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 V. On Causes Excusing From Censures

Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis

§ 2. On Causes Excusing From The Effect Of Censure

489.

489. Since the effects of censure are nothing other than statutes of merely ecclesiastical law, all those things which excuse from the observance of ecclesiastical statutes also exempt from observing the effects of censure. But any grave inconvenience is customarily to excuse from statutes of this kind, since positive laws as such are not customarily binding with grave inconvenience. Hence the following excuse (before a declaratory or condemnatory sentence) from observing the effects of censure:

  1. Grave infamy.

Thus, for example, a layman occultly excommunicated can be a sponsor in baptism if otherwise he would have to manifest his crime with infamy.

  1. Scandal.

Therefore a priest occultly suspended can perform the divine offices if otherwise scandal of the faithful would arise.

  1. Grave fear, provided, however, that it was not inflicted in hatred of religion.

Hence, for example, a wife who, illegitimately possessing ecclesiastical goods with her husband, is excommunicated, is not bound to abstain from the reception of the sacraments if, from making immediate restitution, she fears most grave evils to be inflicted by her husband.

Fear and ignorance as excuses from censures