Article I. On the Reservation of Cases.

355. Nature of Reservation. Reservation occurs in both civil and ecclesiastical judgments and signifies the calling up of some cause from an inferior judge to a superior; by this calling up, the power of judging that cause is taken away from the inferior judge. Therefore the reservation of cases properly is the recall by an ecclesiastical superior of some cases to his own judgment. But because from this recall itself there follows a limitation of power in the inferior judge, reservation is customarily defined: the limitation or denial of the power of absolving from certain sins. And a reserved case is a sin called up to the tribunal of a superior judge, from which therefore the inferior judge cannot absolve because of defect of power.¹

From these definitions three things are gathered: a. that no one can reserve sins except those of his own subjects; b. that reservation does not directly affect the penitent but the confessor, whose power it restricts; g. if therefore a simple confessor, whether in good or bad faith, absolves a penitent from a reserved sin, that sin, other things being supposed, is in itself remitted only indirectly.

¹ Cn. 893.

356. Power of Reserving. 1. There is in the Church a power of reserving certain sins, from which inferior confessors without a special faculty cannot absolve outside the article of death. This is clear from the Council of Trent,¹ from the Code of Canon Law,² and from the nature of the sacrament of penance, which is exercised in the manner of a judgment by power conferred by the Church; but the Church, which confers power, can also limit it and confer on others the right of limiting.

2. Although, if only the power of reserving is considered, all sins, mortal and venial, external and internal, can be reserved, nevertheless, if the end of reservation is considered, only external sins, and indeed graver and more atrocious ones, are reserved. For the power of reserving has been given for the usefulness of ecclesiastical discipline, wherefore only those sins are customarily reserved which disturb discipline and are a scandal to the faithful, such as grave and external sins. But it would be altogether useless to reserve venial sins, since they are not necessary matter of confession.

¹ Sess. 14, c. 7 and can. 11: If anyone says that bishops do not have the right of reserving cases to themselves ... anathema sit.

² Cn. 893.

357. End of Reservation. a. The first end, intended of its own nature by the very institution of reservation, is disciplinary, namely the good governance of the Church: for suitable administration of the Church requires that graver sins, which are harmful to the community of the faithful, be reserved to superior judges, since they, because of their experience and prudence, can judge better by what means the evil is to be met.¹ b. The other end of reservation, likewise connected with reservation by its own nature, is medicinal: that the faithful may be deterred from sins whose absolution they see to be so difficult.

There were not lacking those who added a third end of reservation, namely a penal one. In actual fact through reservation there is imposed upon delinquents the burden of appearing before a superior judge; nevertheless it cannot be affirmed that the Church by this very fact intends that delinquents be punished. For in the new Code there appears no trace of a penal reason inhering in reservations; evident indications occur concerning each of the other two ends. For from the definition itself² the disciplinary end appears; but from the fact that it is required that a reservation not remain in force longer than is necessary for rooting out some public vice and restoring fallen Christian discipline, the medicinal end is implied.³ This also appears from the fact that ordinaries must take care that diocesan reservations be brought to the knowledge of their subjects.⁴

¹ "It seemed greatly to our most holy fathers to pertain to the discipline of the Christian people that certain more atrocious and graver crimes be absolved not by anyone whatever, but only by the highest priests." Council of Trent, sess. 14, c. 7.

² Cn. 893, 2.

³ Cn. 897.

⁴ Cn. 899, 1.

358. Mode of Reservation. Sins can be reserved in a twofold manner: either by reason of itself, or the sin itself, whether it has an attached censure or does not have one; or by reason of the censure which is attached to the sin, the censure being reserved. Censures attached to sins are of two kinds: some impede the reception of the sacrament; others do not impede the reception of the sacrament. In the former case the sin is reserved, but on account of the censure; in the latter case the sin is not reserved.

a. In that case in which the sin is reserved only on account of the censure, if someone is excused from incurring the censure, because, for example, he sinned with grave fear or with ignorance of the censure, or has been absolved from the censure, the sin is not reserved. But if a sin reserved by reason of itself has an attached censure, when the censure is not contracted or has been removed, the sin remains reserved.

b. If the censure impedes the reception of the sacraments, the censured person cannot be absolved from sins unless first he has been absolved from the censure. But if the censure does not impede the reception of the sacraments, he can be absolved from sins while the censure remains firm.¹

c. The cases reserved by the Roman Pontiff, with one exception, are reserved censures. The one sin reserved to the holy see by reason of itself is false denunciation of a priest for solicitation before ecclesiastical judges, which sin also has an attached censure. Cases reserved by bishops are generally reserved sins. For most bishops reserve sins without censure; a few reserve one or another sin with censure.

¹ Cn. 2250, 1, 2.

