Article II. On the Special Faculties of Confessors

I. Faculties granted. To confessors lawfully chosen according to what was said in Article I belongs:

1. The faculty of absolving both from sins and - but in the forum of conscience only - from censures reserved either to the Holy See or to Ordinaries, except those which perhaps are excepted by the Bull, with a salutary penance nevertheless imposed, and with other things to be imposed by law. Therefore, as Benedict XIV teaches, the confessor "should not omit imposing upon each penitent his own salutary penance in the sacrament, not even under the pretext of the Jubilee to be obtained by the same penitent."¹ Other things to be imposed by law are understood as those which by either divine or ecclesiastical law are imposed upon the penitent.² Moreover:

a) One who falsely accused a confessor of solicitation cannot be absolved unless he has retracted the accusation and compensated other damages perhaps following upon the accused person, or is prepared to retract the accusation and compensate the damages.³

b) Those who have propagated heresy, or at least are guilty of external heresy, should not be absolved before they have abjured the heresy before the confessor and have repaired the scandal, or at least are prepared to repair it.⁴

c) Those who retain or read prohibited books should not be absolved before they have put them away or have seriously promised that they will put them away.⁵

d) Those who have given their name to a condemned secret sect should not be absolved except on the condition that they separate themselves altogether from the respective sect and abjure it, and that books, manuscripts, and signs concerning the sect, if they retain any, be handed into your hands (the hands of the confessor), to be cautiously transmitted as soon as possible to the Ordinary, or at least, if just and grave causes demand it, to be burned.⁶

e) One who violated the enclosure of Nuns for an evil end, even in occult cases, must be forbidden by the confessor from approaching in the future any monastery and church of Nuns; and he must be warned that he is absolved from the censure in such a way that, if he does not observe the prohibition imposed, he falls back by that very fact into the same censure.⁷

f) One who absolved an accomplice is usually obliged by the Sacred Penitentiary: 1. "that insofar as the accomplice person should approach him again, after being warned of the nullity of the past absolutions, he send that person back to another confessor who is not an accomplice"; 2. "that he abstain in the future from hearing the confessions of any accomplice person, insofar as this can be done without grave scandal"; 3. "that he take care to resign the office of confessor, if he has absolved two accomplices once or one accomplice twice."⁸ But more recent Bulls have been accustomed to restrict the faculty of absolving a confessor who has absolved an accomplice.

g) Those who have been excommunicated, suspended, interdicted by name, or otherwise declared to have fallen into sentences and censures, or publicly denounced, should not be absolved unless within the time of the Jubilee they have made satisfaction and have come to agreement with the parties, where that is necessary.⁹ But afterward this was added: "But if within the prescribed term, in the judgment of the confessor, they could not make satisfaction, we grant that they can be absolved in the forum of conscience, for the sole effect of obtaining the indulgences of the Jubilee, with the obligation imposed of making satisfaction as soon as they can."

2. The faculty of dispensing with a penitent constituted in sacred Orders concerning an occult irregularity contracted because of violation of a censure.¹⁰

3. The faculty of commuting any vows whatsoever, even sworn vows and vows reserved to the Apostolic See, into other pious and salutary works. There are excepted: 1. reserved vows of chastity and Religion; 2. vows made and accepted in favor of a third party, as vows made in any Religion; 3. penal vows, which are called preservative from sin, unless the future commutation is judged to be such that it restrains no less from committing sin than the former matter of the vow;¹¹ the vow of not seeking commutation is not excepted (St. Alphonsus, VI, 537, q. 4). Moreover observe:

a) For the commutation of vows (during the time of the Jubilee) a special cause is not required; but that common cause on account of which the Pontiff was moved to proclaim the Jubilee suffices (St. Alphonsus, II, 537, q. 40).

b) The power of commuting sworn vows quite probably carries with it the power of commuting oaths; nor does St. Alphonsus contradict this, since he speaks only of the power of commuting vows (III, 190).

It is disputed whether the power of commuting an oath of chastity and Religion belongs to the confessor. But it seems improbable that the Church, which denies the power of commuting a vow of some thing, would grant the faculty of commuting an oath concerning the same thing.

4. The faculty of commuting, from a just cause, the works assigned for the Jubilee into other pious works;¹² concerning this see n. 559.

The faculty of dispensing in some impediments of marriage is commonly not granted; yet in the year 1925 some faculty had been granted, but only for the internal forum.

¹ Bull Convocatis, § 26.

² Cf. Sacred Penitentiary, April 18, 1900.

³ A.A.S. 1924, p. 338, under IV.

⁴ A.A.S. 1924, p. 311, under IV.

⁵ A.A.S. 1924, p. 339, under VIII.

⁶ A.A.S. 1924, p. 311, under IV.

⁷ A.A.S. 1924, p. 339, under VI.

⁸ A.A.S. 1924, p. 310, under I.

⁹ A.A.S. 1924, p. 310, under IV.

¹⁰ Bull Benedictus Deus, nn. 4 and 5.

¹¹ A.A.S. 1917, p. 311, under VII, p. 320.

¹² A.A.S. 1927, p. 312 sq.

