Article — Marc, Institutiones Morales
ARTICLE I: On the Notion and Division of Censures
- DEFINITION. A censure is a spiritual and medicinal penalty, inflicted by ecclesiastical power, through which the use of certain spiritual goods is taken away from a baptized man who is delinquent and contumacious.
It is called: 1. a penalty, strictly speaking, that is, an evil inflicted by legitimate authority because of fault; 2. spiritual, because it deprives one of spiritual goods, as is clear from the Bull Auctorem fidei under n. 46; 3. medicinal, that is, inflicted so that the guilty person may come to his senses and be amended: this is the primary and specific end of censure; it is not inflicted on those whose correction is despaired of, except sometimes for the terror of others; 4. on a baptized man; for an infidel is not subject to the Church; 5. delinquent and contumacious, namely, one who, by an external action, from a certain at least virtual contempt, does not obey the warnings of the Church; 6. the use of certain spiritual goods, namely of those which are subject to the power of the Church, as will presently be explained.
- ON THE SPIRITUAL GOODS OF THE CHURCH. In the Church there exist goods of a threefold kind: 1. Some proceed immediately from the Head, or Christ, as various graces. Censure does not deprive one of these, because they do not depend on the Church; whence censure can coexist with the state of grace, for example in one who incurs a censure because of a sin concerning which afterward he is perfectly contrite. 2. Others proceed from the members taken privately, as the prayers and good works of individual faithful. Nor does censure take away these goods, at least of itself, because the Church cannot impede that communion of Saints which proceeds from faith and charity. 3. Finally others proceed from the body, or the Church, as the use of the sacraments, divine offices, indulgences, jurisdiction, benefice, common suffrages. Censure deprives one of these, either wholly or in part. It can also deprive one of the use and commerce of the faithful in civil matters, for example honor, salutation, etc., but only secondarily and in order to spiritual things (Suarez, l. c., disp. I, s. I, n. 6).
- From these things you will gather: Censure differs: a) from deposition, degradation, and privation of benefice; for these penalties are primarily vindicative, in such a way indeed that of themselves they are perpetual, and can be inflicted even after amendment of sin, and, when the sinner has now been amended, still endure; b) from irregularity, which of itself is not a penalty, but is a canonical impediment; whence it is removed only by dispensation; c) from cessation from divine things, which is imposed primarily for repelling an injury inflicted on the Church (VII, 2-5).
Note. The effects of censure in particular are indicated in n. 1291 sqq., 1304, 1308.
- DIVISION. Censure is distinguished in manifold ways:
- By reason of species it is threefold, namely: excommunication, suspension, and interdict.
The last two are not always censures; sometimes they are merely medicinal penalties, but sometimes they also assume the nature of a vindicative penalty, as we shall say below (n. 1300).
- By reason of the mode by which it is inflicted, one is from law, another by man.
a) A CENSURE FROM LAW is that which is issued through canons or ecclesiastical laws, for example through a synodal statute. This does not cease by the death or removal of the legislator. - b) A CENSURE BY MAN is that which is inflicted by a legitimate Superior, whether by way of judicial sentence, or by way of precept.
But a precept, although transitory, is either general, without determination of persons, for example: if anyone knows the perpetrator of this delict, he is bound to denounce him, under penalty of excommunication; or particular, affecting determinate persons. A censure of this kind ceases by the death or removal of him who issued it, that is, it is no longer incurred; for if it had already been contracted, the bond would be removed by absolution alone (VII, 6; Lehmkuhl, II, 1102).1
Note. A censure by man can also be issued ex informata conscientia, as we shall explain below (n. 1301).
- By reason of the mode by which it is incurred, a censure is latae sententiae or ferendae sententiae.
a) A CENSURE LATAE SENTENTIAE (which is proper to the Church, unknown in the civil Code) is that which is incurred by the very fact by which someone has violated the law, without a condemnatory sentence of the judge being required.
Such it is: if in the law it is said: by the very fact, by the very law, by law, by that very thing, from then, immediately, forthwith, without another sentence; if the words are of past or present tense, for example: we have excommunicated, I excommunicate, they are suspended, they are interdicted; if it is said in the imperative mode: let him fall into excommunication, let him remain suspended or interdicted, we will or command that he be excommunicated, suspended; or even: let him be excommunicated, let him be suspended, etc., namely absolutely without the ministry of another; but not if the precept of excommunicating, suspending, etc., is imposed on another, say, the Bishop.
b) A CENSURE FERENDAE SENTENTIAE is that which is not contracted unless the sentence of a judge accedes.
Such it is judged to be: if the words are of future tense, for example: he will be excommunicated, he will be suspended; if they express the precept of excommunicating, suspending, for example: let him be excommunicated by the Bishop; if they are comminatory, for example: under penalty of excommunication, under threat of anathema, etc.; unless, however, something else is gathered from the adjuncts; likewise, if they are ambiguous; for according to Rule of Law 49 in the Sixth: "In penalties the more benign interpretation must be made." But ambiguous would be, for example, these words: let him be excommunicated. But in the case of heresy, they are latae sententiae, as all teach (H. Ap., XIX, at the beginning).
- By reason of the power of absolving, censures are reserved or non-reserved. a) NON-RESERVED are those which can be absolved by inferiors. b) RESERVED are those which cannot be absolved except by the one issuing them, or by another to whom they have been reserved.
Some are reserved to the Roman Pontiff, either in a special way, or simply. Others are reserved to Bishops or prelates, either by common Law, that is, through canons or papal constitutions, or by particular Law, for example through the statutes of a diocese or Religion.
Censures by man, however, are always judged reserved, unless they have been issued through a general precept.
Note. 1. From the fact that something is prohibited under censure, as penalty, it does not always follow that the law obliges under mortal sin (cf. n. 1263, 2). 2. He who can absolve from censures as censures, can also absolve from them as penalties (D'Annibale, Summula, I, n. 358).
1 There are not lacking those who think that censures issued by a Bishop outside a synod are from Law (cf. Ami du Cl., 1910, p. 229). Nevertheless those things which the Salmanticenses, Roncaglia, and Croix establish, with St. Alph., l. c., are more pleasing to us.