Article III. On the Subject of Censures

I say 1°. The subject of censure can be only a baptized man, capable of reason, and a subject. Therefore 1°. he must be baptized, because, according to the Apostle, the Church does not judge concerning those who are outside; 2°. capable of reason, because censure is ordered to the correction of the delinquent, which certainly does not have place in him who lacks the use of reason; 3°. a subject, because censure is an act of jurisdiction, which cannot be exercised except over subjects.

I say 2°. Those under puberty are excused from penalties latae sententiae, and are to be corrected rather by educative punishments than by censures or other more grave vindicative penalties; but those of puberty who have induced them to violate the law or have concurred with them in a delict according to the norm of can. 2209, §§ 1-3, themselves indeed incur the penalty established by law (Can. 2230).

Among those under puberty, on account of defect of age, rigor must be tempered with meekness. c. 60, X, v. 39. In children much is usually left alone which, in others of more advanced age, human laws say must be punished more severely; in them sins seem not to be punished in the same way as in adults. But those of puberty who induce them to violate the law, or physically concur with them by common design, or join themselves to them in a delict which demands an accomplice, or as those commanding, or inducing toward the consummation of the delict or concurring toward it, themselves incur the penalty.

Question 1. Are Cardinals and Bishops subject to censures?

Resp. § 2. Unless expressly named, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church are not comprehended under a penal law, nor Bishops under penalties latae sententiae of suspension and interdict (Can. 2227).

Question 2. Can exempt Religious be bound by episcopal censures by the Bishop of the place?

Resp. Affirmatively, they can be punished by the Ordinary of the place in all things in which they are subject to him. - Cf. Can. 619.

Question 3. Can the subject of censure be an entire community?

Resp. § 2. Excommunication can affect only physical persons, and therefore if at any time it is brought against a moral body, it is understood to affect the individuals who have concurred in the delict; interdict and suspension can affect also the community (Can. 2255).

Question 4. Can someone be bound by several censures at the same time?

Resp. § 1. Not only a censure of diverse species, but even a censure of the same species, can be multiplied in the same subject.

§ 2. A censure latae sententiae is multiplied:

1°. If diverse delicts, each of which carries a censure with itself, are committed by the same or by distinct action;

2°. If the same delict, punished by censure, is repeated several times so that there are several distinct delicts;

3°. If a delict, punished by diverse censures by distinct Superiors, is committed once or several times.

§ 3. A censure ab homine is multiplied if several precepts or several sentences, or several distinct parts of the same precept or sentence, each inflict its own censure (Can. 2244).

Question 5. How is the subject of censure to be interpreted?

Resp. Strictly; a censure brought against the people does not strike the clergy, nor conversely does one brought against the clergy strike the people; one brought against clerics does not strike Regulars who are not clerics; one brought against Regulars holds only them and not other religious. - Cf. D'Annibale, n. 325.

Question 6. What is the law concerning censures to be reserved?

Resp. § 1. Let no censure be reserved unless attention has been paid to the peculiar gravity of the delicts and the necessity of more suitably providing for ecclesiastical discipline and of healing the consciences of the faithful.

§ 2. Reservation receives a strict interpretation.

§ 3. The reservation of a censure impeding the reception of the Sacraments imports the reservation of the sin to which the censure is annexed; but if someone is excused from the censure or was absolved from it, the reservation of the sin completely ceases (Can. 2246).

Question 7. Can the Ordinary bring a censure reserved to himself against a delict to which a censure reserved to the Apostolic See is attached?

Resp. Negatively; § 1. If a censure is reserved to the Apostolic See, the Ordinary cannot bring another censure reserved to himself against the same delict (Can. 2247).

Question 8. What is the law with relation to the reservation of censure in a particular territory?

Resp. § 2. Reservation of censure in a particular territory does not exert its force outside the limits of that territory, even if the censured person goes out of the territory to obtain absolution; but a censure ab homine is reserved everywhere, so that the censured person can nowhere be absolved without the due faculties (Can. 2247).

Question 9. If a confessor, ignorant of the reservation, absolves a penitent from censure and sin, is the absolution of the censure valid?

Resp. The absolution of the censure is valid, provided it is not a censure ab homine or a censure reserved in a most special mode to the Apostolic See (Can. 2247, § 3). - Cf. S. Off., 11 May, 1892.