Suspension

109. Nature. 1. Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is deprived of the use of power which he has by reason of order, office, or benefice.

a. Because suspension is a penalty proper to the clerical state, it can fall upon clerics alone, but not upon the faithful generally, as happens in excommunication.

b. Suspension does not take away the right itself or the power itself, such as benefice or office, but only their use and exercise.

c. Since suspension consists in the privation of the use of clerical power, only he can carry suspension who can grant clerical power. Therefore superioresses of nuns, just as they can suspend no one, so also they themselves cannot properly be suspended.

d. Suspension differs from deposition and degradation, which are vindicative penalties, by which a cleric is deprived not only of the use of power but, as far as can be done, of the power itself, office, or benefice.

2. Suspension properly so called, since it is a most grave penalty, cannot of itself be licitly carried unless admonition has first been given, the cause has been declared, and it is done by writing.

3. From suspension properly so called, suspension improperly so called must be distinguished; the former has the nature of censure, the latter does not, but either is a vindicative penalty, or a mere prohibition, if it is carried without fault. This distinction is therefore of great importance, because only the violation of suspension which has the nature of censure produces the effect of irregularity.

Suspensions which are carried by way of universal and stable law, even if only for a time, for a year or for three years, have the nature of censure; but suspensions are not censures:

a. Those which on account of past fault are carried either perpetually or by way of a particular sentence for a definite time;

b. Those which are inflicted without previous admonition, or without the cause having been declared, or orally;

c. Those which are inflicted upon a community;

d. Those which are imposed from informed conscience in such a way that the cause of the suspension in no way, not even implicitly, becomes known to the delinquent. Ordinarily, however, its cause, without admonition on the part of the judge, is already known from elsewhere; wherefore this suspension ordinarily has the nature of censure.²

¹ Kober, Die Suspension der Kirchendiener (Tubing, Laupp, 1862). Hollweck, l. c. p. 132 ff.

² Cf. Benedict XIV, De synodo l. 12. c. 8. n. 5. Acta s. sedis XIX. 561. Ballerini-Palmieri VII. n. 343.

110. Division. 1. Suspension is called general by which a cleric is deprived of the use of every power which he has either from order or from office or from benefice; it is called special by which a cleric is deprived of the use of power of one or another species only, namely by which he is suspended either from order or from office or from benefice.

2. Special suspension is either total, if it deprives a cleric of the use of every power of some species, namely either of order or of office or of benefice; or it is partial, if it deprives him of the use of only part of the power of some species, as if someone is suspended only from celebration, not from the whole order, or only from hearing confessions, not from the whole office.

a. One totally suspended from order is deprived of the exercise of any order, except acts of minor orders which laymen also exercise; one totally suspended from office is deprived of the exercise of every order, of jurisdiction, such as dispensing, absolving, delegating, approving, etc., and of office, such as preaching, catechizing, caring for canonical books, etc. Suspension from office includes suspension from order; one totally suspended from benefice is deprived of the administration of the benefice and also of the right of receiving its fruits.

b. Various partial suspensions occur in law:

a. Suspension a divinis is understood by some (Hilarius a Sexten) of suspension from order, i.e. from every exercise of sacred order; by others (D'Annibale) of suspension from office, i.e. from every use both of order and of jurisdiction.

b. Against prelates there is carried the partial suspension from pontifical order, by which they are deprived of the use of the power which arises from episcopal order, such as ordaining, confirming, etc.; or suspension from pontificals, by which they are deprived of the use of pontifical insignia, namely miter, staff, and pallium, and consequently also of those acts of episcopal order which are not exercised without the aforesaid insignia, such as conferring orders, consecrating a church, etc.; but they are not deprived of those acts which can be done without insignia of this kind, such as celebrating in the manner of priests, confirming without staff and miter.

c. If someone is called simply and without addition suspended, suspension from office and benefice is to be understood, unless from the subject matter or from circumstances a limitation is gathered.

3. By reason of the subject, suspension which is carried against individual persons is distinguished from suspension which is carried against an entire community.

Concerning this last suspension two things must be noted: a. Unless at the same time it falls upon determined persons, through it only those ecclesiastical functions are prohibited which are exercised by the community insofar as it is a moral body. Thus a suspended chapter is prohibited from making elections, celebrating divine things solemnly, etc.

b. If suspension of an entire community is at the same time carried against individual persons, it does not affect the innocent but only delinquents: for no one can be punished for another's fault.¹ Therefore as to the innocent this suspension has the nature of a prohibition.

4. Suspension from informed conscience² is inflicted on account of causes known to the one carrying it, and therefore extrajudicially, with no admonition first given. The prelate is not bound to manifest these causes to the delinquent, but only to the holy see, if the suspended person has recourse to it.

¹ Cf. St. Alphonsus n. 317.

² Cf. concerning this suspension the canonists, especially Aichner, Compendium iuris eccl.^9 (Brixen, Weger, 1900) p. 784 ss.

