Article III: On Censures

S. Th., Suppl., q. 21-24.

681. A censure is the sentence of a censor deputed for correcting morals; but in canonical speech it is not so much the sentence itself as the penalty inflicted upon sinners. By usage now received it is now said exclusively of a medicinal penalty, in no way of a vindicative one. It can be defined: an ecclesiastical medicinal penalty by which a baptized man, delinquent and contumacious, is deprived of certain spiritual goods or goods annexed to spiritual goods, until, withdrawing from contumacy, he is absolved (can. 2241, § 1). It can be from the law or from man; of a sentence to be pronounced or of an incurred sentence; reserved or not reserved.

A censure 1) is an ecclesiastical penalty, therefore it deprives of goods concerning which the Church can dispose, such as the administration and reception of the sacraments, common suffrages and indulgences, the exercise of Orders, ecclesiastical burial, offices, benefices, and their revenues; but not of goods which immediately proceed from Christ, such as the sacramental character and the power of Order, grace, virtues, nor of goods which come from individual faithful, such as good works and private prayers; - 2) it is a medicinal penalty, namely ordered primarily to the amendment of the sinner, whence it cannot be brought for a merely past delict which does not have a successive fear or which has already been amended, nor for a determined time or in perpetuity, but when the amendment of the delinquent has been obtained, absolution from the censure must be given (can. 2248, § 2); - 3) it is a penalty which supposes contumacy, whence it cannot be brought unless a warning has preceded; otherwise contumacy is judged to be absent: but one warning is legal, which is made by the law itself for censures latae sententiae, another personal or canonical, which is made by man, and can be repeated with an interval or be one peremptory warning, according to the prudent judgment of the superior, for censures ferendae sententiae (can. 2242, § 2; 2233, § 2; 2309); but if the particular precept was already fortified by a censure ferendae sententiae, immediately after the delict has been proved this censure can be inflicted (com. int., July 14, 1922).

A. The power of bringing censures is implicitly included in the universal power of binding, which pertains to the keys according to Mt. 16:19; indeed for excommunication it is suggested in Mt. 18:17; and it is clear from the constant practice of the Church, from the Council of Constance, sess. 8, n. 30, against Wicleff, and sess. 15, n. 19, against Hus. By ordinary power, all who generally have ordinary power of jurisdiction in the external forum can bring censures, because it pertains to the external governance of the Church, namely, the Supreme Pontiff by himself or through the Roman Congregations and Tribunals; an ecumenical Council; a bishop and a vicar capitular, but not a vicar general; a particular Council; a vicar and prefect apostolic; an abbot and prelate nullius; a major superior of an exempt clerical religion according to the statutes, and a general chapter (can. 2220), but not pastors; - by delegated power, however, all clerics to whom it has been committed by those who have ordinary power.

B. The subject of a censure is a baptized man, a wayfarer, and a subject of him who brings the censure (can. 2226), possessed of reason and capable of malice (can. 2200-01), indeed pubescent (having 14 years, even probably if it is a female) according to the discipline now in force for penalties latae sententiae (can. 2230).

Hence the following are incapable of censures: the non-baptized, children and those deprived of the use of reason, the dead, and the Supreme Pontiff, as having no superior on earth and subject to no one.

It should be noted that bishops, outside the diocese, can bring censures upon subjects by way of a particular precept, but not by way of a judicial sentence; in the diocese even upon pilgrims sinning there, but generally only by a particular sentence, because they are not bound by territorial censures, and the pilgrim who sins is usually denounced to his own Superior so that he may be punished by him; - but that a metropolitan in suffragan dioceses can bring censures in the time of canonical visitation according to can. 274, 5. - On the contrary, a penalty cannot be inflicted or declared except by the Supreme Pontiff upon those who hold the supreme rule of peoples and their sons and daughters, and those to whom belongs the right of next succeeding in rule; and unless they are expressly named, Cardinals are not included under a penal law, nor bishops under penalties latae sententiae of suspension and interdict (can. 2227).

