Chapter X. Reserved Cases

THE Council of Trent says:¹ “‘ It hath seemed to our most holy Fathers to be of great importance to the discipline of the Christian people that certain more atrocious and more heinous crimes should be absolved not by all priests, but only by the highest priests.” And so the absolution of certain graver sins and censures, or cases as they are called, is reserved to higher ecclesiastics. Ordinary confessors retain their jurisdiction for other sins, but it is limited, so that they have no authority over reserved cases. The motive for thus reserving sins is the spiritual good of the faithful, so that they may be deterred from committing those sins on account of the difficulty of obtaining absolution for them, and if unfortunately they should fall into them, they may have more skilful guides than ordinary confessors are presumed to be.

¹ Sess. xiv, c. 7.

Reservation is the limitation of jurisdiction, and so in general all those who have ordinary jurisdiction, when they delegate it to others, may reserve some cases for treatment in their own tribunal.

In particular the Pope reserves certain censures and sins of all the faithful throughout the world. In nearly all papal cases both the censure and the sin are reserved, but the sin is reserved on account of the censure, so that if, through any cause, the censure is not incurred, then the sin is not reserved. False accusation of solicitation made against a confessor is an exception, and is reserved to the Holy See on its own account (Can. 894).

The Code of Canon Law divides the censures reserved by the Holy See into four classes. Some are reserved in a most special manner to the Holy See itself, others in a special manner to the Holy See, others are simply reserved to the Holy See, others, again, are reserved by the Holy See to the Ordinary. A fifth class of papal censures are reserved to none, and may be absolved on proper conditions by any priest with ordinary faculties.

Local Ordinaries should not reserve sins except after discussion in Synod or the necessity or usefulness of reservation has been approved out of Synod by the Chapter and some prudent priests who have the cure of souls. Bishops’ cases should be few, only three or four, the more atrocious crimes, and not papal cases. The reservation should be withdrawn when it has obtained its effect (Can. 895-898).

In England the First and Fourth Synod of Westminster reserved to the bishop the case of a priest going to the theatre and thereby incurring suspension. In the United States two cases are reserved by provincial law: (a) The excommunication incurred by those who attempt to marry again after getting a civil divorce; (b) the excommunication incurred by those who marry before any non-Catholic minister.

Besides these cases reserved by law the bishops reserve a few cases to themselves for which the pagella of faculties must be consulted. When the bishops reserve a sin with a censure attached to it, it was a disputed point whether the reservation of the censure is the primary object in view, as in papal cases, or whether the reservation of the sin and of the censure are of equal importance and independent of each other. This question is now settled by Canon 2246, sec. 3, which decides that when a censure has been absolved or is not incurred the reservation of the sin ceases.

The superiors of religious orders may also reserve cases of their subjects. Clement VIII issued a list of eleven cases which they might reserve, and forbade them to reserve others except with the consent of a general or provincial chapter of the order (Can. 896).

Certain conditions are required in order that any particular sin may be reserved. First of all it must be a grave sin such as forms the necessary matter of confession, for a venial sin which the penitent need not confess cannot be effectually reserved. It is not the practice of the Church to reserve merely internal sins; there must be an external act and as such gravely sinful. So that a slightly: indecent word, even if uttered with a seriously bad intention, would not fall under reservation if all sins of indecency were reserved. The sin must be completed and perfect in its kind, not merely attempted, for reservation is to be strictly interpreted. For the same reason it must be certain that the sin is reserved, so that any prudent doubt of law or of fact whether a particular sin is reserved is sufficient to enable the confessor to give absolution without special faculties. ‘4. Those who are under the age of puberty do not incur papal cases unless they are expressly included in the law. The only papal cases in which they are so included is the violation of the enclosure of nuns. The same rule may be applied to bishops’ cases, unless a bishop has made known his intention to bind even those who have not reached the age of puberty. Ignorance of a censure, unless it be crass or supine, excuses from the censure, as is expressly laid down in the Decretals.¹ As in papal cases the reservation of the sin is on account of the censure annexed to it, and ignorance excuses from incurring this, therefore ignorance will excuse one from incurring papal reserved cases to which a censure is attached. The reservation of false accusation of solicitation is very probably penal, as theologians gather from the words by Benedict XIV in the Constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae, and as ignorance of a penalty excuses one from incurring it, therefore ignorance will excuse one from incurring this reserved case. This opinion, however, which many hold to be still probable, is hardly of practical importance, for the ecclesiastical judge who receives the false accusation will certainly warn the culprit of the penalty incurred by false accusation.

