Article IV: On the Restriction of Jurisdiction with Respect to Reserved Sins

S. Th., Suppl., q. 20, a. 2.

592. Reservation of cases is the calling of a case to the judgment of the ordinary superior, by which at the same time the power of inferiors is limited (can. 893), or the recalling of a case to the proper tribunal of the one reserving, so that no one can impart absolution except the one reserving himself, his successor or superior in office, or his delegate. From this it follows that not every limitation of power in a confessor is a reservation, nor is every sin whose absolution is taken away from a confessor reserved; but for this it is required that it be called to the judgment of the superior, and therefore that the power for absolving it be restricted generally among inferior confessors. Hence those who by ordinary law can grant jurisdiction for hearing confessions, or impose censures, can also reserve cases, unless it is otherwise established in law; e.g., the Supreme Pontiff for the whole Church, bishops for their dioceses, the superior general of an exempt religion or the abbot of a monastery of its own right with respect to their subjects (Council of Trent, sess. 14, c. 7 and can. 11).

Thus canon 893 establishes: "§ 1. Those who by ordinary law can grant the power of hearing confessions or impose censures can also, except for the capitular vicar and the vicar general without a special mandate, call some cases to their own judgment, limiting for inferiors the power of absolving.

"§ 2. This calling is called reservation of cases.

"§ 3. As regards the reservation of censures, let the prescription of can. 2246 and 2247 be observed."

593. Reservation is twofold: one of sins, another of censures. - Reservation is customarily made in a twofold way: one is made by reason of a censure, insofar as "the reservation of a censure impeding the reception of the sacraments brings with it the reservation of the sin to which the censure is attached" (can. 2246, § 3), and then if the censure is not incurred or is not reserved or is taken away, neither is the sin reserved: this is reservation of censures; - another is made by reason of itself, or of the sin: this is the reservation of cases or of sins properly so called.

The end of reservation is twofold: the one primary, disciplinary, namely the public good, for the good discipline of the Church demands that graver sins be reserved to those who, by doctrine, prudence, and experience, are better able to judge in what way the evil is to be met; the other secondary, medicinal, namely the private good of the faithful, that thus they may be more deterred from those sins and be amended more securely. Therefore the end of reservation is in no way penal; whereas, on the contrary, the end of the censure itself is essentially penal. Hence:

a) The reservation of sins, which according to its essence is the calling of a sin to the judgment of the superior so that it may be subjected to him, consequently imports a twofold effect: first, immediately and directly it affects the confessor, whose power with respect to this sin is limited so that he does not absolve from it validly; secondly, mediately and indirectly it touches the penitent, who, in order to obtain absolution, must approach the tribunal of the superior. - On the contrary, a censure immediately affects the penitent, and, if it is reserved, consequently the confessor, who, while the reservation stands, is deprived of the power of absolving from it.

b) Ignorance of the reservation does not excuse from it,1 - which is now altogether certain in the new law, because reservation is not primarily a penalty of the delinquent, but a calling to the judgment of the superior and a restriction of jurisdiction in the confessor; but the ignorance of the delinquent does not give the confessor a power which he does not have, nor does it impede the primary end of reservation. - On the contrary, ignorance of a censure excuses from it, and consequently also from the reservation attached to it; yet never affected ignorance, nor even crass ignorance if the delict does not require full knowledge or presumption (can. 2229).

594. On cases reserved to the Supreme Pontiff. - In law:2

A. "The one sin reserved by reason of itself to the Holy See is false denunciation (by oneself or through others induced), by which an innocent priest is accused of the crime of solicitation before ecclesiastical judges" (can. 894).

B. Many censures are reserved to the Apostolic See, of which "some are reserved simply, some in a special manner, some in a most special manner" (can. 2245, § 2 and 3).

Among censures specially reserved there also occurs false denunciation of solicitation before superiors (can. 2363). Therefore the same sin, under diverse conditions, is reserved by reason of itself and by reason of a censure, as will be declared in n. 643, C.