Someone can incur several censures, because he can be bound by several bonds and be deprived of the same goods under several titles; censures are multiplied, namely, by reason of diversity, or multiplication of acts or of penalties. Hence can. 2244: "1. Not only diverse censures, but even a censure of the same species can be multiplied in the same subject. - 2. A censure latae sententiae is multiplied: a) if diverse delicts, each of which carries a censure with it, are committed by the same or by distinct action; b) if the same delict, punished by a censure, is repeated several times so that there are several distinct delicts; c) if a delict, punished by diverse censures by distinct superiors, is committed once or several times. - 3. A censure from man is multiplied if several precepts, or several sentences, or several distinct parts of the same precept or sentence each inflict its own censure."

C. The object or matter of a censure is an external, grave delict, consummated in its own kind and not merely attempted, joined with contumacy or with at least virtual contempt of the censure; moreover a censure can be brought even against unknown delinquents (can. 2242, § 1).

From the censure itself the following excuse: nullity of the censure, whether because of defect of jurisdiction, or because of a substantial defect of juridical order, or because of defect of a just cause, namely, not proved or not true; - defect on the part of sin; - physical and moral inability to observe the law; - grave fear, unless the delict tends to contempt of the faith or of ecclesiastical authority or to public harm of souls; - ignorance, never however affected ignorance, nor crass ignorance unless the law requires presumption, perfect knowledge, or temerity (can. 2205 and 2229).

From the effects of censure before the sentence of the judge the following excuse: grave infamy (can. 2232, § 1), grave scandal, and grave harm extrinsic to the observance of the censure and proportioned to it.

D. Absolution from censures is necessary for removing them (can. 2248, § 1); hence the dead are absolved from them if they have died with signs of penance, so that suffrages and ecclesiastical burial may be granted to them.

Now, according to can. 2253, the following can absolve:

1. From a censure not reserved, in the sacramental forum any confessor; outside the sacramental forum, whoever has jurisdiction over the accused in the external forum.

2. From a censure from man, he to whom the censure is reserved according to the norm of can. 2245, § 2, namely, he who inflicted it, or pronounced the sentence, or his competent superior or successor or delegate; he himself can grant absolution even if the accused has transferred his domicile or quasi-domicile elsewhere.

It is from man if it is brought by way of a particular precept or by a condemnatory judicial sentence, even if established in law; wherefore a penalty ferendae sententiae, added to a law, before the condemnatory sentence is only from the law, afterward from the law and from man at the same time, but is considered as from man (can. 2217, § 1, 3).

3. From a censure reserved by law, he who established the censure or to whom it is reserved, and their successors or competent superiors or delegates.

When a confessor can absolve from reserved censures was declared in n. 597, C.

The conditions for absolving are: a) on the part of the one absolving, legitimate power and a free will immune from force and grave fear unjustly extorting it (can. 2238); b) on the part of the one to be absolved: that he be a subject, that he seek absolution at least regularly, and that he firmly promise that he wishes to execute the commands of the Church concerning satisfaction and amendment; c) on the part of the delict, that satisfaction be made as far as possible to the injured person, scandal be repaired, and salutary penance be imposed besides sacramental penance.

It should be noted: a) Absolution can be given in the internal forum and in the external forum. Given in the external forum, it also has force in the internal forum; hence if someone has been absolved from a reserved censure, the sin is no longer reserved. Absolution in the internal forum of itself does not have force in the external forum; but, scandal having been removed, the one absolved can behave as such even in acts of the external forum; but, unless the granting of absolution is proved or legitimately presumed in the external forum, the censure can be urged by superiors of the external forum, whom the accused must obey, until absolution has been had in the same forum (can. 2251).

b) It is possible to be absolved from one censure and not from another (can. 2249, § 1).

c) Sometimes someone is absolved only from some effect of the censure: then the censure remains but the effect is taken away.

d) Absolution from censure can also be given to one absent, or even in writing (can. 2239).

e) Absolution in the sacramental forum is contained in the customary formula of absolution from sins; in the non-sacramental forum it can be given in any way, but for absolution from excommunication it is regularly fitting to use the form handed down in the Ritual (can. 2250, § 3).

E. There are three species of censure: excommunication, suspension, and interdict. For in a well-constituted republic there is the power of excluding from its social body certain persons harmful to it, of suspending others who administer badly from their office, and of forbidding to others certain acts and functions; therefore also in the Church, which was constituted by Christ as a perfect society.

