Chapter V. Things Forbidden to Clerics

In general, clerics are forbidden to do anything which is unbecoming their state of life or which interferes with the due discharge of their duties—“‘ No man being a soldier to God entangleth himself with secular businesses,” says St Paul (2 Tim. ii 4). They are expressly forbidden to indulge in games of chance for money, to carry arms unless there is good reason to fear attack, to hunt with hounds, to enter inns and similar places without necessity or some good reason approved of by the Ordinary of the place (Can. 138).

Similarly, they are forbidden to practise medicine or surgery without leave of the Holy See, to act as public notaries, except in the ecclesiastical court, to hold public offices which involve the exercise of lay jurisdiction or administration.

Without leave of their own Ordinary they should not undertake the agency for property belonging to laymen, nor secular offices which entail the duty of rendering accounts; they should not exercise the office of procurator or advocate except in the ecclesiastical court, or when a cause of their own or of their church is being tried in the civil court; they should take no part, not even as witnesses, without necessity in a lay criminal trial.

Clerics are forbidden to go surety even with their own property without consulting the local Ordinary.

They are forbidden to offer themselves for the post of Members of Parliament or to accept it without leave of their own Ordinary and of the Ordinary of the place where the election is held (Can. 137, 139).

Clerics are forbidden to retain in their houses or in any way to be familiar with women about whom any suspicion can arise.

They may live under the same roof only with those women of whom natural ties allow no suspicion to be entertained, such as mother, sister, aunt, and so forth, or whose good character and mature age make them free from all suspicion.

The judgement as to whether the retaining or being intimate with women, even with those on whom suspicion does not usually fall, can in any particular case create scandal or be a danger to morals, belongs to the Ordinary of the place, whose duty it is to forbid such retaining or intimacy to clerics (Can. 133, sec. 4; West. d. 11, n. 3).

Canon 140 forbids clerics to be present at spectacles, dances, and pageants which do not become them, or when their presence would cause scandal, especially in public theatres.

“The word spectacula,” says Fr. Ayrinhac, ‘ comprises all theatrical representations and likewise such exhibitions as horse-races, bull-fights, prize-fights, etc., at least if it be taken in its most general sense.”” Dom Augustine gives a similar definition of the term.

Provincial legislation often makes this general law more precise. Thus 4 West., d. 11, n. g is as follows: “ We strictly prohibit ecclesiastics who have received sacred orders from being present at stage representations in public theatres or in places temporarily made use of as public theatres, under the penalty to transgressors of suspension to be incurred ipso facto, as has hitherto been the rule in all parts of England, with reservation to the respective Ordinaries.”

Clerics, therefore, are forbidden to be present at public not at private theatricals by this law. Custom in England makes an exception with regard to those exhibitions which are given by mere children.

Clerics are forbidden to enter military service, unless they do so with the leave of their own Ordinary in order that they may be free the sooner, and to aid in any way civil war and disturbances of public order (Can. 141).

Clerics are forbidden to trade in person or through another, whether in their own interest or in that of others (Can. 142).

The trading which is forbidden to clerics and all religious is trading in the strict sense of the term. In this sense to trade is to buy commodities, not for consumption, but with the intention of selling them again at a higher price without changing their nature. So that it is not trading in the strict sense to sell the produce of one’s own land, nor to sell what was bought for consumption but was found to be unsuitable, nor to sell without profit to the poor, nor to sell a picture painted by one’s self with colours bought in the market. However, certain transactions which have the appearance of trading are sometimes forbidden on account of the danger and scandal which they are apt to cause.

It is not illicit trading to invest money in Government stock or other bonds which bear interest, though it would be unlawful speculation to invest money with the intention of selling out at a profit if the price rises. Although it is forbidden to clerics to act as directors or to take part in the management of industrial and commercial companies, yet it is probable that a cleric may lawfully invest money in such enterprises as are honest merely with a view of getting interest on his investment. He only buys the right to receive interest on his money, much in the same way as if he invested it in Government stock.

The prohibition against trading binds under pain of grave sin if the matter be considerable. However, trading implies a habit, and so in the opinion of many divines to trade once in a way, even in a considerable quantity, would not be a mortal sin.

Canon 2380 prescribes that clerics and religious who violate the law against trading be punished by the Ordinary according to the gravity of the fault.