111. Effects of suspension. 1. A suspended person who exercises an act prohibited to him by suspension sins gravely, unless smallness of matter excuses from grave sin.

a. Acts of sacred orders are judged grave by their nature; for this reason in their exercise, if they are performed solemnly, there is no smallness of matter.

b. A tolerated suspended person who exercises functions prohibited to him not spontaneously but when asked by the faithful does not sin; but a suspended person to be avoided, who has been publicly denounced as suspended, sins even if he is asked by the faithful, except in a case of urgent necessity.

2. An act of jurisdiction which one suspended from office places is invalid, if he is to be avoided, because he is deprived of jurisdiction; but if he is tolerated, the act is not invalid but illicit, and when it is requested by the faithful, the act is valid and licit. Acts which one suspended from benefice places, such as contracts, etc., are invalid, because the suspension itself deprives him of the power of administering the benefice and receiving its fruits.

3. One suspended from sacred order, but not likewise one suspended from jurisdiction and benefice, contracts irregularity if knowingly and solemnly, outside a case of grave inconvenience, he exercises the order from which he is suspended.

Since irregularity of itself is not incurred except through violation of censure properly so called, one suspended from order through exercise of the prohibited order does not incur irregularity if he violates suspension improperly so called (n. 109, 3), although he can sin gravely.

4. One suspended from order by sentence of his own ordinary is everywhere kept from the exercise of the prohibited order; but one suspended from jurisdiction is not prohibited from receiving jurisdiction in another diocese.¹

One suspended from order or from office is not prohibited from receiving the sacraments of penance and Eucharist, provided he truly sorrows for the fault on account of which the suspension was carried, nor is he deprived of the common suffrages of the Church.

¹ Ballerini-Palmieri VII. n. 347.

112. The suspensions now in force are numbered nineteen in all:

a. Seven are contained in the constitution Apostolicae sedis;

b. Seven were carried by the Council of Trent;

c. Five have been added after the constitution Apostolicae sedis.

Of these suspensions, two, n. 15 from the constitution Romanus pontifex and n. 19 from the decree In perturbationibus, are specially reserved; the suspensions from the bull Apostolicae sedis are simply reserved; of the Tridentine ones, some are reserved to bishops, others are not reserved.

SUSPENSION is a censure by which a cleric is deprived of the use of some ecclesiastical power which he has by reason of his orders, office, or benefice, or, in the words of the Code, it is a censure by which a cleric is debarred from office, or benefice, or both.

This censure, then, differs from the rest in that it is inflicted only on clerics, whom it deprives of the lawful exercise of some portion or of the whole of the ecclesiastical power which they possess. A suspended priest may hear Mass and receive the sacraments, and he retains the order or office from which he is suspended, but he cannot lawfully exercise that order or office as long as he is under censure.

Suspension may be partial, as when it deprives the delinquent of the exercise of some sacred order, or office, or of the administration and fruits of his benefice; or it may be total and embrace all those ecclesiastical powers. When a cleric is simply suspended without any special limitation he is understood to be totally suspended from all sacred orders, the exercise of his office, and the fruits of his benefice.

Suspension ab homine, inflicted for the perpetration of a crime, should ordinarily be imposed after the crime has been proved judicially. However, the Council of Trent¹ permitted prelates to suspend their clerics on account of a secret crime and without judicial process, If they use this right, they are said to suspend the delinquent ex informata conscientia; if it is inflicted as a censure they are bound to make known the grounds of their action to the delinquent himself, and they should be prepared to submit them to the Sacred Congregation if he have recourse to Rome, as he has a right to do, though he has no right to a strict appeal.²

Suspension inflicted for life, or for a crime which is altogether past and done with, or at the will and good pleasure of the superior, is not a censure in the strict sense, but a mere penalty inflicted in punishment for crime.

¹ Sess. xiv, c. 1, de Ref.; can. 2186 ff.

² Instruct. S.C. de P.F., October 20, 1884.

A suspended person who exercises an act prohibited him by the censure commits grave sin, and if he solemnly exercises sacred orders after being suspended from them he incurs the penalty of irregularity in addition (Can. 985). An act of jurisdiction on the part of one who is publicly suspended after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, or if the jurisdiction were expressly revoked by the superior, would be invalid; otherwise it would always be valid, and even lawful if it were exercised at the request of the faithful who have the right to ask it of him.

I. Si clericus, non obtenta ab Ordinario loci licentia, aliam personam [infra Praelatum] privilegio fori fruentem ausus fuerit ad judicem laicum trahere, incurrit ipso facto in suspensionem ab Officio reservatam Ordinario (Can. (If a cleric, without having obtained permission from the Ordinary of the place, shall have dared to drag before a lay judge another person below the rank of Prelate who enjoys the privilege of the forum, he incurs ipso facto a suspension from office reserved to the Ordinary.) 2341).

II. Sacerdos qui sine necessaria jurisdictione praesumpserit sacramentales confessiones audire, est ipso facto suspensus a divinis; qui vero a peccatis reservatis absolvere, ipso facto suspensus est ab audiendis confessionibus (Can. (A priest who without the necessary jurisdiction presumes to hear sacramental confessions is ipso facto suspended from divine functions; but one who presumes to absolve from reserved sins is ipso facto suspended from hearing confessions.) 2366).