595. On cases reserved to the Ordinary. - Ordinaries have the power of reserving sins in their territory or for their subjects, and of imposing reserved censures; concerning the exercise of this power certain rules are handed down in law:

A. As regards reserved sins:

1. "Let the Ordinaries of places not reserve sins unless, after the matter has been discussed in the diocesan synod, or outside a synod after the cathedral chapter and some of the more prudent and approved curators of souls of their diocese have been heard, the true necessity or utility of the reservation has been established" (can. 895).

2. "Among the superiors of an exempt clerical religion, only the superior general, and in monasteries of their own right the abbot, each with his proper council, can reserve the sins of subjects, as above, with the prescription of can. 518, § 1 and 519 remaining firm" (can. 896).

Only the hearing of the synod, chapter, or also, at least probably, the council is prescribed, and indeed for validity according to can. 105, 1. But if, notwithstanding the vote of the group heard, the reservation is nevertheless made, it still seems valid.

3. "The cases to be reserved are to be very few, namely three, or at most four, from the graver and more atrocious external crimes, specifically determined; but let the reservation itself not remain in force longer than is necessary for extirpating some public unusual vice or restoring Christian discipline which perhaps has collapsed" (can. 897).

B. As regards reserved censures:

"Let a censure not be reserved unless, after attention has been given to the peculiar gravity of the delicts and the necessity of providing more aptly for ecclesiastical discipline and of healing the consciences of the faithful" (can. 2246, § 1). This is in force concerning reserved censures to be imposed by particular law. But besides:

"A censure ab homine is reserved to him who inflicted the censure or pronounced the sentence, or to his competent superior, or successor or delegate; but of censures reserved a iure some are reserved to the Ordinary..." (can. 2245, § 2).

596. Qualities of sins to be reserved. - Five qualities or conditions are customarily numbered as required in order that a sin be reserved. It must be:

1. Grave or mortal, both by reason of the object and by reason of the subject, i.e., committed with perfect deliberation and full consent; for venial sins would be reserved in vain, since there is no obligation of confessing them.

2. External, although occult: not because internal sins cannot be reserved, but because the Church is not accustomed to do this (lest she subject penitents to continual anxieties); indeed for reserved censures she positively excludes this (can. 2242, § 1), so that the external act itself must of itself be grave, nor is it sufficient that an action light in itself was a grave sin because of an internal intention, as, for example, a light striking of a cleric from the intention of gravely striking. Hence the sin must be mortal internally and externally at the same time.

3. Specifically determined, and not only generically; thus, for example, the whole genus of lust cannot be reserved, nor any concubinage whatever (since it contains several species), but the case must be circumscribed by those notes or circumstances which are the cause of the reservation, e.g., sodomy, adulterous concubinage, if it is to be reserved because of that circumstance.

4. Complete in its species, or consummated by act and not merely attempted, so that the words of the reservation are verified in the stricter sense; e.g., if incest or sodomy is reserved, there must be present perfect carnal copula (with emission of seed within the vessel), knowingly admitted with a consanguineous or affine person, or with a male; if homicide is reserved, death must have followed.

5. Certain with a certitude excluding doubt of law and of fact, both by reason of the sin and by reason of the reservation, namely certainly reserved, certainly committed, and certainly mortal. Hence if there is serious doubt whether the reserving law extends itself to this case, or whether the sin was really committed, or whether it is grave subjectively or objectively, the reservation is not incurred; for odious things are to be restricted, whence reservation always receives a strict interpretation and in doubt, whether of law or of fact, does not bind (can. 19; 2246, § 2 and 2245, § 4).

To these must be added, if it is a question of a censure to be incurred, that the sin be committed with contumacy. In ferendae sententiae censures, he is called contumacious who, after warnings, does not desist or refuses penance; in latae sententiae censures, he who without a legitimately excusing cause has transgressed the law to which a censure is attached (can. 2242, § 2).

