The Constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae (June 1, 1741)

The Sacrament of Penance — which the holy Fathers have aptly named the second plank after the shipwreck of lost grace — We, called by heavenly disposition, though unworthy, to the care of the Lord's whole flock, are bound to apply every effort and all pastoral solicitude to it, lest the refuge which, after the innocence of baptism has been lost, was given by the divine goodness should, through the fraud of demons and the malice of men who perversely abuse the benefits of God, issue for shipwrecked and wretched sinners in mournful destruction; and lest what was instituted by God, who is rich in mercy, for the salvation and healing of souls, be turned, by the execrable wickedness of certain criminal priests, to their ruin and undoing.

§ 1. Some time ago, by Our Predecessor of happy memory, Pope Gregory XV, through his letters in the form of a Brief given at Rome at St. Mary Major on August 30, 1622, in the second year of his Pontificate, wise provision was made against any priests deputed to hear confessions who solicit to filthy and dishonorable things; and thereafter, at successive times, for the interpretation and declaration of those letters, several decrees were issued by the Congregation of Our Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Inquisitors General against heretical depravity, under the 11th day of February in the year of the Lord 1661; and by Alexander VII of blessed memory, likewise Our Predecessor, in the General Congregation of the Holy Roman Universal Inquisition held in his presence on September 24, 1665, among other propositions alien to and discordant with Evangelical truth and the doctrine of the holy Fathers, the sixth and the seventh — to be recalled here — were condemned and prohibited.

We therefore, maturely weighing of what moment it is for the eternal salvation of souls that these things be everywhere exactly observed, and how much it matters, for the care of the infirm sheep and the preserving of the beauty of God's Holy Church, that no priests, wickedly abusing the Sacrament of Penance, offer their penitents a wound in place of healing, a stone for bread, a serpent for a fish, poison for medicine — but rather, recollecting within themselves that they have been appointed by Christ the Lord as guardians and judges of souls, administer so venerable a Sacrament with that holiness which befits the sublimity and dignity of the office: of Our own motion (motu proprio), from certain knowledge and Our mature deliberation, We approve and confirm, by Apostolic authority and by the tenor of these presents, the aforesaid letters and each and every one of the aforesaid decrees issued for their interpretation and declaration, and to all and each of them We add the strength of inviolable Apostolic firmness.

And further, so far as need be, We again commit and command to all the Inquisitors of heretical depravity and to the local Ordinaries of all kingdoms, provinces, cities, dominions, and places of the whole Christian world, that in their respective dioceses, diligently and with every human respect set aside, they inquire and proceed against each and every priest, secular as well as regular however exempt, including those immediately subject to the Apostolic See, of whatever Orders, Institutes, Societies, and Congregations, and of whatever dignity and preeminence, or fortified by whatever privilege and indult, who shall have attempted to solicit or provoke any penitent, whoever that person may be, to dishonorable and filthy things — whether in the act of sacramental confession, or before, or immediately after confession, or on the occasion or under the pretext of confession, or even apart from the occasion of confession, in the confessional or in another place destined or chosen for hearing confessions, with the pretense of hearing confession there — whether by words, or signs, or nods, or touch, or by writing to be read then or afterwards — or who with rash daring shall have held with them illicit and dishonorable conversations or dealings. And those whom they find culpable in any of such nefarious excesses, let them punish severely, with condign penalties according to the quality and circumstances of the crimes, in accordance with the aforesaid constitution of Gregory Our Predecessor, which We will to be held as inserted here word for word: granting also, if need be, and conceding anew — lest a crime so enormous and so injurious to the Church of God remain unpunished through defect of proofs — the faculty, already granted elsewhere in the aforesaid constitution, of proceeding even with single witnesses, provided that presumptions, indications, and other supporting evidence concur.

§ 2. Let each and every priest appointed to hear confessions remember, moreover, that they are held and obliged carefully to admonish their penitents whom they know to have been solicited by others, as above — according to the circumstances of the cases as they occur — of the obligation of denouncing to the Inquisitors or to the aforesaid local Ordinaries the person who committed the solicitation: even if that person is a priest who lacks jurisdiction for validly imparting absolution; or if the solicitation between confessor and penitent was mutual; whether the penitent consented to the solicitation or gave no consent at all; or if a long time has already passed since the solicitation; or if the solicitation was carried out by the confessor not for himself but for another person. Let confessors, further, take diligent care not to impart sacramental absolution to penitents whom they know to have already been solicited by another, unless the penitents first, carrying the aforesaid denunciation into effect, have indicated the delinquent to the competent judge, or at least pledge and promise that they will denounce him as soon as they can.

§ 3. And since wicked men are indeed found who — moved by hatred, or anger, or some other unworthy cause, or incited by the impious persuasions of others, or by promises, or flatteries, or threats, or in any other way — setting aside the tremendous judgment of God and despising the authority of the Church, falsely charge innocent priests with solicitation before ecclesiastical judges: therefore, that so nefarious an audacity and so detestable a deed may be restrained by fear of the greatness of the penalty, whatever person shall have defiled himself with an execrable outrage of this kind — whether by himself impiously calumniating innocent confessors, or by criminally procuring that it be done by others — shall perpetually lack the hope of obtaining absolution from any priest whatsoever, however furnished with privilege, authority, and dignity, except from Us and Our Successors — save at the end of life, the article of death excepted — which absolution We reserve to Us and to Our said Successors.