According to can. 2255: a) "excommunication can affect only physical persons, and therefore, if at any time it is brought upon a moral body, it is understood to affect the individuals who have concurred in the delict; interdict and suspension can affect also a community, as a moral person;

b) excommunication and interdict can affect even laymen; suspension, clerics only; interdict, even a place;

c) excommunication is always a censure; interdict and suspension can be either censures or vindicative penalties, but in doubt they are presumed to be censures."

Excommunication is graver, because it deprives of greater and more numerous goods.

682. Excommunication (Kerkban) is a censure by which someone is excluded from the ecclesiastical communion of the faithful with the effects which are enumerated in law and which cannot be separated from it (can. 2257, § 1); when solemnly inflicted it is called by the special name anathema (banvloek). Formerly, says Prummer, Th. M. III, n. 499, a distinction was made between major or perfect excommunication, and minor excommunication, which deprived only of the reception of the sacraments and of passive election to benefices; but the latter no longer exists, at least as a censure inflicted by the law itself. Major excommunication either leaves the delinquent tolerated, or renders him to be avoided; but the tolerated person either is simply such, or has been condemned by a declaratory or condemnatory sentence. According to the discipline now in force, no one is to be avoided, unless a) he has been excommunicated by name by the Apostolic See, the excommunication has been publicly denounced, and in the decree or sentence it is said that he must be avoided (can. 2258); or b) unless he has laid violent hands upon the person of the Supreme Pontiff, in which case he is by the fact itself to be avoided (can. 2343, § 1, n. 1).

A. The effect of excommunication is to deprive:

1. of the right of assisting at divine offices, with preaching excepted, and indeed in such a way that one to be avoided must be expelled, or, if he cannot be expelled, the office must cease, provided this can be done without grave inconvenience; but from active assistance, which carries with it some participation in the celebration of divine offices, not only one to be avoided, but also anyone after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or one otherwise notoriously excommunicated, is to be repelled (can. 2259);

2. of the licit reception of the sacraments, and, after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, also of sacramentals (can. 2260, § 1);

3. of the licit confecting and administration of the sacraments and sacramentals, unless one simply tolerated has been asked by the faithful; but from excommunicates to be avoided, and also from others after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has intervened, the faithful can ask, in danger of death alone, both sacramental absolution and also, if other ministers are lacking, the other sacraments and sacramentals (can. 2261);

4. of common suffrages, indulgences, and the public prayers of the Church; - yet not of the private prayers of the faithful, whence priests can privately and with scandal removed apply Mass for an excommunicated person, but, if he is to be avoided, only for his conversion (can. 2262);

5. of ecclesiastical burial after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence (can. 1240, § 1);

6. of exercising legitimate ecclesiastical acts, for example, the office of sponsor, and of discharging ecclesiastical offices and enjoying privileges previously granted (can. 2263);

7. of exercising acts of jurisdiction both of the external and of the internal forum, and indeed in such a way that, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has been given, they are also invalid, excepting the case of danger of death mentioned under 3; otherwise they are valid, indeed licit if they are sought by the faithful (can. 2264);

8. of promotion to orders; - indeed of the right of electing, presenting, nominating, and obtaining a dignity, office, benefice, ecclesiastical pension, or any other function in the Church, in such a way that the act placed is null if it is placed by an excommunicate to be avoided, or by another after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence. In this case he also will not ordinarily be able validly to obtain any pontifical grace, and he remains deprived of the fruits of the dignity, office, benefice, pension, or function which he has in the Church; but one to be avoided is deprived of the dignity, office, benefice, pension, or function itself (can. 2265-66).

It should be noted: a) The faithful must avoid communion in profane matters with an excommunicate to be avoided, unless there is question of spouse, parents, children, servants, subjects, and generally unless a reasonable cause is present (can. 2267).

b) An excommunicated person is irregular from delict if he culpably places an act of order reserved to clerics constituted in sacred order (can. 985, 7).

c) If with hardened mind he has remained for a year in excommunication, he is suspected of heresy (can. 2340, § 1).

B. The following incur excommunication latae sententiae by the common law:

a) Most specially reserved to the Holy See:

1. Those who throw away the consecrated species or carry them away or retain them for an evil purpose (can. 2320).

To throw away means to cast away or destroy as a contemptible thing or as of no value; not, however, to place them carefully upon the table lest they be lost, or to put them away in the tabernacle, nor merely to profane them once they have already been carried away or retained. One guilty of this crime, moreover, is a) suspected of heresy, b) infamous by the law itself, c) to be deposed, if he is a cleric.