But in order that reservation be made conformably to the desires of the Law:

a) Let the sin not be reserved to the Supreme Pontiff; indeed also, at least regularly, let it be attached to no censure, for according to can. 898: "Let all altogether abstain from reserving to themselves those sins which are already reserved to the Apostolic See even by reason of a censure, and, regularly, from those also to which a censure has been imposed by law, although reserved to no one."

b) Let the reservation be necessary or useful for extirpating a public vice or restoring Christian discipline (can. 897). But since, says Vermeersch, Th. M. III, n. 430, it cannot be hoped in every region that a vice can be altogether extirpated by reservation, if it impedes the propagation of the vice, we judge that this is already enough for the reservation to have the utility which is postulated by the desires of the Holy See.

c) Let the censure not be reserved to the Apostolic See: for then "the Ordinary cannot impose another censure reserved to himself for the same delict" (can. 2247, § 1), not even, as it seems, validly.

1. Unless by accident, if the sin is reserved under the condition: if the reservation is known; i.e., if the one reserving excepts those who are ignorant.

2. From a special disposition of the Supreme Pontiff, by decree of the Sacred Penitentiary, there was also reserved the absolution of those who obstinately adhere to the so-called French Action (action française) (Nov. 16, 1928) and of those reading the newspaper of this name (March 2, 1929). But after the directors of the said action submitted themselves to the letters of Nov. 20, 1938 and June 19, 1939, the Holy Office on July 10, 1939 declared that it was no longer prohibited for the future, while the writings hitherto prohibited nevertheless remain under the Index.

597. Cessation of reservation. - A. Reservation of sins and censures. Any reservation ceases in danger of death, in which every priest can absolve from all censures and sins according to what was said in n. 585.

B. Reservation of sins. According to can. 900: "Any reservation lacks all force:1

"1) When confession is made either by the sick who cannot leave the house, or by spouses for the purpose of entering marriage."

This also benefits sick religious or others who are in a house where confessors dwell, but not those who cannot go out but are not truly sick, as those imprisoned or women in childbirth; and spouses even if they have not contracted betrothal.

"2) As often as either the legitimate superior has denied the faculty of absolving requested for some determinate case, or, in the prudent judgment of the confessor, the faculty of absolving cannot be requested from the legitimate superior without grave inconvenience of the penitent or without danger of violating the sacramental seal."

In the first case, the reason is that, the case having been known by the superior, the disciplinary end can be obtained. In the other, the inconvenience is understood as extrinsic to the reservation, such as: grave difficulty of returning to the confessor together with grave difficulty of approaching another endowed with the faculty of absolving; danger of grave scandal, e.g., the necessity of celebrating; danger of grave infamy, e.g., difficulty of abstaining from communion without some notice or suspicion; and, for the seal, danger that the superior come into suspicion of the person for whom the faculty is requested.

"3) Outside the territory of the one reserving, even if the penitent has departed from it only in order to obtain absolution," namely, as if in fraud of the law.

Therefore there are five cases: a sick person unable to go out, - a spouse about to enter marriage, - a faculty denied in a determinate case, - grave inconvenience of the penitent, - departure from the territory of the one reserving.

C. Reservation of censures: 1) "In more urgent cases, namely, if latae sententiae censures cannot be observed outwardly without danger of grave scandal or infamy, or if it is hard for the penitent to remain in a state of grave sin for the time necessary for the competent superior to provide, then any confessor in the sacramental forum can absolve from them, in whatever way reserved, with the burden of recurring imposed, under penalty of reincidence, within a month (i.e., 30 days)... to the superior,... and of standing by his mandates" (can. 2254, § 1).

