Appeal to a council; recourse to lay power against the Holy See (Cann. 2332–2334)

Nineteenth ordinary-mode excommunication. If anyone of the clerics or laymen, with whatever dignity he may excel, even imperial or royal, has been so occupied by cupidity, the root of all evils, that he has presumed to convert to his own uses and usurp, by himself or through others, by force or fear struck in, or even through supposed persons of clerics or laymen, or by any art or under whatever color sought, the jurisdictions, goods, revenues and rights, even feudal and emphyteutic, fruits, emoluments, or any income whatever of some church, or of any secular or regular benefice, montes pietatis, and other pious places, which ought to be converted to the necessity of ministers and the poor, or to impede them from being received by those to whom they pertain by right, let him lie under anathema for so long as he has not fully restored to the church and its administrator or beneficiary the jurisdictions, goods, things, rights, fruits, and revenues which he has occupied, or which have come to him in any way whatever, even from the donation of a supposed person, and then has obtained absolution from the Roman pontiff. But the cleric who has been the maker of such nefarious fraud and usurpation, or consenting to it, is subject to the same penalties. Sess. 22. c. 11. De reform.

91. a. This censure protects ecclesiastical goods taken in the broadest sense, namely any temporal goods and rights whatever pertaining to churches, religious places, or pious places; to these also in part article 11 and 12 of the first series refer. Therefore in cases which pertain to both censures, the censure reserved in a special mode is contracted.¹

b. Clerics and laymen contract the censure who usurp the goods of the Church, by authoritatively occupying them as owed to themselves by right, or who impede them from being received by those to whom they pertain by right, by occupying them as if pertaining to themselves and converting them to their own uses. Clerics incur the censure if they even only consent to these actions.

c. In this matter they dispute whether all usurpations are punished by this censure, or only authoritative ones, namely those which are done through public authority. From the declaration of the holy see, thieves and robbers do not incur this censure.²

d. Finally, those also incur this censure who have bought goods of this kind from usurpers or have acquired them under another title (donation, inheritance, legacy, etc.).³

¹ Holy Office, July 8, 1874.

² Holy Office, March 9, 1870.

³ Holy Office, July 8, 1894.

Sixth non-reserved excommunication. Whoever shall have presumed to teach, preach, or pertinaciously assert, or by disputing publicly defend, that sacramental confession is not to be premised to the sacrament of the Eucharist, when there is abundance of a confessor, if he whom consciousness of mortal sin burdens judges himself to be truly contrite. Sess. 13. c. 11.

105. He incurs the censure who denies that sacramental confession is necessarily to be premised; therefore he does not incur it who only denies that it is necessary by divine law, nor he, whether he is a cleric or layman, who does not premise confession where he is bound from the Tridentine decree.

Seventh non-reserved excommunication. Those who deny that clandestine marriages made by the free consent of the contracting parties are true and ratified, so long as the Church has not made them invalid. Whoever shall affirm that marriages contracted by children of the family without the consent of parents are invalid, and that parents can make them ratified or invalid. Sess. 24. c. 1. De reform. matr.

Eighth non-reserved excommunication. The abductor of a woman, and all those furnishing him counsel, help, and favor. Sess. 24. c. 6. De reform. matr.

106. Both the abductor and his cooperators incur the censure, even if marriage did not follow or was not attempted.

Ninth non-reserved excommunication. Those who in any way directly or indirectly compel their subjects or any others, so that they do not freely contract marriages. Sess. 24. c. 9. De reform. matr.

107. This censure protects the liberty of marriage. Temporal lords and magistrates incur it, who exercise jurisdiction in the secular external forum, but not private persons, such as parents who compel children, or masters who compel servants, to enter marriage.

Tenth non-reserved excommunication. Magistrates who refuse to furnish help to the bishop against those who violate the enclosure of nuns or prohibit them from being restored. Sess. 25. c. 5. De regul.

Eleventh non-reserved excommunication. All who in any way have compelled any woman, unwilling, except in cases expressed in law, to enter a monastery, or to receive the habit of any religion, or to emit profession; and those who shall have given counsel, help, or favor; and those who, knowing that she does not spontaneously enter the monastery, or receive the habit, or emit profession, in any way interpose their presence, or consent, or authority to the same act. Sess. 25. c. 18. De regul.

Twelfth non-reserved excommunication. Those who in any way, without just cause, shall have impeded the holy will of virgins or other women of receiving the veil or emitting a vow. Sess. 25. c. 18. De regul.

108. a. These two censures protect the liberty of entering religion. There is question of religion strictly such, of solemn vows.

b. In law a twofold case is had in which a bishop can compel a woman to enter a monastery, not indeed that she emit profession there, but that she dwell there: a. a wife who, after her husband has emitted profession with her consent, is suspected of incontinence; b. an adulterous wife whom the husband is unwilling to receive though she is penitent.