359. Who Can Reserve Sins.¹ The power of reserving sins resides in all who by ordinary right can grant the power of absolving or inflict censures, excepting the capitular vicar and the vicar general, unless the latter has a special mandate. For those who can confer jurisdiction upon others can also limit it, unless they are prohibited by the holy see. Therefore:

1. The supreme pontiff can reserve cases for the whole Church; all other ecclesiastical superiors, both ordinaries and regular prelates, since they receive jurisdiction from the supreme pontiff, depend on him in reserving sins, so that he can prescribe measure and limits for their reservations.

2. Ordinaries of places can reserve cases for their dioceses; therefore bishops can restrict in this way the jurisdiction also of pastors, as being subject to themselves.

a. The norms decreed and prescribed to ordinaries of places by Benedict XV and by the new Code are these:

a. Let them discuss the matter either in the diocesan synod or, if the reservation is made outside a synod, let them hear the cathedral chapter and some of the more approved curators of souls of the diocese concerning the necessity or usefulness of the reservation.

b. Let them reserve only three or at most four of the graver and more atrocious external crimes specifically determined; not merely internal sins, nor grave external sins which are committed from human frailty, not from special malice.

g. Let them abstain entirely from reserving to themselves sins which have already been reserved to the apostolic see, and regularly also from those upon which a censure reserved to no one has been imposed.

d. Let them be very sparing in imposing censures on those sins which they reserve to themselves. Moreover on a delict which, because of a censure, is reserved to the apostolic see, they cannot impose another censure reserved to themselves, Cn. 2247, 1.

e. Let them take care that the faithful be suitably instructed concerning the reservations made. But the reservations themselves should not remain in force beyond what is necessary for rooting out some vice or for restoring Christian discipline.

b. Several authors judge that a reservation by which a bishop reserves to himself a sin which has already been reserved by the pope is illicit but valid; against this Suarez² and Lugo³ with most others say that a reservation of this kind is invalid, and Ballerini⁴ defends their opinion, because it is repugnant to the nature of the thing that a bishop reserve to himself a sin from which not even he himself can absolve unless power has been delegated to him. Cn. 898 seems to confirm this opinion. Therefore confessors who have the power of absolving from papal cases can absolve from these, even if the bishop had reserved them to himself.

3. The superior general of an exempt religion and, in monasteries sui iuris, the Abbot, with each one's own council, with respect to their subjects. Nevertheless there remain firm the disposition of Cn. 518, by force of which the faculty of absolving from reserved cases must be granted to the confessors of the house, and the other disposition, by force of which all confessors approved by the ordinary can absolve a religious even from sins and censures reserved in the religion.

¹ S. Officium, 13 July 1916. This decree in part repeats the things which Benedict XIV already records (De synodo l. 5, c. 5), and in part decrees things entirely new; with it Cn. 893-899 agree.

² Cf. De poenit. disp. 31, sect. 4, n. 26.

³ Cf. De poenit. disp. 20, n. 151.

⁴ Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri V, n. 514 ff.

360. Division into Papal and Episcopal Cases. By reason of the author from whom the reservation proceeds, reserved cases are divided into papal cases, which the supreme pontiff reserves for the universal Church (to himself or to bishops), and into episcopal cases, which the bishop reserves to himself for his own diocese.

1. All papal cases are reserved with censure and on account of censure, one also by reason of itself (n. 358). Therefore papal cases are properly reserved censures, some of which are reserved in the ordinary manner or simply, others in a special manner, others in a most special manner.¹

This division of censures is taken from the scope of the faculty of absolving from cases reserved to the Roman Pontiff. For those which are contained in the general faculty of absolving are called reserved in the ordinary manner or simply; those which are contained in the special faculty of absolving are reserved in a special manner; and those which are contained only in the most special faculty of absolving are reserved in a most special manner.

2. Episcopal cases, which the bishops themselves reserve to themselves and which differ according to the diversity of places, are ordinarily reserved without censure. To these there are added from the Code of Canon Law five cases (excommunications latae sententiae) which are reserved to bishops by common law. These are properly papal cases, unless the bishops themselves reserve them to themselves, something which will scarcely happen, since it is prohibited through the Code.

a. Since cases reserved by law to bishops are properly papal cases, all confessors who have the faculty of absolving from papal cases can absolve from them; those who lack the power of absolving should have recourse either to the bishop or to the holy see for obtaining the faculty, and in an urgent case they should treat the penitent as if he had another papal case, i.e., absolve him directly with the burden of receiving mandates.

b. They dispute whether in properly episcopal cases reserved with censure the sin or the censure is principally reserved. But the opinion is certainly probable which, establishing no distinction in this matter between papal and episcopal censure, teaches that also in episcopal cases the censure is principally and in itself reserved, because no foundation for a distinction is found in the law, unless the bishop has explicitly signified his mind. The practical importance of this opinion is in this: that he who does not incur the censure also does not incur the reservation, as was said above concerning papal cases.²

¹ See the papal cases which have some importance for the practice of confession at the end of the book. From the Code of Canon Law several new censures have been added.