It is a disputed point whether ignorance excuses from incurring bishops’ cases or not. It excuses, indeed, from incurring any censure inflicted by any ecclesiastical superior, but it certainly does not excuse from incurring a reserved sin if the bishop has expressed his intention of reserving it even when committed in ignorance of the reservation. Otherwise it is probable that ignorance excuses in episcopal as well as in papal cases, for reservation is partly penal, and it cannot attain its end of deterring the faithful from committing reserved sins if they are ignorant of the reservation.

According to Canon 900, all reservation ceases: (1) When either the sick who cannot leave the house make their confession, or those about to be married with a view to marriage.

(2) Whenever either the lawful superior on being asked has refused to grant faculties for absolving a particular case, or in the prudent judgement of the confessor faculties for granting absolution cannot be asked for from the lawful superior without serious detriment to the penitent or without danger of violating the seal of confession.

(3) When the penitent is outside the territory of him who reserved the case, even though he left it only to obtain absolution. But, according to the Commission for the Interpretation of Canon Law a stranger (peregrinus) incurs the reserved cases of the place where he is staying (A.A.S. xii, 575)-

¹ C. 2, de const. in 6to; can. 2229, sec. 3, i.

In general absolution from reserved cases may be obtained from the person who reserved them, from his successor, his superior who has jurisdiction over the same subjects, and from anyone who has been specially delegated by one of these to grant absolution.

Canon 2237, sec. 2, gives Ordinaries power to absolve from cases simply reserved to the Holy See when they are occult either in person or by their delegate.

The Vicar General and the Canon Penitentiary can absolve from cases reserved to the Ordinary (Can. 401).

Vicars forane have power to absolve from cases which the bishop reserves to himself, and they should be able to delegate the same power to other priests of their district (Can. 899, sec. 2).

By the same canon, sec. 3, parish priests are empowered to absolve from cases which Ordinaries reserve to themselves during the time allowed for making one’s Easter duties, and missionaries have the same power during missions.

When the penitent is in danger of death any priest can absolve him from any sins or censures however they may be reserved, but if a penitent in that condition has been absolved from a censure ab homine or one most specially reserved to the Holy See by a priest without special faculties, and he recovers, he is bound under pain of falling again under censure to have recourse to him who inflicted the censure if it was ab homine, or to the Sacred Penitentiary or to the bishop or someone else with special faculties and submitting to their commands (Can. 2252).

Moreover, when it is necessary for a penitent to receive absolution in order to avoid scandal or loss of reputation, or because he must say Mass or make his Easter Communion, or when he feels it a great hardship to remain in the state of sin during the time required for obtaining special faculties to absolve him, a simple confessor may absolve him from all reserved cases (Can. 2254).

If the penitent does not feel it a hardship already the confessor may induce him to feel it, and then absolve him. But in any case the confessor must impose on the penitent whom he has absolved the obligation of having recourse within a month at least by letter and through the confessor, if it can be done without serious inconvenience, without mentioning the penitent’s name, to the Sacred Penitentiary or to the bishop, or to any other superior endowed with faculties for the case, and of obeying his commands. Unless the penitent fulfils this obligation he will again fall under the censure.

The ordinary confessors of exempt religious men of clerical institutes can absolve from cases reserved in the order; as also can confessors approved by the local Ordinary (Can, 518, 519).

If a confessor without special faculties absolves from a reserved case in ignorance of the reservation, the absolution is valid, except in the case of a censure ab homine or one most specially reserved to the Holy See (Can. 2247, sec. 3).