2. Those who lay violent hands upon the person of the Supreme Pontiff (can. 2343, § 1).

That violence is to be understood as a grave real injury (not verbal) by which the body or liberty or dignity of the person is harmed. One guilty of this crime, moreover, is a) by the fact itself to be avoided, b) infamous by the law itself, c) to be degraded, if he is a cleric.

3. One guilty of absolution of an accomplice in a base sin (can. 2367), in the manner stated above, n. 636.

4. A confessor who has presumed directly to violate the sacramental seal (can. 2369), concerning which it was stated in n. 626 and 630, n. 1.

The aforesaid four canons also have force for the Oriental Church.

5. Those who violate the secret of the Holy Office concerning information required about candidates for the episcopate (S. C. C., Apr. 24, 1917; cf. can. 239, § 1, 1).

6. Those having part in a conclave who directly or indirectly violate the secret in those things which regard the election of the Supreme Pontiff and which are done in the conclave or in the place of election (can. 2330, and Pius X, const. Vacante, Dec. 25, 1904).

Most special reservation to be absolved exclusively by the Sacred Penitentiary has very recently been incurred by: priests attempting merely civil marriage and living chastely with a woman, in order to receive the sacraments after the manner of laymen (S. Poen., Apr. 18-28, 1936).

b) Specially reserved to the Holy See:

1. Apostates, heretics, schismatics (can. 2314), outwardly manifesting their mind.

Concerning this matter we spoke in I, n. 747, 750, and 956.

2. Those suspected of heresy if, after being warned, they do not amend themselves after six months; namely, they are to be held as heretics, liable to the penalties of heretics (can. 2315).

Concerning this see I, n. 747, note 1.

3. Those who, by a work made public, publish books of apostates, heretics, or schismatics which defend apostasy, heresy, or schism; or who defend those same books or books prohibited by name by apostolic letters, or knowingly read or retain them without due license (can. 2318, § 1).

Concerning this matter we spoke in I, n. 776.

4. One not promoted to the priesthood who simulates the celebration of Mass or hears sacramental confession (can. 2322). Cf. n. 90, 1.

5. All who appeal from the laws, decrees, or mandates of the Roman Pontiff existing at the time to a universal Council (can. 2332).

6. Those who impede letters or acts of the Holy See or of its legates, directly or indirectly prohibit their promulgation or execution, or on account of them harm or terrify either those to whom the letters or acts pertain or others (can. 2333).

7. Those who publish laws, mandates, or decrees against the liberty or rights of the Church; or those who, by recourse to the lay power, impede the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction (can. 2334).

Those who publish are all who must concur so that the law or decree may be issued; not however notaries who transcribe mandates, nor heralds who promulgate them, nor those who see that statutes of this sort are observed, or apply them, or use them.

8. Those who dare to bring before a lay judge a Cardinal, a Legate of the Holy See, a major official of the Roman Curia, or one's own Ordinary (can. 2341).

9. Those who lay violent hands upon a cardinal, a legate of the Supreme Pontiff, or any bishop (can. 2343, § 2 and 3).

10. Those who usurp or detain by themselves or through others goods or rights of the Roman Church (can. 2345).

Those are said to usurp who authoritatively seize and occupy goods as their own, as governors who secularize the goods or rights of the Church, not those who steal them. Those detaining these goods are those buying or leasing them, or receiving them, not civil officials who merely administer them, because they do not detain them for themselves.

11. Forgers of letters of the Holy See and those knowingly using forged ones (can. 2360).

12. One who falsely, by himself or through others, denounces a confessor to superiors for solicitation (can. 2363), concerning which it was stated above, n. 643, C.

c) Simply reserved to the Holy See:

1. Those making gain from indulgences (can. 2327).

They make gain who seek a price from the concession or publication of indulgences, even if the profit is in favor of a pious cause. All, even bishops, are now subject to this penalty.

2. Those giving their name to a Masonic sect or another association of the same kind (can. 2335).

Concerning this matter we spoke in I, n. 750.