² Cf. D'Annibale, Summula I, n. 340; Ballerini-Palmieri V, n. 476; Genicot II, n. 344.

361. Conditions Required for Reservation. From the custom of the Church five conditions are required, in order that a sin can be considered reserved:

1. That it be formal in that species of malice on account of which it is reserved; for if this species of malice was wholly unknown, the sin under this aspect is merely material.

Suppose that incest in the first and second degree of consanguinity is a reserved sin. Therefore, if someone confesses that he sinned with a blood-relative (in the second degree), but that he did not know the person was related by blood, or that incest differs in species from fornication, he did not commit a reserved sin. In practice, however, this latter ignorance is not easily admitted; for even the uneducated apprehend, at least confusedly, that it is not the same thing to fornicate with a blood-relative and with a stranger; and a confused knowledge suffices for incurring the case.

2. That it be external, even though occult; for merely internal sins are not customarily reserved (n. 356).

3. That it be mortal not only by reason of the object, but also by reason of the act, both internal and external; hence the reservation ceases if the sin, either on account of smallness of matter or on account of imperfection of the act, is rendered venial.

Reservation chiefly falls upon the external act, which accordingly ought to be gravely evil. Therefore, if the external act were slight, the sin would not be reserved, even though the internal act were grave, as if someone, with the intention of striking a cleric gravely, were only to touch him lightly.

4. That it be consummated in deed, by which is signified that the sin ought to be perfect in its own species; not merely attempted, but consummated with the obtaining of the effect, unless the reserving law also wishes the imperfect act to be reserved.

Therefore, if adultery or incest is reserved, the sin is not reserved unless perfect copula has intervened; and if homicide is reserved, to incur the reservation it does not suffice to have inflicted a wound or given poison, but it is required that death itself have followed.

5. That it be certain, not only doubtful; but doubt is understood both as doubt of law: whether the reserving law extends itself also to this case; and as doubt of fact: whether the sin was truly committed, whether it is grave, whether it was committed with the conditions under which it is reserved.

Namely, in doubt the reservation (censure) is contracted or is not contracted according to the truth of the fact. But now a reservation (censure) of this kind, if it is in fact contracted, can by the usage of the Church be taken away by any confessor. Hence if afterward it becomes known that the sin certainly was reserved, it ought not to be accused again, because it was already directly absolved.

Note. The reason for all these things is that reservation is an odious thing, both to confessors, whose jurisdiction it restricts, and to penitents, for whom it renders confession more difficult; and therefore it is of strict interpretation and is not to be extended to doubtful and imperfect acts, Cn. 2246, 2.

362. Concerning Ignorance of Reservation or of Penalty. Whether reservation or penalty is incurred by him who is ignorant of them.

1. Concerning episcopal cases. a. Episcopal cases reserved without censure are incurred even by him who is ignorant of the reservation.

Reservations which have the nature of a penalty are not incurred by those who are ignorant; since episcopal reservations are only disciplinary and medicinal, nothing prevents its being said that even the ignorant incur them.

b. Concerning episcopal cases reserved with censure, the same holds which will soon be said concerning papal cases.

2. Concerning papal cases.¹ a. If the law has words: shall have presumed, shall have dared, knowingly, studiously, rashly, shall have acted deliberately, or similar words, which require full knowledge and deliberation, any diminution of imputability, whether on the part of the intellect or on the part of the will, excuses from incurring the censure.

b. Affected ignorance, whether of the law or only of the penalty, does not excuse from censure, even if the law contains the aforesaid words.

c. Crass or supine ignorance of a law which does not have the aforesaid words, or even ignorance only of the penalty, does not excuse from censure.

d. Simple ignorance, or ignorance that is not crass, excuses from medicinal penalties, but not from vindicative ones.

e. Drunkenness, omission of due diligence, weakness of mind, and impulse of passion do not excuse, unless imputability is so diminished that the action is no longer a grave sin.

f. Grave fear does not excuse from penalties latae sententiae, if the delict tends to contempt of faith or of ecclesiastical authority, or to the public harm of souls.

Article Two.. Concerning Absolution from Reserved Cases.

As regards absolution from papal cases, the decree of the Holy Office of June 23, 1886 established an entirely new law, which in the new Code, cn. 2254, is again established and more accurately declared. But something else must be said concerning episcopal cases, which are not censures; wherefore the two absolutions must be treated separately.

¹ Cn. 2229.