Article II. On the Nature, Division, and Effects of Suspension

§ 1. Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice, or from both.

§ 2. The effects also of suspension can be separated; but, unless something else is established, in a suspension brought generally there are comprehended all the effects which are enumerated in the canons of this article; on the contrary, in suspension from office or from benefice, only all the effects of either species (Can. 2278).

Suspension is brought only against a cleric, since it prohibits the use of his ecclesiastical power and ecclesiastical functions. Now the activities of a cleric are, as it were, embraced by two things: office, that is, order and jurisdiction, and benefice. Hence suspensions can be partial and total. A suspension brought absolutely and without restriction suspends both from office and from benefice. By canon law the effects of suspension can be separated, as will be clear from its various kinds.

Suspension from office does not take away office, but prohibits the use of order, jurisdiction, and administration: therefore the use of the power of jurisdiction for both forums, of the power of order which one receives by force of ordination or by privilege, and of all administration competent from office, except the administration of one's own benefice. Suspension can be partial, for example suspension from jurisdiction, from divine things, etc., or from some function, say, of order.

I say 1°. § 1. Suspension from benefice deprives one of the fruits of the benefice, except habitation in beneficial buildings, but not of the right of administering beneficial goods, unless the decree or sentence of suspension expressly takes away from the suspended person the very power of administering and assigns it to another.

§ 2. If, although the censure stands in the way, the beneficiary receives the fruits, he must restore the fruits and can be compelled to this restitution also by canonical sanctions, if need be (Can. 2280).

Such a suspension does not effect that he is not a beneficiary, but that he cannot accept the fruits of the benefice; it leaves the right of administration, unless it expressly takes that away. But if the suspended person receives the fruits, he does not have any right to retain them; they are not his and he is held to restitution.

§ 1. Suspension from office simply, with no limitation added, forbids every act both of the power of order and of jurisdiction, and also of mere administration competent from office, except administration of the goods of one's own benefice.

§ 2. Suspension:

1°. From jurisdiction generally, forbids every act of the power of jurisdiction for both forums, both ordinary and delegated;

2°. From divine things, every act of the power of order which someone obtains either by sacred ordination or by privilege;

3°. From orders, every act of the power of order received through ordination;

4°. From sacred orders, every act of the power of order received through ordination in sacred orders;

5°. From exercising a certain and definite order, every act of the designated order; but the suspended person is prohibited besides from conferring the same order and from receiving a higher one, and from exercising one received after suspension;

6°. From conferring a certain and definite order, from conferring that order itself, but not an inferior or higher one;

7°. From a certain and definite ministry, for example, of hearing confessions, or office, for example, with care of souls, every act of the same ministry or office;

8°. From episcopal order, every act of the power of episcopal order;

9°. From pontificals, the exercise of pontifical acts, according to the norm of can. 337, § 2 (Can. 2279).

I say 2°. Suspension brought generally, or suspension from office or from benefice, affects all offices or benefices which the cleric has in the diocese of the suspending Superior, unless something else appears (Can. 2281).

I say 3°. The local Ordinary cannot suspend a cleric from a determinate office or benefice which is found in another diocese; but a suspension latae sententiae, imposed by common law, affects all offices or benefices in whatever diocese they are possessed (Can. 2282).

Because the right of a cleric having an office or benefice in another diocese is his right insofar as he is a subject of the superior of that other diocese, hence he cannot be deprived of that right by another superior; besides, such a suspension would easily disturb the course of the government of dioceses. Nevertheless, since common law reigns everywhere, a suspension brought by common law affects offices and benefices which the suspended person may have also in other dioceses.

I say 4°. The things which are established concerning excommunication in can. 2265 are also to be applied to suspension (Can. 2283).

And therefore any suspended person is prohibited from various rights; he cannot obtain dignities and offices or be promoted to orders, just as was said concerning an excommunicated person in can. 2265, § 1, nn. 1, 2, 3; see also § 2.

I say 5°. If a censure of suspension has been incurred which forbids the administration of Sacraments and Sacramentals, let the prescription of can. 2261 be observed; if a censure of suspension which prohibits an act of jurisdiction in either the internal or external forum, the act is invalid, for example, sacramental absolution, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has been brought, or if the Superior expressly declares that he revokes the very power of jurisdiction; otherwise it is illicit only, unless it has been asked by the faithful according to the norm of the mentioned can. 2261, § 2 (Can. 2284).

Therefore, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has preceded, or that declaration of the superior asserted in the canon has been pronounced, the act is invalid outside the article of death; but in the article of death it is not invalid or illicit to concede absolution to the faithful asking. If the aforesaid sentences have not preceded, the act is valid and licit if the faithful ask.

Question 1. Can a suspended priest be absolved from sins by a simple confessor before he is loosed from the censure by the superior?

Resp. Affirmatively, and the reason is that the effect of suspension is not to deprive one of reception of the sacraments. Therefore it suffices if he is disposed for the sacrament of Penance, namely if he is at least attrite for his sins, and promises that he will procure, as soon as possible, as much as will be in him, absolution from the censure, and meanwhile that he will not use the prohibited power or rights. - Cf. Can. 2250, § 1.

Question 2. In what way is suspension removed?

Resp. If suspension has the character of a censure, it is removed like excommunication, namely by absolution alone and indeed by that of the superior, if it is reserved; nevertheless if it has been brought for a certain determinate time or under a condition, it ceases by itself when the time has passed or the established condition has been fulfilled. But if it has been imposed perpetually on account of fault wholly past, it is removed, as a mere penalty, by dispensation alone of the Prelate or his delegate, because then it is not a censure.

Question 3. What form is to be employed for removing suspension?

Resp. If the suspension is occult, it is removed by absolution under the general form: I absolve you from every bond, etc. If it is public, in the internal forum it is removed by the same form; but in the external forum the solemn form determined in the Ritual is to be employed. But no one can absolve solemnly from suspension except the superior or another specially delegated for this.

Question 4. Can a simple priest absolve from censure one suspended in the article of death, whether the superior or delegate is absent or present?

Resp. Certainly he can; but according to the norm of Can. 2252. Wherefore if it is a case in which recourse is required, as if the suspension was ab homine, he must recur after he has recovered to the legitimate superior. - Cf. Can. 882.

Question 5. Can suspension be brought against a community of clerics?

Resp. Affirmatively, as is clear from the following canon:

§ 1. If a community or college of clerics has committed a delict, suspension can be brought either against the individual delinquent persons, or against the community as such, or against the delinquent persons and the community.

§ 2. If the first, let the canons of this article be observed.

§ 3. If the second, the community is prohibited from the exercise of the spiritual rights which belong to it as a community.

§ 4. If the third, the effects are cumulated (Can. 2285).

A community as such cannot be excommunicated; but because all the members make one moral body which has its own proper goods, it can be punished by suspension. But the mode by which it strikes the members can be diverse in diverse cases: if the individual persons are suspended, those things which have been said up to this point will have to be observed; if the college is struck, the suspension is brought against acts of jurisdiction and others which belong to it as such; but if the persons and the college are suspended, the persons are held by the preceding canons and the chapter is deprived of the exercise of the spiritual rights which are proper to it, for example, certain collations of benefices, or elections.