3. Those presuming to absolve without due faculty from excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Holy See in the most special or special manner (can. 2338, § 1), concerning which it was stated above, n. 599, 5.

4. Those furnishing help or favor in a delict to an excommunicate to be avoided, and clerics knowingly and spontaneously communicating in divine things with the same and receiving him in divine offices (can. 2338, § 2), namely, authoritatively.

5. Those daring to bring before a lay judge a bishop who is not one's own, a prelate nullius, or a supreme religious superior (can. 2341).

6. Those violating the enclosure either of regulars or of nuns, and nuns illegitimately going out from the enclosure (can. 2342).

7. Those presuming to usurp, by themselves or through others, and to convert to their own uses ecclesiastical goods, whether movable or immovable, whether corporeal or incorporeal, or to impede their fruits or revenues from being perceived by those to whom they belong by right (can. 2346).

8. Duelists and their accomplices (can. 2351).

Concerning this see II, n. 366.

9. Clerics in sacred orders and religious bound by a solemn vow of chastity who presume to contract marriage, even only civilly, and their partner (can. 2388); but not mere concubinage.

Clerics, if after being warned they have not returned to sound mind, are to be degraded.

For the absolution of clerics in the external forum, recourse must be had to the Holy Office; for the absolution of priests only attempting civil marriage and living chastely with a woman, and for their admission to the sacraments merely as laymen, recourse must be had to the Sacred Penitentiary from the decree of Apr. 18, 1936 - concerning which above under a), and n. 597, C, 1, b).

10. Simoniacs in ecclesiastical offices, benefices, and dignities (can. 2392).

Concerning this matter we spoke in II, n. 809, B, and 815, B.

11. A vicar capitular or others who subtract, destroy, conceal, or substantially alter a document from the episcopal curia (can. 2405).

d) Reserved to the Ordinary:

1. Those entering marriage before a non-Catholic minister, or contracting it with an explicit or implicit pact that all or some offspring be educated outside the Catholic Church, or knowingly offering children to be baptized by a non-Catholic minister, or knowingly handing them over to be educated or instructed in a non-Catholic religion (can. 2319).

Concerning this matter we spoke in I, n. 756 and 762.

2. Those who make, or knowingly sell, distribute, or expose, false relics (can. 2326).

3. Those laying violent hands upon simple clerics or religious (can. 2343, § 4).

4. Those procuring abortion, the effect having followed, not excepting the mother (can. 2350). But if they are clerics, they are to be deposed.

Abortion is not every killing of a fetus, such as embryotomy, nor premature birth of a viable fetus which can live outside the mother, but the ejection, deliberately and studiously done, of a non-viable fetus, whence its death is by nature apt to follow. Concerning this see II, n. 363.

5. A religious apostate from religion: if the religion is clerical exempt, the excommunication is reserved to his own major superior; if lay or not exempt, to the Ordinary of the place in which he is staying (can. 2385).

6. Professed religious of perpetual simple vows who presume to contract marriage, even civilly, and their partner (can. 2388, § 2).

e) Reserved to no one:

1. Authors and editors who, without due license, take care that books of the Holy Scriptures or their annotations or commentaries be printed (can. 2318, § 2), concerning which it was stated in I, n. 776.

2. Those daring to command (by authority) or to compel (by force or fear) infidels, apostates, non-Catholics, or others, whether excommunicated or interdicted with a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, to be given ecclesiastical burial (can. 2339).

Some understand the canon of the transfer of the corpse to the church, the obsequies celebrated over it, and its placement in a place legitimately deputed for the faithful; others understand it of burial alone in a sacred place: if this alone is given, according to the former the excommunication is not incurred; but that interpretation is not conformable to the old law.

3. Those presuming to alienate ecclesiastical goods, or giving consent in alienating them, knowingly omitting apostolic approval, if they are precious or exceed the value of 30,000 fr. (can. 2347, 3), according to an estimate made by upright men, not however according to the price obtained by public auction (c. int., July 20, 1929).

Many understand this sum of the value in gold because of uncertainty of value; but this reason does not seem to hold in regions where money has now been stabilized.

4. All who compel (by physical or moral force, for example, by fear, threats, command, etc.) someone to embrace the clerical or religious state (can. 2352).