Confessionem—So that the penitent makes his confession with a view to absolution. Canon 2332 IV. Omnes et singuli cujuscumque status, gradus seu conditionis etiam regalis, episcopalis vel cardinalitiae fuerint, a legibus, decretis, mandatis Romani Pontificis pro tempore existentis ad Universale Concilium appellantes, sunt suspecti de haeresi et ipso facto contrahunt excommunicationem Sedi Apostolicae speciali modo reservatam.

Appellantes—Physical persons who appeal from the Pope to an Oecumenical Council, not to a future Pope or to the reigning Pope better informed. Canon 2333 V. Recurrentes ad laicam potestatem ad impediendas litteras vel acta quaelibet a Sede Apostolica vel ab ejusdem Legatis profecta, eorumve promulgationem vel executionem directe vel indirecte prohibentes, aut eorum causa sive eos ad quos pertinent litterae vel acta sive alios laedentes vel perterrefacientes, ipso facto subjaceant excommunicationi Sedi Apostolicae speciali modo reservatae. (Those who have recourse to the lay power in order to impede any letters or acts whatsoever issuing from the Apostolic See or from its Legates, or who directly or indirectly forbid their promulgation or execution, or who on that account injure or terrify either those to whom the letters or acts pertain or any others, are ipso facto subject to an excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See in a special manner.)

Recurrentes——Those incur this censure who with effect have recourse to the civil authority to impede any letters or acts of any kind issued by the Holy See, the Roman Congregations, Offices, Legates, Nuncios, Apostolic Delegates.

Prohibentes—Preventing in any way their promulgation and execution.

Laedentes—Injuring and frightening with effect those to whom the letters belong or others concerned in their promulgation and execution. Canon 2334.

VI. Excommunicatione latae sententiae speciali modo Sedi Apostolicae reservata plectuntur: (1) Qui leges, mandata, vel decreta contra libertatem aut jura Ecclesiae edunt.

(2) Qui impediunt directe vel indirecte exercitium jurisdictionis ecclesiasticae sive interni sive externi fori, ad hoc recurrentes ad quamlibet laicalem potestatem. (There are punished with an excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See in a special manner: (1) those who issue laws, mandates or decrees against the liberty or the rights of the Church; (2) those who directly or indirectly impede the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whether of the internal or of the external forum, having recourse for this purpose to any lay power whatsoever.)

Edunt.—Public authorities who make laws, issue mandates and decrees against the liberty and rights of the Church, incur this censure.

Impediunt.—As also do those who hinder with effect in any way the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction by having recourse to any sort of lay authority. Canon 2341 VII. Si quis contra praescriptum [privilegii fori] ausus fuerit ad judicem laicum trahere aliquem ex S. *(If anyone, against the prescription of the privilege of the forum, shall have dared to drag before a lay judge any one of the Most Holy)*R.E. Cardinalibus, vel Legatis Sedis Apostolicae, vel officialibus majoribus Romanae Curiae, ob negotia ad eorum munus pertinentia, (Cardinals, or Legates of the Apostolic See, or the major officials of the Roman Curia, on account of business pertaining to their office,) vel Ordinarium proprium, contrahit ipso facto excommunicationem Sedi Apostolicae speciali modo reservatam. (or his own Ordinary, contracts ipso facto an excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See in a special manner.)

1176. VI. "He who has dared to drag before a lay judge any of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church or Legates of the Apostolic See, or major Officials of the Roman Curia concerning business pertaining to their office, or his own Ordinary."¹⁶

¹⁶ Code, c. 2341.

This censure is incurred not only by legislators and other authorities, but also by private persons who summon the aforesaid ecclesiastical persons to the tribunal of laymen and compel them to be present there.

1177. VII. "Those having recourse to the lay power in order to impede any letters or acts whatever proceeding from the Apostolic See, or from its Legates, and directly or indirectly prohibiting their promulgation or execution, or on account of them striking or terrifying either those to whom the letters or acts pertain, or others."¹

¹ Code, c. 2333.

Here there is question of any acts whatever, whether of the Roman Pontiff, or of the Sacred Congregations, or of the Legates, Nuncios, or Delegates of the Apostolic See, provided that they have already proceeded.

This excommunication is incurred: 1. by those who effectively have recourse to the lay power in order to impede those acts; 2. by those who directly by edict, or indirectly by deeds, prohibit their promulgation or their execution, even if, notwithstanding the edict, the promulgation is afterward made or the act is put into execution; 3. by those who, on account of them, that is, in order to impede the promulgation or execution of the acts, strike, or terrify by grave threats, either the parties themselves or others joined with the parties.