Case 20. On the Absolution of an Accomplice

Titius, a priest, while making spiritual exercises, moved by divine mercy, disclosed to his confessor a certain pact with Paul, a priest. For since Titius and Paul mutually knew that they sinned rather frequently with women, they agreed between themselves to confess to each other and to give absolution mutually to the accomplice. Having heard these things, Titius’s confessor doubted whether he could now absolve him. Hence it is asked:

1. What does ecclesiastical law establish concerning the absolution of an accomplice?

2. How is the word “accomplice” to be understood?

3. What is to be done by the confessor of a priest who has absolved an accomplice?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. What does ecclesiastical law provide concerning the absolution of an accomplice?

A priest who with another person has gravely sinned against chastity is forbidden to absolve that person from the sin of complicity, is deprived of jurisdiction for absolving that sin, and, if he attempts the absolution of that sin, incurs an excommunication reserved in a most special manner to the Roman Pontiff.¹

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. ii, 213.

2. How is the word accomplice to be understood?

DE ABSOLUTIONE COMPLICIS

An accomplice in a shameful sin is here understood as one who, internally and externally, has committed a grave sin against chastity, whether by words, by a look, or by deed, with a priest, even before the priesthood was received.¹

3. What must be done by the confessor of a priest who has absolved an accomplice?

If a priest confesses that he has attempted to absolve an accomplice, the confessor must admonish him to ask from the Sacred Penitentiary a faculty by which he can be absolved by his confessor. If he wishes, the confessor himself can ask for this faculty. The name of the penitent is not disclosed to the Sacred Penitentiary. If it is necessary for avoiding scandal, or for another just cause, that the penitent be absolved immediately, the confessor can absolve him directly, but under the burden of presenting himself within a month by letter, as above, to the Sacred Penitentiary.²

2 Ibid., 204.

4. To the case. Titius and Paulus, priests, mutually agreed upon the absolution of mutual complices in a sin against chastity and upon the absolution of themselves from their own sins. This pact is itself against chastity, inasmuch as it is a means by which they more easily indulge in impurity; they are therefore accomplices in a shameful sin and cannot absolve each other; if they attempt it, they incur the said excommunication.³

3 Bulot, Compend. Theol. Moral., vol. ii, n. 575.

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. ii, 214.