§ 4. ON THE FORM OF CENSURE

FORM, or the formality required in issuing censures, regards either the warning of the guilty person, or the sentence of the judge.

1265. • A. On warning. Warning is defined: a declaration made by the judge to the delinquent that he is about to incur censure if he does not come to his senses, or does not obey. It differs from citation, which is intimated to the accused, that he should present himself before the judge for his defense, or to hear the sentence.

1266. PRINCIPLES. I. Censures should never be issued without some previous warning. For censure is issued to break the contumacy of the guilty person;

but the guilty person cannot be said to be contumacious unless he has been forewarned concerning the penalty to be inflicted (VII, 51-53).

We have said 1. Censures, that is, properly so called; because, if suspension or interdict is issued by way of pure penalty, warning is not necessarily to be sent beforehand.

2. Should never be issued; because warning is required for the liceity of a censure, in every case.

But whether it is also required for validity is a controverted question. The more common and more probable opinion indeed affirms; but the denying opinion is also probable, at least with respect to the Roman Pontiff, if he should act from the plenitude of power.

3. Without some warning; so that it may be understood that a different one is required according to the diversity of the case.

For if a censure is issued by man by way of sentence, canonical warning is required, as above. But if it is issued by Law or by man, by way of precept, with respect to a future act, then the law itself or the precept sufficiently warns, nor is another warning required, unless Law prescribes it. And the same must more probably be said if the censure is threatened by Law, or ferendae sententiae; because in this case also the law sufficiently admonishes (VII, 53, 55).

1267. II. From Canon Law, for the liceity of a censure judicially to be issued there is required a threefold warning, or at least one peremptory warning. This is gathered from c. Const., de Sent. excomm., in 6.

A peremptory warning is that in which it is expressed that it is valid for a threefold warning, and in which time for coming to one's senses equivalent to the time of three warnings is conceded, namely two days for each warning, and therefore a space of six days: for example, "we command that within six days you cast such a woman out of the house; otherwise by the very fact you are excommunicated." But from a just cause, the three spaces can be reduced to one day or to a briefer time; but if there is danger in delay, as if it is a question of repressing violence, for example of church-wardens refusing to open the doors of the church, a single warning suffices, provided that time for coming to one's senses, say the space of one hour, is designated (VII, 56-58).

1268. B. On the sentence of the judge. The following are to be noted:

1. That a censure be issued licitly by way of sentence, it is required that the judge issue it in writing, noting in it, and indeed distinctly, both the person, and the censure, and the cause in species. But if the one to be censured demands for himself a copy of this writing, it must be furnished.

It was said licitly; for if the censure is issued with the solemnities disregarded, it is indeed valid, but the judge, unless excused by necessity or ignorance, sins gravely (VII, 50).

2. The censured person, so that he may come to his senses more quickly, ought, unless circumstances suggest otherwise, to be denounced.

Moreover, if he has been censured by man, the denunciation is to be made by the author of the censure itself, or by his delegate, and indeed publicly, for example in the church, at the time of Mass or sermon, by the living voice, or through a sheet affixed to the doors of the church, according to the custom of the region. But if he has been censured by common Law, the denunciation, in the same way, is to be made by the Ordinary of the place in which the censure was incurred. But then, before denunciation, there ought to precede the citation of the guilty person, to be made by his own Superior, a term having been given to him for declaring his right; otherwise the denunciation will be null, unless perhaps, Bonacina excepts, the crime is so notorious that it is evidently established that no defense is available to the guilty person (VII, 55 and 65, note 3).

3. As soon as the guilty person offers satisfaction, he is to be absolved.