Dissertation I. On Penalties in General

I. To the Church belongs the right, and that native and proper, and independent of any human authority, of coercing delinquents subject to her by penalties, both spiritual and even temporal (canon 2214, § 1). This is drawn from Sacred Scripture;¹ from the practice of the Apostles² and of the Church, even as regards temporal penalties;³ from the Council of Trent;⁴ from the nature of the Church, which is a perfect society and therefore enjoys legislative power. But legislative power carries with it coercive power, or the power of sanctioning laws, since without it legislative power would be unsuitable for securely attaining the end.

II. In the use of coercive power, the warning of the Council of Trent should be kept before one's eyes:⁵

"Let Bishops and other Ordinaries remember that they are pastors, not beaters, and that they ought so to preside over those subject to them that they do not dominate over them, but love them as sons and brothers, and labor by exhorting and warning to deter them from illicit things, lest, when they have offended, they be forced to coerce them with due penalties. Nevertheless, if it should happen that they sin in something through human frailty, that precept of the Apostle is to be observed by them, that they reprove, entreat, and rebuke them in all goodness and patience, since often benevolence does more toward correcting than austerity, exhortation more than threat, charity more than power. But if, on account of the gravity of the delict, the rod will be necessary, then rigor is to be used with meekness, judgment with mercy, severity with gentleness, so that discipline, salutary and necessary for the peoples, may be preserved without harshness, and those who have been corrected may be amended, or, if they are unwilling to come to their senses, others may be deterred from vices by the salutary example of action taken against them" (canon 2214, § 2).

With these things noted beforehand, we will speak first of the notion, division, imposition, and interpretation of penalties; then of the Superior having the power of punishing; then of the subject liable to the power of punishing; finally of the remission of penalties.

¹ Matthew 18:17-18.

² 1 Corinthians 5:3-5; 2 Thessalonians 3:14, etc.

³ Whether the Church can punish certain most grave delicts with death or mutilation is disputed. More commonly it is denied, nor in her own forum has she ever used this power.

⁴ Session 7, canon 14; session 14, canon 4; session 25, chapter 14, etc.

⁵ Session 13, chapter 1.