§ 1. On Interdict In General

527. Notion. An interdict is a censure by which the faithful, remaining in the communion of the Church, are prohibited from certain sacraments and other sacred things.

Explanation. It is said: An interdict is a censure, or a medicinal penalty. Not rarely, however, an interdict (especially a local and general one) is a vindicatory penalty or a mere prohibition, since even the innocent must suffer from it.

It is said: by which the faithful, remaining in the communion of the Church, are prohibited from certain sacraments and other sacred things. For an interdict does not take away communion with the Church and therefore differs: a) from excommunication, which is a graver penalty and deprives one of the communion of the faithful, but nevertheless is never local; b) from suspension, which affects clerics alone, whereas an interdict is imposed both upon clerics and upon laymen. What sacraments and sacred things are prohibited will be said below, where the effects of an interdict are enumerated.

Divisions. 1. An interdict is either local, which immediately affects a place and mediately all persons residing there, even outsiders and exempt persons; or personal, which affects only the person and follows and binds him everywhere.²⁰²

A local interdict is either general, which affects the entire territory or the whole people of such a place, for example, an entire city; or particular, which affects a determined part of some place or people, for example, a convent or church. A general interdict upon an entire state, or even upon a diocese or its people, can be imposed only by the Apostolic See or by its mandate; a bishop can also impose other interdicts.²⁰³

2. One interdict is total, which prohibits the use of all sacred things, or which causes all the effects proper to an interdict; another is partial, which prohibits only certain sacred things.

²⁰² Code of Canon Law, c. 2269, § 2.

²⁰³ Ibid., § 1.

528. Effects of an interdict. In practice it is customary for the legitimate superior to determine particularly what precisely is prohibited or permitted during an interdict,²⁰⁴ especially if a particular or partial interdict is inflicted. Generally it can be said:

a) A local interdict personally affects those who gave cause for it; the others who are present in the interdicted place must indeed observe it, but can receive the sacraments and are altogether free outside this place.²⁰⁵

b) A general local interdict prohibits in the interdicted place every divine office or sacred rite; and even if divine offices are permitted in certain cases (concerning which below), singing and pomp in sacred furnishings, the sound of bells, organs, or other musical instruments are prohibited.²⁰⁶

c) A personal interdict prohibits the interdicted person from: a) celebrating divine offices or actively assisting at them, with the preaching of the word of God excepted; passive assistance, however, does not appear to be gravely prohibited; b) administering, confecting, and receiving sacraments and sacramentals; on this point, however, the same exceptions hold which were indicated above in n. 500 for excommunicated persons; c) being given ecclesiastical burial. As regards the right of electing, presenting, and nominating; the acquisition of dignities, offices, benefices, pensions, functions in the Church, and graces of the Apostolic See; and the reception of orders, interdicted persons are treated in the same manner as excommunicated persons.²⁰⁷

d) Those who violate an interdict sin gravely; clerics who illicitly exercise sacred order become irregular.

Exceptions. 1. On five feasts (namely, the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven) a local interdict is suspended, so that all divine offices and rites are permitted, with the conferral of orders and the solemn nuptial blessing excepted.²⁰⁸

2. Clerics not personally interdicted can privately (that is, with doors closed, voice subdued, and bells not rung) perform all offices and sacred rites in any church or oratory.²⁰⁹

3. In the cathedral church, in all parish churches, and in a church which is the only one in a town, the following are permitted: a) the celebration of one Mass; b) the reservation of the Most Holy Sacrament; c) the administration of baptism, the Eucharist, and penance; d) assistance at marriages, with the nuptial blessing excluded; e) funeral rites for the dead, but with every solemnity forbidden; f) the blessing of baptismal water and the sacred oils; g) the preaching of the word of God.

Holy Viaticum is to be carried privately to the sick.²¹⁰

Cessation of an interdict. An interdict imposed in vindication ceases at the discretion of the prelate imposing it, that is, either by dispensation or by the lapse of a determined time.

An interdict imposed after the manner of a censure does not cease except through absolution given by competent authority. Therefore all that was said above concerning absolution from a censure in n. 490 ff. holds.

²⁰⁴ Cf. the interdicts inflicted upon the city of Adria on September 30, 1909, and Galatina on December 10, 1913.

²⁰⁵ Cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 2269, § 2, and c. 2276.

²⁰⁶ Ibid., c. 2271.

²⁰⁷ Ibid., cc. 2275 and 2265.

²⁰⁸ Ibid., c. 2270, § 2.

²⁰⁹ Ibid., c. 2271, n. 1.

²¹⁰ Ibid., n. 2.

529. Scholion. On interdict from entrance into a church and on cessation from divine services. An interdict from entrance into a church is a particular and partial personal interdict. It is defined: a penalty by which someone is prohibited from participation in divine offices in a church and from ecclesiastical burial. One thus interdicted can therefore hear and celebrate Mass outside a church, for example, in an oratory, receive other sacraments, and so forth. Likewise he can pray privately even in a church. If one thus interdicted assists at divine offices in a church, it is not necessary that he be expelled; nor, if he is buried, is it necessary that the corpse be removed (c. 2277).

Cessation from divine services²¹¹ is a prohibition (imposed especially upon clerics) against performing divine offices in a sacred place and administering the sacraments of the Eucharist, Extreme Unction, and Orders. This cessation is not a censure properly so called, but is inflicted ab homine (never by the law) on account of a most grave crime, as a sign of the Church's grief over an injury inflicted upon her. Those who violate a cessation from divine services indeed sin gravely, but do not become irregular.²¹²

²¹¹ German: cessation of divine services.

²¹² Cf. Wernz, Ius Decretal. VI, n. 235 ff. The Code of Canon Law is silent concerning cessation from divine services.