§ 4. Finally, greatly desiring to remove far from the sanctity of the priestly judgment and of the sacred tribunal every occasion of turpitude, every contempt of the Sacraments and injury to the Church, and to eliminate entirely such ruinous evils, and, so far as in the Lord We are able, to meet the dangers of souls — souls which certain sacrilegious men, ministers of the demon rather than of God, instead of reconciling them through the Sacrament to their Creator and Ours, load with a greater mass of sins and wickedly plunge into the deep pit of iniquity — with the counsel of several of Our Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and of certain Masters in theology taken thereupon, and with the repeated supplications of many Bishops also concurring, by this Our sanction which shall be valid in perpetuity — even as We know it has already been done by many Bishops through their synodal constitutions — We interdict and prohibit, by Apostolic authority and by the fullness of Our power, each and every priest, secular as well as regular, of whatever Order and dignity, though otherwise approved for hearing confessions, and though supported by whatever privilege and indult, even one worthy of special expression and of most special note and mention: that none of them dare — outside the case of extreme necessity, namely in the very article of death, and even then only when any other priest who could discharge the office of confessor is lacking — to hear the sacramental confession of a person who is his accomplice (complex) in a base and dishonorable sin committed against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue; there being therefore taken away from him, by the law itself, all authority and jurisdiction whatsoever for absolving any person whatsoever from a fault of this kind: so much so that an absolution, if he should impart one, is null and utterly void, as imparted by a priest who stands deprived of the jurisdiction and faculty necessary for absolving validly — which by these Our present letters We intend to take away from him; and nonetheless, if any confessor shall have dared to do otherwise, he incurs by that very fact (ipso facto) the penalty also of major excommunication, from which We reserve the power of absolving to Us alone and to Our Successors only.

§ 5. Declaring also and decreeing that not even in virtue of any Jubilee, or even of the Bull which is called of the Holy Crusade (Cruciata Sancta), or of any other indult whatsoever, may anyone hear the confession of the said accomplice or bestow sacramental absolution upon him; since to this effect, and in this case, no confessor — being one who, in this kind of sin and of penitent, lacks jurisdiction, as aforesaid, and stands deprived by Us of the faculty of absolving — is to be held a legitimate and approved confessor. Notwithstanding Apostolic Constitutions and Ordinances, especially those which are named of the Holy Crusade, or of the Universal and plenary Jubilee, and likewise any statutes and customs of whatever Churches, monasteries, and Orders to which those priests may belong, though strengthened by oath, by Apostolic confirmation, or by any other firmness; notwithstanding also privileges, indults, and Apostolic Letters, under whatever tenors and forms, and with whatever clauses and decrees, granted even motu proprio or otherwise in any manner, even repeatedly approved and renewed: to all of which — holding their tenors as expressed by these presents — for this occasion only We specially and expressly derogate, and to all other things whatsoever to the contrary.

§ 6. We will, lastly, and command that all local Ordinaries, present as well as future, take care, in the approval of confessors, that both the aforesaid Constitution of Gregory Our Predecessor and this present one of Ours be attentively read and accurately observed by all priests who are to be approved; and let them admonish and exhort them in the Lord to carry out the sacred ministry committed to their fidelity with the utmost innocence of soul, purity of morals, and integrity of judgment, and to show themselves ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God. Let them be mindful, moreover, that they hold the place and discharge the office of the supreme and eternal Priest, who — holy, innocent, undefiled — offered himself through the Holy Spirit unspotted to God, that he might cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Let them therefore earnestly strive and diligently beware, lest through their fault heaven be closed to those who seek and knock; lest the lost sheep, hastening to return to the Lord's fold, be delivered by their hands to be torn by the teeth of wild beasts; lest the prodigal sons, needy and wounded, returning to their heavenly Father, be pierced — while they are still on the way — with graver wounds of sin through their nefarious wickedness.

§ 7. And that these present Letters may the more easily come to the notice of all, and no one be able to allege ignorance of them, We will that they, or copies of them, be affixed and published, as is customary, at the doors of the Lateran Church and of the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, and also of the Apostolic Chancery and of the General Curia on Monte Citorio, and at the head of the Campo de' Fiori in the City; and that, so published and affixed, they bind and affect each and every one whom they concern, just as if they had been intimated to each of them by name and in person; and that to transcripts or copies of these present Letters, even printed ones, subscribed by the hand of some public Notary and fortified with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, the very same credence be everywhere given, in judgment and outside it, as would be given to these presents themselves if they were exhibited or shown.

§ 8. Let it therefore be lawful for no man at all to infringe this page of Our will, sanction, precept, mandate, and derogation, or to go against it with rash daring. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at Rome at St. Mary Major, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand seven hundred and forty-one, on the Kalends of June [June 1, 1741], in the first year of Our Pontificate.

X. Sub-Datarius. — For D. Cardinal Passionei, Caietanus Amatus.