Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology
§ III. On Solicitation to Shameful Things
The principal ecclesiastical documents which pertain here are:
I. The Constitution Cum sicut nuper of Pius IV;1 the Constitution Universi gregis of Gregory XV,2 to which the Holy Office added sixteen responses on February 11, 1661; the Constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae of Benedict XIV,3 and Etsi Pastoralis, § 9, n. 5;4 the Instructions of the Holy Office.5
II. Canon 904 establishes as follows: "According to the norm of the apostolic constitutions, and especially of the Constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae of Benedict XIV, June 1, 1741, a penitent must, within a month, denounce to the local Ordinary, or to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, the priest guilty of the delict of solicitation in confession; and the confessor must, with the penitent's conscience gravely burdened, admonish the penitent concerning this obligation."
III. Canon 2368 declares that these penalties are to be decreed against those soliciting: "Whoever has committed the crime of solicitation of which canon 904 treats is to be suspended from the celebration of Mass and from hearing sacramental confessions, or even, according to the gravity of the delict, is to be declared incapable of receiving them; he is to be deprived of all benefices, dignities, active and passive voice, and is to be declared incapable of all these things; and in graver cases he is also to be subjected to degradation."
The law also affects the Eastern Church,6 not indeed by force of the Code (cf. can. 1), but by force of the earlier legislation, which the Code left in its vigor with respect to the Eastern Churches.
With these things premised, we shall speak first of those who must be denounced, then of those who must denounce, then of the manner of denouncing, finally of the obligation of the confessor with respect to the penitent who is bound to denounce; a scholion being added on the manner of receiving a denunciation.
1 April 16 (17), 1561.
2 August 30, 1622.
3 June 1, 1741.
4 May 26, 1742.
5 February 20, 1867, and July 20, 1890.
6 Holy Office, June 13, 1740; April 25, 1838 (Collectanea, n. 1282); Constitution Etsi pastoralis of Benedict XIV; Instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, August 26, 1775 (Collectanea, n. 1732).