III. Episcopus aliquem consecrans in Episcopum, Episcopi, vel loco Episcoporum, presbyteri assistentes, et qui consecrationem recipit sine apostolico mandato, contra praescriptum Can. 953, ipso jure suspensi sunt, donec Sedes Apostolica eos dispensaverit (Can. (A Bishop consecrating anyone a Bishop, and the Bishops, or the priests assisting in place of Bishops, and he who receives the consecration without an apostolic mandate, against the prescription of Canon 953, are suspended by the law itself until the Apostolic See dispenses them.) 2370).

IV. Omnes, etiam episcopali dignitate aucti, qui per simoniam ad ordines scienter promoverint, vel promoti fuerint, aut alia sacramenta ministraverint vel receperint, sunt suspecti de haeresi; (All, even those endowed with episcopal dignity, who knowingly promote to orders by simony, or are so promoted, or administer or receive other sacraments by simony, are suspect of heresy;) clerici praeterea suspensionem incurrunt Sedi Apostolicae reservatam (Can. 2371).

V. Suspensionem a divinis Sedi Apostolicae reservatam, ipso facto contrahunt, qui recipere ordines praesumunt ab excommunicato vel suspenso vel interdicto post sententiam declaratoriam vel condemnatoriam; (There contract ipso facto a suspension from divine functions reserved to the Apostolic See those who presume to receive orders from a man excommunicated, suspended or interdicted after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic or schismatic.) aut a notorio apostata, haeretico, schismatico; qui vero bona fide a quopiam eorum sit ordinatus, exercitio careat ordinis sic recepti donec dispensetur (Can. 2372).

VI. In suspensionem per annum ab ordinum collatione Sedi Apostolicae reservatam ipso facto incurrunt: (1) Qui contra praescriptum Can. 955 alienum subditum sine Ordinarii proprii litteris dimissoriis ordinaverint.

(2) Qui subditum proprium qui alibi tanto tempore moratus sit ut canonicum impedimentum contrahere ibi potuerit, ordinaverint contra praescriptum Can. (There incur ipso facto a suspension for a year from conferring orders, reserved to the Apostolic See: (1) those who, against the prescription of Canon 955, ordain another’s subject without dimissorial letters from his own Ordinary; (2) those who ordain their own subject who has stayed elsewhere long enough to have been able to contract a canonical impediment there, against the prescription of the Canon.) 993, n. 4; 994.

(3) Qui aliquem ad ordines majores sine titulo canonico promoverint contra praescriptum Can. ((3) Those who promote anyone to major orders without a canonical title, against the prescription of the Canon.) 974, sec. I, n. 57.

(4) Qui salvo legitimo privilegio, religiosum, ad familiam pertinentem quae sit extra territorium ipsius ordinantis, promoverint, etiam cum litteris dimissorialibus proprii Superioris, nisi legitime probatum fuerit aliquem e casibus occurrere de quibus in Can. (even with dimissorial letters from his own Superior, unless it has been lawfully proved that one of the cases occurs which are mentioned in Canon 966.) 966 (Can. 2373).

VII. Qui sine litteris vel cum falsis dimissoriis litteris, vel ante canonicam aetatem, vel per saltum, ad ordines malitiose accesserit, est ipso facto a recepto ordine suspensus 2374). (Whoever maliciously approaches orders without dimissorial letters, or with false ones, or before the canonical age, or by a leap, is ipso facto suspended from the order he has received.) (Can. VIII. Religiosus fugitivus ipso facto incurrit in privationem officii si quod in religione habeat, et in suspensionem proprio Superiori majori reservatam, si sit in sacris (Can. (A fugitive religious incurs ipso facto the loss of any office he may hold in the institute, and, if he is in sacred orders, a suspension reserved to his own major Superior.) 2386).

IX. Religiosus clericus cujus professio ob admissum ab ipso dolum nulla fuerit declarata, si sit in minoribus ordinibus constitutus, e statu clericali abjiciatur; si in majoribus, ipso facto suspensus manet, donec Sedi Apostolicae aliter visum fuerit (Can. (A religious cleric whose profession has been declared null on account of fraud committed by himself is, if he is constituted in minor orders, to be cast out of the clerical state; if in major orders, he remains ipso facto suspended until the Apostolic See shall determine otherwise.) 2387).

X. Professus votorum perpetuorum ordinatus in sacris dimissus ob delicta minora iis de quibus in Can. (One professed of perpetual vows and ordained in sacred orders, who is dismissed for offences less than those mentioned in Canon 670, remains ipso facto suspended until he obtains absolution from the Holy See.) 670, ipso facto suspensus manet, donec a Sancta Sede absolutionem obtinuerit (Can. 671).

XI. Clericus qui in manus laicorum officium, beneficium, aut dignitatem ecclesiasticam resignare praesumpserit, ipso facto in suspensionem a divinis incurrit (Can. (A cleric who presumes to resign an ecclesiastical office, benefice or dignity into the hands of laymen incurs ipso facto suspension from divine functions.) 2400).

