes are wont to be reserved, and indeed the graver and more atrocious; and hence it must be externally and internally grave - and because reservation, as being odious, is to be interpreted strictly, and hence it must be consummated in its own species and certain.

IV. Reservation affects the confessor immediately, and the penitent mediately; because it immediately touches the power of the confessor and restricts it.

Moreover, most episcopal cases are reserved simply, without censure; but papal cases almost all have censure, and are reserved principally on account of the censure, so that in them the censure is reserved immediately, and the sin itself mediately or accessorily. Hence in papal cases, when the censure is reserved, the sin also remains reserved; but, contrariwise, when the censure is removed, e.g. because it was unknown, neither is the sin reserved, because when the object of reservation is removed, i.e. the censure, the sin now does not remain reserved. - But the cases reserved to the Pope without censure are two: the first, namely concerning him who receives gifts from Regulars strictly so called of either sex (from the Constitutions of Clement VIII and Urban VIII. - See St. Alphonsus, H. A. Tr. XIII. 8. 9); the second, if someone wickedly, by himself or through others, denounces an innocent confessor concerning solicitation (from the Constitution of Benedict XIV).

Concerning reservation to be made by Bishops, those things opportunely occur which we have apud Benedict XIV, and of which this is nearly the sum:

a) Let it be extended only to a few cases, and

b) to only the more atrocious and graver crimes, whose reservation may contribute to retaining Christian discipline, and may yield to edification, not to destruction; lest otherwise, with the power of confessors restricted, an effect contrary to the pious mind of Holy Mother Church follow. Therefore let it not comprehend cases which, although they induce mortal sin, nevertheless turn upon things of small moment and are wont to occur frequently among the unlearned, such as cases of damage given and similar things. Hence also in reserving carnal sins much circumspection must be used, on account of the danger of scandals, especially among those persons on whom, on account of frequent return to the confessor, something of suspicion could fall.

c) Let it not be superfluous, and therefore let it not comprehend those cases which are specially reserved to the Holy See, nor those in which absolution is not conferred unless with restitution or execution of those things to which the penitent is held.

d) Let it not promiscuously, i.e. not except on account of frequent scandal or another necessary cause, be extended to those things to which by Law a major excommunication has been imposed, whose absolution is reserved to no one.

1401. Questions. - Query 1° Does ignorance of reservation or of the censure to be incurred from it excuse?

Resp. 1° Affirmatively as regards censure, because in it the character of penalty is especially considered, which is inflicted only on the contumacious; and this whether the ignorance is of fact, e.g. that such a book was written by an apostate or heretic to defend heresy, or of law, i.e. of the censure or law, whether divine or ecclesiastical, provided however it is not gross; although even this excuses if in the decree of censure there is read: who shall have done this knowingly, or deliberately, or rashly, or who shall have presumed. Concerning this matter more broadly where there will be speech about Censures, n. 1664. q. 2°. q. 3°.

Resp. 2° As regards reservation, it is controverted. The more common opinion denies, to which St. Alphonsus subscribes; the reason is that reservation restricts the power of the confessor, whom it immediately affects, as was said in n. 1400. IV.; therefore whether the penitent had knowledge of the reservation or did not have it, the power of the priest remains restricted.

Query 2° Does ignorance at least excuse from reservation when it is joined with censure?

Resp. 1° Affirm. for papal cases, because papal cases, with the two excepted about which in n. 1400, are reserved on account of the censure, from which ignorance excuses, as was just said. Therefore, when the censure is removed, no reservation remains.

Resp. 2° More truly, Neg. for episcopal cases; because in these reservation is principally and per se considered, to which sometimes a censure is annexed as a circumstance, for this end, that sinners may be more deterred from sin. Nevertheless this must be understood concerning the cases which, not indeed Common Law, but Bishops themselves reserve to themselves.

Query 3° Can the subject of another diocese be absolved if the case is reserved only in the place of Confession?

Resp. Neg. according to the more common opinion and the opinion by far more probable to St. Alphonsus, because reservation immediately regards confessors. Sacred Penitentiary, November 21, 1873. (K) p. 408.

Query 4° Can the subject of another diocese be absolved when the sin is reserved in his own diocese, but not in the place of Confession?

Resp. 1° He can be absolved by Regulars by force of the privilege granted to them in the Constitution Superna of Clement X.

Resp. 2° As regards secular Confessors, the very common and truer opinion affirms. The reason is that the universal custom so has it. - Except in either case, unless someone from his own diocese has gone to another principally and solely in fraud of reservation.

Query 5° Can regular Prelates or Superiors reserve cases in their own Order or Monastery?

Resp. They can reserve only some determined by Clement VIII, which are eleven in number and can be seen apud St. Alphonsus. But they can in no way reserve others without the consent of the general Chapter for the whole Religion, and of the provincial Chapter for the whole Province.