Where it should be noted: a) The faculty is granted for censures a iure (universal or particular) latae sententiae, not for censures ab homine.

b) Nevertheless there is excepted the absolution of priests from excommunication on account of attempted merely civil marriage, and actually living chastely with a woman, and their admission to participation in the sacraments after the manner of laymen: these, namely, outside danger of death, are reserved exclusively to the Sacred Penitentiary by a recent decree (S. Penitentiary, April 18-28, 1936 and May 4, 1937).

c) The more urgent cases are determined by law: 1. if the censure cannot be observed without danger of grave scandal, as if, because of the excommunication of a parish priest or magistrate, anger or disturbance would arise among the people; - 2. likewise if it cannot be observed without danger of infamy, as if all things are already prepared for nuptials, or a parish priest or vicar cannot omit celebration, or a layman cannot omit paschal communion, without infamy; - 3. if it is hard for the penitent to remain in a state of grave sin for the time necessary for the competent superior to provide, i.e., for two or three days, indeed sometimes for one day. Yet this is not always hard, nor for everyone.

d) The cases are indicated for absolution from reserved censures, not for sins reserved by reason of themselves, especially the third; whence the Church seems to urge reservation more if the sin is reserved by reason of itself than if it is reserved only by reason of the penalty, which can be understood from the nature of the thing itself.

e) Absolution from these cases is direct, but provisionally under condition of reincidence into the censure.

f) The burden of recurring must be imposed in the case, and recourse must be made within a month, either by the penitent himself by approaching the superior or delegate, or at least by letter and through the confessor, with the name withheld, to the Sacred Penitentiary or to the bishop or another superior endowed with the faculty (can. 2254, § 1). Recourse must be made not so that the penitent may be absolved, since he has already been absolved directly from the censure and sin, but so that satisfaction may be made to the reservation and so that a suitable penance and other mandates to be imposed by law may be imposed. But if within a month, when it could have been done, recourse has not been made, the penitent falls back into the censure.

g) Nevertheless, "nothing prevents the penitent, even after having received absolution as above and even after recourse has been made to the superior, from approaching another confessor endowed with the faculty, and from obtaining absolution from him, with confession at least of the delict with the censure repeated; and when this has been obtained, from receiving mandates from the same, without being bound afterward to stand by other mandates coming from the part of the superior" (ibid., § 2).

h) "But if in some extraordinary case this recourse is morally impossible, then the confessor himself... can grant absolution without the burden (of recurring) mentioned above, nevertheless with those things imposed which are to be imposed by law, and with a suitable penance and satisfaction for the censure imposed, so that the penitent, unless within a suitable time to be fixed beforehand by the confessor he has done penance and given satisfaction, falls back into the censure" (ibid., § 3). There is excepted excommunication in the absolution of an accomplice, for which recourse must always be made (can. 2367, § 1). Likewise the excommunication of priests on account of attempted merely civil marriage and living with a woman, concerning which above, b); this is to be held as reserved in a most special manner (S. Penitentiary, April 18-28, 1936).

Recourse can be morally impossible if neither can the confessor send a letter, because he must depart before the response and, when absent, cannot safely communicate the response without others suspecting; nor perhaps can the penitent, being inexperienced, do so, and at the same time it is hard for him to approach another confessor (Holy Office, Nov. 9, 1898, Sept. 5, 1900).

2. "The reservation of a censure in a particular territory does not exert its force outside the boundaries of that territory, even if the censured person leaves the territory in order to obtain absolution; but a censure ab homine is reserved everywhere, so that the censured person can nowhere be absolved without the due faculties" (can. 2247, § 2).

Therefore the confessor can absolve pilgrims or even inhabitants who incurred a reserved censure in another territory, provided it is particular to the alien territory and it is a question of a censure a iure and not of a censure ab homine.

3. "If the confessor, ignorant of the reservation, absolves the penitent from the censure and sin, the absolution of the censure is valid, provided it is not a censure ab homine or a censure reserved in a most special manner to the Apostolic See" (can. 2247, § 3).