XII. Abbas vel Praelatus nullius qui contra praescriptum Can. (An Abbot or Prelate nullius who, against the prescription of Canon 322 §) 322, sec. 2, benedictionem non receperit, est ipso facto a jurisdictione suspensus (Can. (2, has not received the blessing, is ipso facto suspended from jurisdiction.) 2402).

XIII. Vicarius Capitularis concedens litteras dimissorias pro ordinatione contra praescriptum Can. (A Vicar Capitular granting dimissorial letters for ordination against the prescription of Canon 958 §) 958, sec. 1, n. 3, ipso facto subjacet suspensioni a divinis (Can. 2409).

XIV. Superiores religiosi qui contra praescriptum Can. 965967 subditos suos ad Episcopum alienum ordinandos remittere praesumpserint ipso facto suspensi sunt per mensem a Missae celebratione (Can. (Religious Superiors who, against the prescription of Canons 965-967, presume to send their subjects to another Bishop for ordination are ipso facto suspended for a month from the celebration of Mass.) 2410).

I. Notion. Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice, or from both (canon 2278, § 1). It is said:

1. Censure; but it can be inflicted as a vindicative penalty (canon 2255, § 2).

2. Cleric, because he alone is the subject of suspension; and indeed suspension can be issued against a community and members at the same time.

3. Office; this is understood strictly so called (canon 145, § 2), and is defined: a function constituted stably by divine or ecclesiastical ordination, to be conferred according to the norm of the sacred canons, carrying with it at least some participation in ecclesiastical power, whether of order or of jurisdiction (canon 145, § 1). But because the effects of suspension are maximally divisible (canon 2278), a cleric can by suspension be prohibited even from only part of the power either of order or of jurisdiction, as will be explained.

4. Benefice; moreover, an ecclesiastical benefice is defined as a juridic entity constituted or erected in perpetuity by competent ecclesiastical authority, consisting of a sacred office and the right of receiving revenues from the endowment annexed to the office (canon 1409). But in the penalty of suspension from benefice only the right of receiving revenues is considered, insofar as it is distinguished from the annexed office, as will also be clear below.

II. Division. Suspension can be distinguished into total and partial, according as it comprehends all or not all the effects of suspension. Partial suspension is chiefly divided into suspension from office alone and from benefice alone. Suspension from office is either from office simply or from some part of the office, for instance from jurisdiction, from divine things, etc.; these things will be clearer from what will be said concerning the effects of suspension.

III. Effects. The effects of suspension can be separated, but unless something else is established, suspension generally issued comprehends all the effects which are enumerated in the article on suspension; otherwise one must speak of suspension from office or from benefice, which comprehends only the effects of one or the other species. Regarding the effects in species, these things are established:

1. Suspension from office simply,¹ no limitation having been added, forbids every act both of the power of order and of jurisdiction, and also of mere administration belonging by office, except the administration of the goods of one's own benefice (canon 2279, § 1). For the administration of the goods of a benefice can be taken away only by an express clause, as is noted in canon 2280.

By force of canon 1095, a pastor or local Ordinary suspended from office, after sentence, assists at marriage invalidly, whether by himself or through another; before sentence he certainly assists validly, but perhaps illicitly by himself, because it seems to be an act of administration belonging by office. For the same reason other acts seem to be prohibited, such as the administration of Viaticum, solemn Baptism, etc. Preaching is not an act of jurisdiction strictly so called, nor, as it seems, of administration; but perhaps it is prohibited to one suspended from office as the exercise of the magisterium which belongs to him from granted jurisdiction.

2. Suspension from office partially carries these things with it:

a) Suspension from jurisdiction generally forbids every act of the power of jurisdiction for both forums, ordinary as well as delegated (canon 2279, § 2, 1°).² Jurisdiction is to be taken in the strict sense, so that it does not comprehend acts which require only mission or permission (canons 1328, 848, 748); likewise assistance at the contracting of marriage is not an act of true jurisdiction.

b) Suspension from divine things forbids every act of the power of order which someone obtains either through sacred ordination or through privilege (canon 2279, § 2, 2°). It is said through privilege, for instance the privilege of ministering Confirmation (canon 782, § 3).³

c) Suspension from orders forbids every act of the power of order received through ordination (cited canon, 3°), whether major or minor. "One thus suspended can exercise all acts of jurisdiction which do not require the actual use of order; therefore a Bishop suspended from orders only can approve Confessors, although he himself cannot absolve from sins";⁴ namely, he acts illicitly or invalidly according to canon 2284.

d) Suspension from sacred orders forbids every act of the power of order received through ordination in sacred orders (cited canon, 4°); the same applies as under c).

e) Suspension from exercising a certain and definite order forbids every act of the designated order; moreover the suspended person is also prohibited from conferring the same order and from receiving a higher order and exercising it after it has been received after suspension (cited canon, 5°).

f) Suspension from conferring a certain and definite order forbids conferring that order, but not an inferior or higher one (cited canon, 6°).

g) Suspension from a certain and definite ministry, for example hearing confessions, or office, for example one with care of souls, forbids every act of that same ministry or office (cited canon, 7°).