For the censure to be incurred, according to the canon, there is required either entrance into the clerical state by reception of tonsure, or entrance into the novitiate, or the emission of religious profession, whether solemn or simple, not only temporary but also perpetual.

5. One knowingly omitting to denounce a confessor by whom he has been solicited (can. 2368), concerning which it was stated in n. 643, B.

Even from censures reserved to no one, no one can be absolved unless he has satisfied the obligation or has seriously promised that he will fulfill it.

683. Suspension (schorsing) is a censure by which a cleric is deprived of the exercise or use of some power or function which belongs to him by reason of order, office, or benefice; or "by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice or both" (can. 2278).

It can also be not a censure, but a vindicative penalty, or even a certain penance or mere prohibition of exercising an office; it is not a censure if it is brought in perpetuity, or for a predefined time, or at the good pleasure of the superior (can. 2298, 2), but in doubt whether it is a censure or another penalty, it is presumed to be a censure (can. 2255, § 2). For an occult delict it can also be brought from informed conscience, but this is not lawful for the Ordinary if he can proceed according to the norm of law against the subject without grave inconvenience (can. 2186); in a case in which it is brought from informed conscience, generally it is a vindicative penalty, although it can also be a censure (cf. can. 2188).

One suspension is general or special according as it deprives of every use both of Order, of office, and of benefice, or only of the use of one of these; the latter again is total or partial according as it deprives of every use of order, office, or benefice, or only of partial use, such as suspension from divine things, from confessions, from pontifical order, or from pontificals (cf. can. 2279).

A. Effects. One suspended is not prohibited from receiving the sacraments, provided he sincerely grieves for sins; but

1. he sins gravely who, without a grave excusing cause, exercises an act prohibited to him; this sin, however, admits lightness of matter, for example, in the mere exercise of a minor order;

2. one suspended from order and culpably violating the suspension by the exercise of sacred order becomes irregular (can. 985, 7);

3. one suspended who is merely tolerated validly exercises jurisdiction, yet illicitly unless he has been asked; after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, also invalidly (can. 2284);

4. one suspended from office simply and absolutely is also deprived of the use of order, as of jurisdiction: namely, suspension from office includes suspension from order (can. 2279, § 1);

5. anyone suspended is prohibited from the right of electing, presenting, nominating; he cannot obtain dignities, offices, benefices, ecclesiastical pensions, or any other function in the Church, nor can he be promoted to orders (can. 2283), in the same way as was stated concerning excommunicates (can. 2265);

6. one suspended from a benefice who usurps the benefice's fruits is bound to restitution even before the sentence of the judge, and can also be coerced to it by canonical penalties; nevertheless he can live in the buildings of the benefice, and, unless something else is expressly said, administer its goods (can. 2280).

It should be noted from can. 2285: if a community or college of clerics has committed a delict, suspension can be brought either upon the individual delinquent persons, or upon the community as such, or upon the delinquent persons and the community. If the first, what was said above has force; if the second, the community is prohibited from the exercise of the spiritual rights which belong to it, as a community; if the third, the effects are accumulated.

B. The suspensions latae sententiae in force today are:

a) Censures reserved to the Holy See:

1. Clerics simoniacally giving or receiving ordination and the other sacraments incur suspension (can. 2371).

2. Those who presume to receive orders from one excommunicated or suspended or interdicted after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic, or schismatic, contract suspension from divine things (can. 2372); likewise priests who without due license and dimissorial letters have rashly and arrogantly migrated from Europe or the shores of the Mediterranean to America or to the Philippine Islands (S. C. Consist., Dec. 30, 1918).

3. A religious cleric in sacred orders, dismissed for delicts according to the norm of law, by the fact itself is subject to suspension until he has obtained absolution from the Holy See (can. 670-671).

b) Reserved to the Ordinary of the place:

A cleric who has dared to bring before a lay judge, without obtaining the permission of the Ordinary, another ecclesiastical person who is not constituted in a higher dignity incurs suspension from office (can. 2341).

c) Reserved to the major religious superior:

A fugitive religious incurs suspension if he is in sacred orders (can. 2386);

that man is a fugitive who departs from the religious house with the intention of living for a time outside religious obedience, but afterward returning.

d) Not reserved:

1. A priest who has presumed to hear sacramental confessions without necessary jurisdiction is by the fact itself suspended from divine things; but one who has presumed to absolve from reserved sins is by the fact itself suspended from hearing confessions (can. 2366).

