§ 1. HOW CENSURES ARE RELEASED

1274. DEFINITION. The absolution of a censure is the relaxation of the penalty itself, made by the power of the keys, through a fit Superior. Of itself and primarily it is an act of jurisdiction of the external forum, just as the infliction itself of censure is. It differs from dispensation, which takes away the bond of a law or precept (cf. n. 227).

DIVISION. Someone can be absolved from censure in manifold ways: 1. as to all effects, or only as to some; 2. absolutely or conditionally; 3. with falling back; 4. for caution (D'Annibale on the Constitution Apost. Sed.).

Now: 1. Absolution is given ordinarily to take away ALL EFFECTS; sometimes it is given FOR A PARTIAL EFFECT, for example to remove privation of active voice in a canonical election.1

This, however, is improperly called absolution, because it presents the appearance of a dispensation (VII, 125, end).

1 Thus, for example, censures by which the Cardinal electors of a new Pontiff perhaps are punished are suspended for the effect of election, while otherwise remaining in their force (Const. Vacante Sede Apost., n. 29 and 79; Acta Pii X, vol. 3, p. 253 and 282).

2. Absolution can be given UNDER CONDITION, either concerning the past, for example: "if you have already satisfied, I absolve you"; or concerning the present: "if I can absolve"; or concerning the future: "if you will satisfy hereafter, now for then I absolve you."

This last absolution, however, is illicit, unless it is made honorable by some grave cause, say, if afterward he from whom the censured person can be absolved would be lacking (VII, 123).

3. Absolution is sometimes given WITH FALLING BACK, which is a species of condition; namely so that the absolved person, unless within a certain time he shall have performed something, for example unless within a month he shall have restored, or gone to the excommunicating one, falls back by the very fact into the same censure.

Moreover, falling back is by man or by Law: a) It is by man, as often as it is adjoined by the will of the absolving Superior himself. b) It is by Law, when it is imposed by force of law: which is done, for example, when someone, either in urgent necessity, or in the article or danger of death, is absolved from censures reserved to the Pope in a special way (VII, 86, 87, 125). See what is to be said n. 1282 and 1284.

4. Absolution FOR CAUTION is that which is given to remove or to suspend a censure perhaps unknown.

Of this kind is that which is given before absolution of sins, to avoid irreverence; or before conferral of orders, benefices, etc., to remove the impediment of a censure perhaps forgotten, or incurred with crass ignorance. Cf. Sanchez, Decal., l. I, c. 10, n. 55.

Note. It is EXPEDIENT to give absolution for caution as often as there is doubt concerning excommunication incurred: a) because, once it has been given, the censure ceases, even if afterward it appears certain; b) lest perhaps, in doubt of fact, whether someone has really contracted it, whether he has been absolved from it, he remain outside the Church, bereft of her goods; for in such a doubt, our false estimation does not change the truth of the thing. Nor ought the form of absolution from the Roman Ritual to be vain and useless. Otherwise in doubt of law, because a doubtful law certainly does not oblige (Lugo, de Poenit., disp. 20, n. 22, 23).

1275. • PRINCIPLES. I. Censures once incurred are removed through the absolution alone of a legitimate judge. This is clear from the sacred canons (VII, 122).

Hence: 1. Censure is not removed through the amendment of the guilty person; which moreover is clear from proposition 44 condemned by Alexander VII: "As regards the forum of conscience, when the guilty person has been corrected and his contumacy has ceased, the censures cease." 2. It is not removed by the death or removal of the one issuing it, as is clear from c. Pastoralis, de officio judicis ordinarii; and the reason is that a penalty once inflicted passes into a matter adjudged. 3. It is not removed by the death of the censured person, as is clear from c. Sacris, de Sent. excomm. Wherefore a dead person, although he died contrite, is deprived of the suffrages of the Church and ecclesiastical burial.

It was said: 1. Censures, that is, properly so called; for suspensions and interdicts which are inflicted by way of vindicative penalty cease, not through absolution, but through time elapsed, or a condition fulfilled, or through dispensation of the Superior (cf. n. 1305). - 2. Once incurred; because censures not yet incurred are deleted either by abrogation of the law, or by revocation of the precept, or also by the death of the Superior issuing a particular sentence.

1276. II. Absolution from censures can be given both in the external forum and in the internal forum. Indeed, since censure without fault cannot even be understood, in the sacramental forum absolution must be given at the same time from censures and from sins, but first from censures. If absolution from censures is given after absolution from sins, it is gravely illicit, nevertheless valid; and if the penitent, in receiving it, was in good faith and otherwise disposed, absolution from sins also will be valid (VI, 430, end; VII, 70, 126).

1277. • III. The value of absolution from censures is one thing in the external forum, another in the internal forum. Absolution given in the external forum always avails for the internal forum. Given in the internal forum, it does not profit before the judge or the faithful unless it is publicly established, for example if it is known that the censured person has confessed and has offered satisfaction, if any was necessary. But prudence forbids that absolution in the internal forum be granted if the case has already been brought into the contentious forum or is soon to be brought there (Suarez, de Cens., disp. 7).

A great difference intervenes between absolution from SINS and absolution from CENSURES.

1. The former is given to reconcile us to God; but the latter to restore those things which are proper to the Church militant. 2. The former extends to all sins, but the latter is sometimes restricted to one censure. 3. The former is given only to the contrite and willing; the latter is validly granted even to the contumacious, and to the unwilling themselves; indeed also licitly in some cases, for example when this conduces to the common good. 4. The former, of itself, is absolute; the latter is often given under condition, from day to day, with falling back, for caution, for a particular effect, etc. 5. The former is given only to those present; the latter is rightly given also to the absent by letters or telephone or intermediary, if an urgent cause is present, except if it has been committed to someone to absolve in the form customary to the Church. 6. The former is given by an approved priest alone; the latter can be given by a simple cleric endowed with due faculty. 7. Finally, sins can be absolved not only directly, but also indirectly, that is, by concomitance with those things which are subject to the keys; but censures are absolved only directly; because among them there is not a necessary connection, but they are held like chains, some of which are released without the others (VI, 597, 618; VII, 117, 131).