II. Things to be noted. Concerning the faculties explained above these things are to be noted:

1. It is not permitted to use them except with respect to penitents who have the intention of gaining the indulgence of the Jubilee and therefore of fulfilling the prescribed works.¹ But the fact that someone sinned in hope of receiving absolution by force of the Jubilee does not prevent him from enjoying the favors, provided he is now sorry, and wills to gain the Jubilee and to fulfill the pious works (St. Alphonsus, VI, 537, q. 6). But if the penitent afterward, having changed his mind, does not fulfill the works required for gaining the indulgence, he sins, because he acts against the intention of the Supreme Pontiff who granted the faculties for gaining the Jubilee.² Yet it is not established that the sin is grave. Besides, the favors granted, for example the commutation of a vow, persist³ (St. Alphonsus, VI, 537, q. 3).

2. The faculties must be used in sacramental confession;⁴ but it is not required that all the faculties be exercised in the same confession or by the same confessor. Thus, for example, one who in confession for the Jubilee omitted to ask for commutation of a vow can ask for this in another confession and from another confessor. Nor is it required that absolution be granted now to one sacramentally confessed. Hence even if the confessor judges that absolution is to be deferred, he can nevertheless remove, for example, a censure or commute a vow; and if this has taken place, an ordinary confessor also, with the censure and the reservation of the sin removed, can absolve the penitent from sins.

3. Concerning repeated use of the favors, receive these things:

a) A penitent who has enjoyed the favors granted and has fulfilled all the prescribed works cannot enjoy the favors again, for example if he should make a new vow; and this holds even if the indulgence itself can be acquired several times.⁵ The faculty of commuting prescribed works is excepted; it is permitted to use this several times⁶ (n. 559).

b) One who has enjoyed the favors granted, but before he has fulfilled all the prescribed works needs them again, for example by falling back into censures, can, as seems to have to be said in view of the Bull Convocatis, n. 84 at the end, enjoy the favors again. Namely, the Supreme Pontiff states that "if he has once shared in them (the graces) the first time that he obtained the Jubilee, he cannot become a participant in them again, if after the first acquisition of the Jubilee he falls again into censures, etc." By these words it is implied that he can again become a participant in the graces if before the acquisition of the Jubilee, or before all the works have been fulfilled, he again falls into a censure. Moreover it seems more consonant with the mind of the Church that the faculties granted can be exercised until the faithful person, all the works having been fulfilled, has obtained the Jubilee.⁷

4. If someone has forgotten a reserved sin or reserved censure in a confession otherwise valid, or from a just cause has omitted it, according to many authors the reservation of the sin and the censure have been removed. The reason is that it is fitting to the mind of the Supreme Pontiff, who granted special faculties to the confessor in favor of the penitent, that the well-disposed penitent, insofar as it can be done, enjoy the said faculties (St. Alphonsus, VI, 537, q. 4). But if someone exposed a reserved censure or sin to the confessor, yet confessed invalidly, the reserved censure and the reservation of the sin have not been removed, if the confession was culpably invalid, that is, sacrilegious; since the sincere intention of acquiring the Jubilee is lacking (p. 421). Besides, "since the Pontiff grants the faculty of absolving from reserved things so that the faithful may gain the Jubilee, he is not presumed to grant it for those who cannot gain the Jubilee by that confession" (St. Alphonsus, VI, 537, q. 2). Moreover, because of the latter reason, the same solution seems to have to be admitted against several authors, if the confession was inculpably invalid (St. Alphonsus, loc. cit.).

5. One who confessed during the time of the Jubilee can, if absolution seems to have to be deferred for him and to be granted after the Jubilee, be absolved from reserved things even after the time of the Jubilee (St. Alphonsus, VI, 537, q. 4).

¹ Bulls Convocatis, § 24; Inter praeteritos, § 62; Benedictus Deus, § 6; Celebrationem, § 8; Sacred Penitentiary, June 1, 1869; January 15, 1886.

² Cf. Bull Inter praeteritos, n. 86.

³ Cf. Bulls Convocatis, n. 34; Inter praeteritos, n. 86; Leo XIII, Bull Praesentes Litteras; Sacred Penitentiary, November 1, 1899.

⁴ Bulls Convocatis, § 25; Inter praeteritos, § 62, compared with Convocatis, § 40.

⁵ Bulls Convocatis, § 52; Inter praeteritos, § 84; Sacred Penitentiary, June 1, 1869; Sacred Penitentiary, March 18, 1886.

⁶ Sacred Penitentiary, March 18, 1886 (A.S.S. XVIII, p. 512).

⁷ For the Jubilee of the year 1875, however, the Sacred Penitentiary, January 25, 1875, by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, declared: "His Holiness declared that by force of the present Jubilee (the faithful) can be absolved only once from censures and reserved cases (and likewise that the indulgence of the Jubilee itself can be acquired only once)." And on the same day the Sacred Penitentiary, to the question "Whether confessors can absolve a penitent who, already absolved from reserved things and censures, has fallen into them again before he has fulfilled the works prescribed for acquiring the Jubilee," responded: "By virtue of the Jubilee one can be absolved only once from reserved things and from censures, or, negatively."