2. One who without letters or with false dimissorial letters, or before canonical age, or by a leap has maliciously approached orders, is by the fact itself suspended from the order received (can. 2374).

3. A cleric who has presumed to resign an ecclesiastical office, benefice, or dignity into the hands of laymen, by the fact itself incurs suspension from divine things (can. 2400).

4. A vicar capitular illegitimately granting dimissorial letters for ordination, by the fact itself is subject to suspension from divine things (can. 2409).

5. An abbot or prelate nullius who, a legitimate impediment ceasing, has not received benediction within three months from receiving apostolic letters, is by the fact itself suspended from jurisdiction (can. 2402).

e) As vindicative penalties:

1. By the law itself, a bishop consecrating a bishop without apostolic mandate, his assistants, and the one receiving consecration are suspended until the Apostolic See has dispensed them (can. 2370).

2. Religious constituted in major orders whose profession has been declared null because of fraud admitted by them are suspended, until it shall seem otherwise to the Apostolic See (can. 2387).

3. Those who confer orders without the required testimonial letters, or without a canonical title, or without the necessary licenses in the ordination of religious, by the fact itself incur suspension for a year from the conferral of orders (can. 2373).

4. Religious superiors who have presumed illegitimately to send their subjects to another bishop to be ordained, by the fact itself are suspended for a month from the celebration of Mass (can. 2410).

5. Chapters of a convent and others admitting those elected, presented, or nominated to a benefice, office, or ecclesiastical dignity before the exhibition of the letters remain by the fact itself suspended from the right of electing, nominating, or presenting, at the good pleasure of the Apostolic See (can. 2394, 3).

C. Cessation of suspension. 1. Suspension brought as a censure is removed only by legitimate absolution.

2. Suspension which is a vindicative penalty is taken away by dispensation of the legitimate superior, or by lapse of time if it has been inflicted for a time; but if it was from informed conscience, it also ceases by the death of the prelate who brought it, unless it was imposed by a legitimate document or before two witnesses (can. 24).

684. Interdict (ontzegging) is a censure by which the faithful, remaining in communion with the Church, are prohibited from the use of certain sacred things which are enumerated in law (can. 2268, § 1). One is direct or personal, by which the use of those goods is immediately interdicted to the persons themselves everywhere; another is indirect or local, by which in certain places the dispensation or reception of those same goods is forbidden (ibid., § 2), so that it immediately affects the place, mediately the persons dwelling there, even outsiders and exempt persons. It is general, if it affects an entire territory or a whole people or a whole city; or particular, if it affects a determined part of some place or people, for example, a convent, church, or altar. Likewise it is total, which causes all the proper effects of interdict; or partial, which prohibits only certain sacred things.

It should be noted a) that a general interdict upon an entire territory or upon the whole people of a republic or diocese can be brought only by the Holy See or by its mandate; other interdicts also by a bishop (can. 2269, § 1);

b) that an interdict can also be inflicted as a vindicative penalty (can. 2255, § 2).

A. Effects. 1. An interdict affects personally those who gave cause for it (2338, § 4); but the others who are living in an interdicted place must indeed observe it, but they can receive the sacraments without absolution from the interdict, and outside this place they are wholly free (can. 2269, § 2 and 2276).

2. A general local interdict in the interdicted place generally prohibits divine offices and sacred rites, and every solemnity, chant, pomp in sacred furnishings, the sound of bells, organs, or other musical instruments (can. 2270, § 1 and 2271). However:

a) On the five feasts, of the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the local interdict is suspended, and only the conferral of orders and the solemn nuptial blessing are prohibited (can. 2270, § 2).

b) Clerics not personally interdicted can perform all offices and sacred rites in any church or oratory privately, that is, with doors closed, in a subdued voice, and with bells not rung (can. 2271, 1).

c) In a cathedral church, parochial churches, or in a church which is the only one in a town, the celebration of one Mass, reservation of the Most Holy Sacrament, administration of Baptism, Eucharist, and Penance, assistance at marriages excluding the nuptial blessing, obsequies of the dead without any solemnity, blessing of baptismal water and of the sacred oils, and preaching of the word of God are permitted. Likewise holy Viaticum can be carried to the sick, but privately (can. 2271, 2).

