§ 1. On Suspension In General

531. Notion. "Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice or both" (can. 2278, § 1).

Explanation. It is said, first: suspension is a censure by which a cleric is deprived. For suspension is not imposed upon laymen, but upon clerics alone.

It is said, second: from office or benefice or both, to signify the threefold object of suspension.

It is said, third: is prohibited, because suspension does not deprive one of office and so forth, but prohibits only its use.

Note. Not rarely suspension is not a censure properly so called, that is, a medicinal penalty, but a vindicatory penalty, some penance, or a mere prohibition against exercising an office. In doubt whether in some case it is a censure or another penalty, it is presumed to be a censure.²¹³ Irregularity arises only from the violation of a censure properly so called, but not from the mere prohibition against exercising an ecclesiastical office. The celebrated suspension "from an informed conscience" is sometimes a true censure and sometimes is not.²¹⁴

Divisions. 1. Suspension is either general or special, according as a cleric is deprived of every use both of order and of office and of benefice, or only of the use of one of the three. This special suspension is subdivided into total and partial. A total suspension deprives a cleric of the use of all power of some species, namely, totally either: a) of the use of order; b) of the use of office; or c) of the use of benefice. A partial suspension deprives a cleric of the use not of all but of a part of the power of some species; for example, a cleric is punished with a partial suspension if hearing confessions, preaching, and so forth are forbidden to him. Partial suspensions also include suspension a divinis, that is, from every act of the power of order which someone obtains either through sacred ordination or through privilege; suspension from pontifical order, that is, from every exercise of episcopal order; suspension from pontificals, that is, from the use of pontifical insignia, the miter, crozier, and so forth (c. 2279, § 2).

2. Suspension is by law and by a man, according as it is imposed by the law itself or by a man.

The other divisions, such as reserved, non-reserved, latae and ferendae sententiae, and so forth, are readily understood from what was said above concerning the division of censures in general.

²¹³ Code of Canon Law, c. 2255, § 2.

²¹⁴ Cf. our Man. iur. can., q. 556.

532. Effects of suspension.

1. A suspended person sins gravely if he exercises an act forbidden to him (although parvity of matter is admitted), unless there are excusing causes, which are the same as those related above in n. 489 for censures in general.

2. One suspended from sacred order (but not likewise one suspended from a benefice), culpably violating the suspension by the exercise of sacred order, becomes irregular.²¹⁵

3. A tolerated suspended person validly exercises jurisdiction; but if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence of the superior has intervened, he exercises it invalidly.²¹⁶

4. One suspended from office (absolutely and simply) is deprived not only of the use of office but also of order and jurisdiction; or, in other words: suspension from office includes suspension from order. The administration of the goods of his own benefice, however, is permitted (can. 2279, § 1).

5. One suspended from a benefice who nevertheless usurps the beneficial revenues is bound to restitution, and that even before the sentence of a judge; he can, however, dwell in the buildings of the benefice and administer the beneficial goods, unless it has been expressly established otherwise concerning this administration.²¹⁷

Note. A suspended person is not prohibited from receiving the sacraments, for example, the Eucharist and penance, provided that he sincerely sorrows for the sins committed. Likewise, he is not excluded from the common suffrages of the Church or from gaining indulgences.

²¹⁵ Code of Canon Law, c. 985, n. 7; Hollweck, Die kirchl. Strafgesetze, § 66.

²¹⁶ Code of Canon Law, c. 2284.

²¹⁷ Ibid., c. 2280.

533. Cessation of suspension.

1. A suspension imposed in vindication is taken away by dispensation of the legitimate superior or by lapse of time, if it was inflicted for a time.

2. A suspension imposed as a censure is not removed except by legitimate absolution.

3. A suspension from an informed conscience no longer ceases with the death of the prelate who imposed it. There is no occasion to speak at greater length concerning suspension from an informed conscience. See the canonists.²¹⁸

²¹⁸ Cf. our Man. iur. can., q. 556.