The absolution of the sin is also valid, if it is reserved only by reason of the censure: for then, if someone has been absolved from the censure, the reservation of the sin completely ceases.1

598. Efficacy of reservation. - A. For reserved sins. From the warning of can. 899 the efficacy of reservation can be sufficiently obtained, which nevertheless is at the same time circumscribed there:

"§ 1. Once reservations have been established which they have judged truly necessary or useful, let the Ordinaries of places take care that these be brought to the knowledge of subjects in whatever way seems better to them, and let them not impart the faculty of absolving from reserved cases to anyone and indiscriminately (but only to select confessors).

"§ 2. But the faculty of absolving of this kind belongs by the law itself to the penitentiary canon according to the norm of can. 401, § 1, and let it be habitually imparted at least to vicars forane (i.e., deans), with the faculty added, especially in places of the diocese more remote from the episcopal see, of subdelegating, as often as needed, confessors of their district, if and when, for some more urgent determinate case, they have recourse to them.

"§ 3. By the law itself, from cases which Ordinaries in whatever way have reserved to themselves, absolution can be given both by parish priests or others who are reckoned in law under the name of parish priests (n. 580), during the whole time (even legitimately anticipated or prorogued) useful for fulfilling the paschal precept (even if confession is not made for fulfilling the precept), - and by individual missionaries during the time when missions (and perhaps those spiritual exercises given collectively which are equated with them) happen to be held for the people (not for a particular institute, or association, or group, e.g., of clergy)."

B. For reserved censures. Canon 2253 should be attended to:

"Outside danger of death they can absolve:

"From a censure ab homine, the one to whom the censure is reserved...; moreover he himself can grant absolution, even if the guilty party has transferred his domicile or quasi-domicile elsewhere.

"From a censure reserved a iure, the one who established the censure or to whom it is reserved, and their successors or competent superiors or delegates. Wherefore from a censure reserved to the Bishop or Ordinary, any Ordinary can absolve his subjects, and the Ordinary of the place also pilgrims; - from one reserved to the Apostolic See, this See or others who have obtained from it the power of absolving, whether general, if the censure is reserved simply, or special, if it is reserved in a special manner, or finally most special, if it is reserved in a most special manner."

Nevertheless: 1) "In occult cases... the Ordinary can remit, by himself or through another (namely, a confessor delegated for this), latae sententiae penalties established by common law, except censures reserved to the Apostolic See in a most special or special manner" can. 2237, § 2.

2. Regular confessors who are mendicants, and those who participate in the privileges of mendicants, can absolve from cases reserved to the Ordinary, not indeed by their own authority, but reserved by law, as, for example, from the procuring of abortion.

599. Practical observations. - 1. The instructions of the Code about what is to be observed in establishing reservation are generally general norms according to which Ordinaries must act in their legislation, rather than laws which the Supreme Pontiff himself directly imposes. And therefore if bishops have not changed diocesan laws, or establish new reserved cases beyond the indicated norms, they must nevertheless be obeyed. But the dispensations indicated in can. 899 and 900 can be applied.

In Belgium there are no longer sins reserved by bishops, although by the Council of Mechlin (Acts n. 205) it is foreseen that they can be introduced.

2. For pilgrims, vagi, and religious, who are absolved by force of jurisdiction received from the Ordinary of the place, there always and solely exists the reservation in force in the place of confession. For they are absolved from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary of the place in which they confess (can. 874 and 881); this jurisdiction is affected by the reservation in force there, since reservation directly restricts the power of the confessor (can. 893). - On the contrary, parish priests outside the diocese can absolve their subjects from cases reserved by another bishop; and perhaps from those reserved to their proper Ordinary, since some do not hesitate to assert this.

3. When the penitent accuses a reserved sin, immediately let the confessor inquire whether all the conditions necessary for incurring the reservation are present or not. If it is established that the sin is truly reserved, and at the same time the confessor lacks the due faculties, let him warn the penitent either to approach the superior or a special confessor, or to return after a few days, namely when the necessary faculties will have been obtained, which penitents generally prefer; - unless, however, it is a more urgent case, because then the reservation ceases: respectively, for a sin reserved by reason of itself according to can. 900; for a reserved censure according to the norm of can. 2254.