3. In a particular local interdict: a) if an altar or chapel of some church has been interdicted, no sacred office or sacred rite can be celebrated in them; - b) if a cemetery has been interdicted, the corpses of the faithful can indeed be buried there, but without any ecclesiastical rite; - c) if it has been brought upon a church (or oratory) which is capitular, and the chapter has not been interdicted, clerics there are permitted what was said under 2, b; unless the decree of interdict orders the conventual Mass to be celebrated and the canonical hours to be recited in another church or oratory; - d) if it has been brought upon a church (or oratory) which is parochial, the things said under 2, c have force; unless the decree of interdict substitutes another church for it for the time of the interdict (can. 2272).

It should be noted from can. 2273: when a city has been interdicted, accessory places, even exempt ones, and the cathedral church itself remain interdicted; when a church has been interdicted, contiguous chapels are interdicted, but not the cemetery; when a chapel has been interdicted, the whole church is not interdicted, nor, when a cemetery has been interdicted, is the church contiguous to it interdicted, but all oratories erected in the cemetery are interdicted.

4. A personal interdict prohibits those interdicted: a) from celebrating divine offices, or assisting at them, preaching excepted; in such a way, however, that those assisting passively are not to be expelled, but from active assistance, which carries with it some participation in the celebration of divine offices, they are to be repelled after a sentence or if otherwise notoriously interdicted; - b) from ministering, confecting, and receiving sacraments and sacramentals, as was stated concerning excommunicates; - c) from ecclesiastical burial, if a sentence has intervened; - d) from the right of electing, presenting, nominating, from obtaining a function in the Church and from promotion to orders, as was stated concerning excommunicates (can. 2275).

5. An interdict upon a community or college can be brought either upon the individual delinquent persons, or upon the community as such, or upon the delinquent persons and upon the community. If the first, what was said under 4 is to be observed; if the second, the community or college cannot exercise any spiritual right which belongs to it; if the third, the effects are accumulated (can. 2274).

Those, however, who gave cause for the interdict are by the fact itself personally interdicted (can. 2338, § 4).

6. An interdict from entry into a church carries with it the prohibition lest one celebrate divine offices in the church or assist at them or have ecclesiastical burial; but if he assists, it is not necessary that he be expelled, nor, if he is buried, is it necessary that the corpse be removed (can. 2277). He can also pray privately in the church.

7. Those who violate an interdict sin gravely; clerics, however, illicitly exercising sacred order become irregular, can. 985, 7.

B. The interdicts latae sententiae in force today by the common law are four, of which the first is reserved in a special manner to the Holy See, the second to the Ordinary, the third to the judge who pronounced the sentence, the fourth to no one.

1. Universities, colleges, chapters, or other moral persons, by whatever name they are called, appealing from the laws, decrees, or mandates of the Roman Pontiff existing at the time to a universal Council, incur an interdict reserved in a special manner to the Apostolic See (can. 2332).

2. Those spontaneously giving ecclesiastical burial to infidels, apostates from the faith, heretics, schismatics, or others excommunicated or interdicted, contract an interdict from entry into a church reserved to the Ordinary (can. 2339).

3. Those knowingly celebrating or causing divine things to be celebrated in interdicted places, or admitting to celebrating divine offices forbidden by censure clerics excommunicated, interdicted, or suspended after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, by the law itself contract an interdict from entry into a church until, at the judgment of him whose sentence they contemned, they shall have made suitable satisfaction (can. 2338, § 3).

4. Those who gave cause for a local interdict or an interdict upon a community are by the fact itself personally interdicted (can. 2338, § 4).

C. Cessation of interdict. An interdict brought unto vindication ceases at the judgment of the prelate bringing it, that is, either by dispensation, or by the lapse of a determined time. An interdict brought by way of censure does not cease except by absolution of one having power.

Aertnijs-Damen, Th. M. II, n. 1038, observes that in the faculty granted to a confessor of absolving from censures in the sacramental forum there is not comprehended the faculty of absolving from a local interdict, whether general or particular, or from a general personal interdict: for neither a place nor a community is subject to this forum; - on the contrary, a particular personal interdict is.