h) Suspension from pontifical order forbids every act of the power of episcopal order (cited canon, 8°), for example the blessing of holy oils, conferral of Orders, even Tonsure, consecration of a church, Confirmation, etc.; but a Pontifical Mass is permitted.

i) Suspension from pontificals forbids the exercise of pontifical acts (cited canon, 9°), namely of those sacred functions which by liturgical laws require the pontifical insignia, that is, the staff and miter (canon 337, § 2). One suspended in such a way is indirectly prohibited from exercising acts of order which cannot be exercised without pontificals. Therefore this suspension directly or indirectly prohibits: Pontifical Mass and Vespers, solemn assistance at Mass, conferral of Orders, Tonsure excepted, which probably can be conferred without staff and miter, consecration of a Bishop, blessing of an Abbot, solemn blessing and consecration of virgins, blessing and coronation of kings, blessing or consecration of a church bell, consecration of a church, altar, sacred vessels, solemn blessing of the cornerstone and cemetery, solemn reconciliation of a church and cemetery, solemn Confirmation.⁵

3. Suspension from benefice deprives one of the fruits of the benefice, except habitation in the benefice buildings, but not of the right of administering the benefice goods, unless the decree or sentence of suspension expressly takes away from the suspended person the power itself of administering and assigns it to another (canon 2280, § 1). Fruits are understood as all temporal revenues which remain after the necessary expenses of the benefice have been deducted, namely for Mass obligations, taxes, etc. What things are comprehended in the fruits of the benefice depends on its very erection, according to canon 1410; therefore the question cannot generally be solved, as several authors today have retained from the old law, whether, for example, daily distributions are comprehended in the fruits; rather, what the law is will have to be gathered from the custom of places and from the express will of the one issuing the penalty.⁶ See also canon 1412.

One suspended in such a way retains the right of administering the benefice goods, unless the decree or sentence of suspension expressly takes away the administration itself from the suspended person and assigns it to another (canon 2280, § 1). But if the suspended person truly needs it, he can retain those things which are necessary for his sustenance, if his penalty is vindicative; for this seems to be the benign mind of the Superior (cf. the parallel case, canon 2303, § 2); but not if the penalty is a censure, because its duration depends on the conversion of the delinquent (cf. St. Alphonsus VII, 316, doubt 1).

The suspended person must restore fruits illicitly received (cf. canon 2232, §§ 1 and 2); and, if need be, he can also be compelled to this restitution by canonical sanctions (canon 2280, § 2).

4. Suspension generally issued, or suspension from office or from benefice:

a) If it has been issued by the local Ordinary, it affects all offices or benefices which the cleric has in the diocese of the suspending Superior, unless something else appears (canon 2281); but the local Ordinary cannot suspend a cleric from a determinate office or benefice which is found in another diocese (canon 2282). It is expressly said: from a determinate office or benefice, because special suspensions, for example from orders, bind the guilty person everywhere (canon 2226, § 4); but if there is question of suspension from jurisdiction, only insofar as this depends on the Superior who inflicted the penalty.

b) If it is latae sententiae, imposed by common law, it affects all offices or benefices in whatever diocese they are possessed (canon 2282).

Note. The things which canon 2265 establishes concerning excommunication are also applicable to suspension (canon 2283). Hence to anyone suspended there are to be applied the things said on p. 735, n. 8, a) and b), alpha-delta.

5. If the censure of suspension which forbids administration of Sacraments and Sacramentals has been incurred, this prohibition does not press when, before sentence, he has been requested by the faithful, who may seek this for a just cause, especially if other ministers are lacking; or when, after sentence, he is requested in danger of death, either to absolve the faithful sacramentally, although another priest is present, or to give the other Sacraments and Sacramentals if other ministers are lacking. Besides, the things said on p. 734, 4, are to be applied, except the last clause, which is added from canon 2263 (canon 2284).

If the censure of suspension which prohibits an act of jurisdiction in the internal or external forum has been incurred, the things said under 6 are valid; nevertheless an act of jurisdiction is sometimes also invalid, namely if a declaratory or condemnatory sentence has been issued, or if the Superior declares that he revokes the jurisdiction itself; and when this last has taken place, even in danger of death only the faithful can seek from the suspended person an act of jurisdiction, which then is valid and licit, always saving canon 884 on absolution of an accomplice (canon 2284).

6. If a community or college of clerics has committed a delict, suspension can be issued either against the individual delinquent persons, or against the community as such, or against the delinquent persons and the community (canon 2285, § 1). Moreover:

a) If the first, the canons of this article are to be observed (canon 2285, § 2), that is, the canons explained in this chapter.

b) If the second, the community is prohibited from the exercise of the spiritual rights which belong to it as a community (canon 2285, § 3). One who ceases to be a member of the suspended community is freed from suspension by the fact itself, and does not need absolution.

c) If the third, the effects are cumulated (canon 2285, § 4).

¹ Sometimes the prohibition does not press, namely when the suspended person is requested according to canon 2284, concerning which see below pp. 768-769, note 3.

² What happens if the suspended person is requested by the faithful will be said below; in the same place there will be discussion of the validity of prohibited acts (canon 2284).

³ See again the limits of canon 2284.