But if the penitent has been ignorant of the reservation, he must be instructed about it, so that he may conceive horror of the sin.

4. The confessor, in order that he may comply with the end of reservation, should inflict serious correction upon the penitent, impose a suitable satisfaction, and furnish opportune remedies for the sin.

But one absolving from censures, especially reserved ones, must impose those things which are required by law or by mandate, namely: 1) real satisfaction for the damages of the injured person; 2) reparation of scandal; 3) penance, besides the sacramental penance, namely canonical and indeed suitable, which sometimes is required to be long, grave, and lasting (cf. can. 2242, § 3; 2254, § 3; 2312).

5. Absolution from reserved cases can be given directly or indirectly:

directly, when the reserved sin is expressly declared to a confessor who has the faculty of absolving from reserved cases; such also is a simple confessor in a more urgent case in which, according to can. 900 or 2254, the reservation ceases;

indirectly, when, without sacrilege, it either is not declared, or is declared to a simple confessor who cannot absolve from reserved cases: then it is remitted indirectly if at the same time other sins are declared from which the penitent is directly absolved.

Hence a confessor lacking a special faculty who knowingly, outside a case of necessity, absolves from reserved cases, sins gravely by violating the laws of the Church in a grave matter; indeed he incurs suspension according to can. 2366, and if he presumes so to absolve from excommunication reserved in a most special or special manner, he incurs excommunication simply reserved to the Pope (can. 2338, § 1). Nevertheless the absolution is valid, if another sin has been declared together with the reserved sins; for when the non-reserved sin is directly absolved, the others are indirectly remitted. A simple confessor who acts thus, just as also he who absolves from inadvertence from a reserved case (besides the exception established by can. 2247, § 3), must correct this error according to his powers. Therefore he must warn the penitent about the reservation, if he easily can, so that the error may be repaired and the sin again declared to the superior or his delegate in order to obtain its direct remission; otherwise let him leave him in good faith, since in the next confession he can be absolved indirectly from this sin and obtain its remission together with that of the other sins, or perhaps he has already obtained it.

6. A penitent omitting a reserved sin from inculpable forgetfulness in a confession made to a privileged confessor is validly absolved. Yet afterward he is bound in confession to manifest the omitted sin, but this is probably no longer reserved. The reason is that a privileged confessor is considered to absolve, as far as he can, a penitent rightly disposed. Therefore he is considered to absolve him indirectly from the reservation, because he has this power. - The matter stands somewhat otherwise if the penitent has confessed invalidly or sacrilegiously. It is certain, if he has kept back the reserved sin, that it has not been remitted. But if the reserved sin was manifested, and nullity or sacrilege occurred because of another cause, the reservation itself seems to have been removed, since the one having the faculty of absolving judged rightly concerning it and imposed a suitable satisfaction, which in the case must always be fulfilled. Therefore in the following confession the penitent must repeat the whole accusation and confess the sacrilege committed, but now he can be absolved by a simple confessor.

An exception is made if, in the time of a Jubilee, he has sacrilegiously confessed a reserved sin to a simple confessor; for in the time of a Jubilee only those penitents enjoy the privilege of receiving absolution from any confessor who wish to fulfill all things which are prescribed for gaining the Jubilee. But first of all a good confession is prescribed.

1. Nevertheless, from a special disposition, priests who absolved adherents to the "French Action" and were absolved when the reservation ceased, within a month from the day of obtained absolution or recovery, had to recur to the Sacred Penitentiary under penalty of excommunication specially reserved to the Supreme Pontiff. But from July 10, 1939 that disposition was revoked for the future.

1. Concerning the manner of acting with excommunicated persons, see several other things in our little work Questions concerning Various Categories of Penitents, c. 3, q. 8.