Morals of the Church
Library › Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis › Volume III › Part II. On The Sacraments In General And In Particular › Treatise VI. On Ecclesiastical Penalties › Chapter II. On Ecclesiastical Censures In General › Article VI. On Absolution From Censures

Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis

§ 1. How Censures Are Removed

490.

490. Principle. A censure (strictly so called), once incurred, is not removed except through legitimate absolution.85

Since some authors taught that, at least in the internal forum, a censure ceases through the amendment of the guilty person, proposition 44 was condemned by Alexander VII: "As regards the forum of conscience, when the guilty person has been corrected and his contumacy has ceased, censures cease."86 Hence censures are not removed:

a) by the death of the author imposing them;87

b) by the death of the guilty person punished with censure;88

c) by the amendment or satisfaction of the guilty person.89

But it is said: a censure strictly so called; for sometimes interdict and suspension are imposed for a determinate time; then, however, they are not censures strictly so called, but rather vindicative penalties or penances.

Then it is said that a censure is removed through absolution. For it is not removed through dispensation, since a dispensation is an act of grace, which (speaking absolutely) can: a) be denied even to one duly disposed; b) once granted, be revoked; c) never licitly, and sometimes not even validly, be granted without a sufficient reason.90 Absolution, however, is an act of justice, which cannot a) be denied to a guilty person duly disposed and amended; b) once granted, be revoked.

85 Cf. c. 15, X 5, 39; Code of Canon Law, c. 2248, § 1.

86 Denz. n. 1144.

87 c. 11, X 1, 31.

88 c. 28, X 5, 39.

89 c. 15, X 5, 39. Absolution, however, cannot be denied as soon as the delinquent has receded from contumacy (Code of Canon Law, c. 2248, § 2).

90 Cf. above, I, n. 251 ff., on the causes of dispensation.

Absolution of Censures

491.

491. Scholion. On the diverse ways in which absolution from censure is customarily granted. There are five principal ways in which absolution from censure is customarily granted:

  1. For the internal forum only, or for both forums, namely, the internal and external. Absolution given for the external forum is also valid for the internal forum, but not vice versa. Hence, for example, if a heretic returning to the bosom of the Church has been absolved from censure in the external forum (by the bishop or his delegate), he can be absolved from the sin of heresy in the tribunal of penance by any confessor. On the other hand, if someone contracted a mixed marriage before a non-Catholic minister and was absolved in the tribunal of penance by a competent confessor from the censure incurred on account of such a crime, he can nevertheless be treated as excommunicated in the external forum. The judge can, however (if he wishes), accept the absolution given in the internal forum also for the external forum.91 - Ordinarily it is not lawful to give absolution in the internal forum before absolution has been obtained in the external forum.

  2. Absolutely or conditionally. A conditional absolution does not obtain its effect unless the condition appended has been verified; it is to be employed very rarely in practice.

  3. Ad reincidentiam. According to the discipline in force, such an absolution is customarily given in more urgent cases, when one is absolved from all reserved censures under penalty of falling back into the same censures specifically if the absolved penitent does not have recourse within a month to the legitimate superior.92

  4. Ad cautelam. Absolution is customarily given as a precaution from censures (which a man perhaps incurred), lest the conferral of a benefice, dispensation, and so forth, be invalid. Pius VI condemned the frivolous objections made by the Synod of Pistoia against this manner of absolving.93 In every sacramental absolution, absolution ad cautelam from censures perhaps contracted is first given. It is worthy of note that, from November 3, 1908, all graces and dispensations granted by the Holy See are valid and legitimate even for those bound by censure, unless there is question of those who are excommunicated persons to be avoided, or who after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence are excommunicated, interdicted, or suspended. The Code of Canon Law, c. 36, § 2, confirmed this discipline.94

  5. For a certain effect, absolution from censures is sometimes given lest some determinate effect, for example, the conferral of an office and so forth, be impeded.

Note. If there is question of a censure which does not impede the reception of the sacraments, for example, suspension, one under censure who is duly disposed and recedes from contumacy can be absolved from sins while the censure remains intact; but if there is question of other censures, for example, excommunication, one under censure cannot be absolved from sins unless he has first been absolved from the censure.95

91 Cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 2251.

92 Cf. below, n. 494.

93 Proposition 48 (Denz. n. 1548).

94 Cf. Normae peculiares, c. 3, a. 1, n. 6 (Acta Ap. Sed. I, 64).

95 Code of Canon Law, c. 2250.

Absolution of Censures