⁴ Aertnys-Damen, op. cit., II, 1023.

⁵ Solemn is rather often added, because a simple priest can sometimes be delegated to perform several functions in a simpler manner without pontificals (canons 1156; 1163; 1170, § 2; 1205, § 1; 1207). Cf. also canon 294, § 2, as to which functions it is not licit for a Bishop to perform without pontificals, except Confirmation and Tonsure.

⁶ Chelodi, op. cit., p. 51.

IV. Violation of suspension is a grave or light sin according as the suspended person places an act excluded by suspension of grave or light importance. In addition, a suspended person prohibited from the exercise of Sacred Order, who places an act of Order reserved to clerics constituted in Sacred Order, is irregular (canon 985, 7°).

I. Notion. Suspension from informed conscience is suspension from office, whether total or partial, which is inflicted by the Ordinary by simple decree, by an extrajudicial way and without prior canonical warnings (cf. canons 2186, § 1; 2187). It is not licit to use this extraordinary remedy if the Ordinary can, without grave inconvenience, proceed against the subject according to the norm of law (canon 2186, § 2).

II. Mode of proceeding. A decree of this kind is to be given in writing, unless circumstances demand otherwise, with the day, month, and year designated; and in it:

1. It must be expressly said that the suspension is issued from informed conscience, or from causes known to the Ordinary himself;

2. The time of duration of the penalty must be indicated; moreover, the Ordinary should abstain from inflicting it in perpetuity. But it can be inflicted even as a censure, provided that in this case the cause for which the suspension is imposed is made known to the cleric;

3. The acts which are prohibited must be clearly indicated, if the suspension is inflicted not in whole but in part (canon 2188).

Note. If a cleric is suspended from an office in which another must be substituted in his place, for example, an administrator in the care of souls, the one who is substituted is to receive a wage from the fruits of the benefice to be determined according to the prudent judgment of the Ordinary (canon 2189, § 1). A suspended cleric, if he feels burdened, can seek diminution of the pension from the immediate Superior who in the judicial way would be the judge of appeal (canon 2189, § 2).

III. The cause for proceeding in this way is a delict of the cleric: 1° so grave that it must be coerced by a penalty of this kind; 2° morally certain; that is, from investigations conducted the Ordinary must have gathered proofs of such a kind as make him certain that the cleric truly perpetrated the delict (canon 2190). Moreover, concerning the delict observe:

1. A just and legitimate cause is an occult delict (canon 2191, § 1; n. 846).

2. On account of a notorious delict, suspension from informed conscience can never be issued (canon 2191, § 2); but suspension from informed conscience is valid if from several delicts only one was occult (canon 2192).

3. In order that a public delict (n. 846) can be punished by suspension from informed conscience, it is necessary that some one of the following circumstances occur: 1° if upright and serious witnesses indeed disclose the delict to the Ordinary, but can by no means be induced to give testimony about it in trial, nor can the delict be proved in judicial process by other proofs; 2° if the cleric himself prevents, by threats or other means used, a judicial process from being instituted or, once begun, from being completed; 3° if impediments to carrying out the judicial process and issuing the sentence arise from adverse civil laws or from grave danger of scandal (canon 2191, § 3).

IV. Disclosure of the cause to the guilty person. 1. In the case of a censure, that is, of a medicinal penalty, the cause for which this suspension is imposed is to be made known to the cleric, so that he may know in what matter he is to be corrected and, once corrected, can seek absolution.

2. In the case of a vindicative penalty, it is left to the prudent judgment of the Ordinary whether to disclose or withhold from the cleric the cause of the suspension, or the delict, pastoral solicitude and charity nevertheless being used, so that, if he has judged that the delict should be made known to the cleric, the penalty, from the paternal admonitions which he has interposed, may serve not only for the expiation of guilt, but also for the amendment of the delinquent and the removal of the occasion of sin (canon 2193).

V. Recourse from a censure is given only in devolutive effect (canon 2243, § 1), but from a vindicative penalty also in suspensive effect (canon 2287).

If a cleric lodges recourse from a suspension inflicted on him, the Ordinary must send to the Apostolic See the proofs by which it is established that the cleric truly perpetrated the delict which can be punished by this extraordinary penalty (canon 2194).

I. Clerics, even those raised to episcopal dignity, who knowingly through simony have promoted someone to Orders or have been promoted, or have administered or received other Sacraments, incur a suspension reserved to the Apostolic See (canon 2371).

1. The discussion is of a generally issued suspension (p. 742).

2. Simony is taken as explained on p. 773.

3. Under the name of order here also come first tonsure and episcopate (canon 950).

4. The word "knowingly" refers not only to the first part, but also to "have administered or received."

Note. Delinquents, even laymen, are moreover suspected of heresy (canon 2371).

II. Those who presume to receive orders from one excommunicated, suspended, or interdicted after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic, or schismatic, contract ipso facto suspension a divinis, reserved to the Apostolic See (canon 2372). Under the name of order here does not come first tonsure, since it confers no power from which someone can be suspended (cf. canon 950).

Note. One who in good faith has been ordained by one of those enumerated above lacks the exercise of the order thus received until he is dispensed (canon 2372). Here it is not a question of a penalty, since delict is absent, but of mere privation. The dispensation, however, in view of general principles, belongs to the proper Ordinary of the one ordained.

III. Until he obtains absolution from the Holy See, a religious dismissed for delicts less than those mentioned in canon 670 remains ipso facto suspended (canon 671, 1°).

IV. A cleric who, against the prescription of canon 120, has dared to drag before a lay judge another person enjoying the privilege of forum, namely apart from Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church or Legates of the Apostolic See, or major Officials of the Roman Curia for affairs pertaining to their function, or his own Ordinary, or another Bishop, even merely titular, or an Abbot or Prelate nullius, or major Superiors of religions of pontifical right, contracts ipso facto suspension from office reserved to the Ordinary (canon 2341). The prescription of canon 120, insofar as it must here be attended to, establishes that another person besides the enumerated persons cannot be summoned before a lay judge without the permission of the local Ordinary, namely of the place in which the case is being conducted.

On the word "dragging," see p. 766.

The Ordinary to whom the suspension is reserved is the proper Ordinary of the suspended person, not the local Ordinary whose permission had to be obtained.

Note. If the delinquent is a layman, he must be punished by the Superiors with other penalties according to the gravity of the fault, according to the norm of the constitutions (canon 2341).

V. A fugitive religious, if he is in sacred orders, contracts ipso facto a suspension reserved to his own major Superior (canon 2386), that is, a priest, deacon, or subdeacon. Under the name of religious here also come members in societies of men who imitate the manner of life of religious, living in common under the governance of Superiors according to approved constitutions, but are not bound by the three customary public vows, nor are they properly designated by the name religious¹ (cf. canon 673, § 1).

The discussion is of a generally issued suspension (p. 742).

Note. The whole canon 2386 establishes the following: A fugitive religious incurs ipso facto privation of office, if he has any in religion, and suspension reserved to his own major Superior, if he is in sacred orders; but when he returns, he is to be punished according to the constitutions, and if the constitutions make no provision concerning this, the major Superior is to inflict penalties according to the gravity of the fault.

VI. The following contract a suspension reserved to no one:

1. A priest who without necessary jurisdiction has presumed to hear sacramental confessions is ipso facto suspended a divinis (canon 2366). Without necessary jurisdiction, that is, without at least probable jurisdiction (cf. canon 209). What sacramental confession is, see n. 430. It is enough, however, that someone hear a confession of this kind, even if he does not absolve the penitent.

2. A priest who without necessary jurisdiction has presumed to absolve from reserved sins is ipso facto suspended from hearing confessions (canon 2366). The pronouncement of the form of absolution is required, however, and mere hearing of confession or fictitious absolution is not enough.

3. Whoever maliciously approaches orders without letters or with false dimissorial letters, or before canonical age, or by a leap, is ipso facto suspended from the order received (canon 2374). Under the name of order here does not come first tonsure, because it confers no power from which someone can be suspended (cf. canon 950).² "Maliciously" is equated with the words "has presumed," etc., about which see p. 718.

4. A cleric who has presumed to resign an ecclesiastical office, benefice, or dignity into the hands of laymen incurs ipso facto suspension a divinis (canon 2400).

5. An Abbot or Prelate nullius who, against the prescription of canon 322, § 2, has not received the blessing, is ipso facto suspended from jurisdiction (canon 2402). Canon 322, § 2 establishes: Abbots or Prelates nullius who, by apostolic prescription or from the constitutions of their own religion, must be blessed, should receive the blessing, within three months from receiving the apostolic letters and with legitimate impediment ceasing, from the Bishop whom they prefer.

6. A Vicar Capitular who grants dimissorial letters for ordination against the prescription of canon 958, § 1, n. 3, is ipso facto subject to suspension a divinis (canon 2409). From canon 958, § 1, n. 3, the Vicar Capitular can give dimissorial letters for seculars only with the consent of the Chapter after a year from the vacant see; but within the year only to those constrained by reason of a benefice received or to be received, or by reason of some certain office for which, because of the necessity of the diocese, provision must be made without delay.

¹ Pontifical Commission, June 2-3, 1918 (A.A.S. 1918, p. 347).

² Whether the Episcopate is included, cf. Cerato, op. cit., p. 195.

I. Until the Holy See has dispensed them, the following are suspended by the law itself: the Bishop consecrating someone as Bishop, the assisting Bishops or, in place of Bishops, the assisting priests, and the one who receives consecration without an apostolic mandate against the prescription of canon 953 (canon 2370). Canon 953 prescribes: Episcopal consecration is reserved to the Roman Pontiff, so that no Bishop may consecrate anyone as Bishop unless the pontifical mandate has first been established.

It concerns a generally issued suspension (p. 742), and one inflicted by way of vindicative penalty; this is clear from the fact that a censure or medicinal penalty is removed by absolution, but this suspension by dispensation of the Holy See (cf. canon 2236, § 1 and 2289).

The suspension among assisting priests affects only those who assist in place of Bishops, not others.

II. From canon 2373, the following ipso facto incur suspension for one year from the conferral of orders, reserved to the Apostolic See:

1. Those who, against the prescription of canon 955, have ordained another's subject without dimissorial letters of his own Ordinary. As to the prescription of canon 955, cf. n. 601. The suspension also affects one who confers first tonsure (cf. canon 950).

2. Those who, against the prescription of canon 993, n. 4, and canon 994, have ordained their own subject who had stayed elsewhere for so long a time that he could have contracted a canonical impediment there. Concerning the cited canons, see n. 650. The suspension also includes first tonsure (cf. canon 950).

3. Those who, against the prescription of canon 974, § 1, n. 7, have promoted someone to major orders without a canonical title (cf. n. 618).

4. Those who, without prejudice to legitimate privilege, have promoted a religious belonging to a family which is outside the territory of the ordaining Bishop, even with dimissorial letters of the proper Superior, unless it has been legitimately proved that some one of the cases occurs which are mentioned in canon 966 (cf. treatise on Order, n. 602).

Delinquents are suspended from the conferral of orders, with no order, indeed not even first tonsure and episcopal consecration, excepted (cf. canon 950).

III. A clerical religious whose profession has been declared null because of deceit committed by him, if he is constituted in major orders, remains ipso facto suspended until the Apostolic See has seen otherwise (canon 2387). Under the name of religious also comes a member of a society of clerical men living in common without vows; likewise under the name of profession comes the profession improperly so called, or that emitted by a member of the said society.¹

Note. If the delinquent is constituted in minor orders, he is to be cast out from the clerical state (canon 2387).

IV. Chapters, convents, and all others to whom it pertains, admitting such elected, presented, or nominated persons before the exhibition of the letters, remain ipso facto suspended from the right of electing, nominating, or presenting at the pleasure of the Apostolic See (canon 2394, 3°). It concerns those who admit persons elected, presented, or nominated to an ecclesiastical benefice, office, or dignity, into possession or governance or administration of the same, before the elected, presented, or nominated persons have exhibited the necessary letters.

V. Religious Superiors who, against the prescription of canons 965-967, have presumed to send their subjects to another Bishop to be ordained are ipso facto suspended from the celebration of Mass for a month (canon 2410; cf. treatise on Order, n. 632). Under the name of religious Superiors also come Superiors of a society of men living in common without vows, if the society enjoys the right of granting dimissorial letters to its members.² Major Superiors are understood, and those exempt, to whom, namely, belongs the right of giving dimissorial letters.

The suspension is reserved to no one.

¹ Pontifical Commission, June 2-3, 1918 (A.A.S. 1918, p. 347).

² Pontifical Commission, June 2-3, 1918 (A.A.S. 1918, p. 347).

Who are obliged to the recitation of the canonical hours? - The canonical hours are public prayers, which its ministers pour forth in the name of the Church in the form prescribed by the same Church. Hence the fruit of these prayers is from the work of the minister working and from the work of the Church working; and it redounds to the minister himself, to those for whom they are specially applied, to the founders of benefices, and to all the faithful, for whom the Church prays.

In the Western Church the following are obliged to recite the canonical hours daily: 1. All clerics constituted in sacred orders, even those suspended and excommunicated. This is established from various places of Canon Law, from the Lateran Council of 1215, from the Bull of S. Pius V Quod a nobis, from the Constitution of Pius X Divino afflatu, Kalends of November 1911. 2. All beneficed persons who have right in the thing and full dominion of the benefice. It is drawn from the Lateran Council under Leo X, and also from the Bull of S. Pius V Ex proximo. 3. All religious of both sexes professed in an Order approved by the Church and destined for choir. This is clear from custom, and also from the Decree of Gregory X, etc. Cf. the Works of S. Peter Damian, Migne vol. 145, col. 222 ff.; Lugo, Resp. Mor. l. 5, d. 5, 6.

In the Western Church; for, as Benedict XIV says, C. Eo quamvis tempore, §§ 44, 45, "deacons, subdeacons, and priests of the Eastern Church are compelled by no express law... to the recitation of the divine office." Nevertheless, "even among the Orientals the laudable custom of reciting the divine office has prevailed." And indeed this has the force of law; whence "the discipline of the Eastern Church subjects generally all those constituted in sacred order to the obligation and precept of reciting the divine office, according to the custom of the nation." L. 140 ff.; S. Th. 4, dist. 15, q. 4, a. 1, q. 3; E. M.

What is suspension? Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is deprived of the use of ecclesiastical power which he has by reason of order, office, or benefice. Therefore by it a cleric is not deprived of passive reception of the sacraments, nor of common suffrages, etc. Since suspension is a very grave penalty, it cannot licitly be inflicted without warning, whether by writing, and the other formalities of law. Therefore, if a prelate, either without warning first given, or with the cause not expressed, or orally, says: I suspend you, unless it has been issued by way of precept, namely by prescribing something, for instance to dismiss a maidservant within a certain time under penalty of suspension to be incurred by that very fact, it will rather be either a mere penalty or a simple prohibition of celebrating, and not a censure; for it is not presumed that the prelate wished to commit a delict by imposing a censure without previous warning, or without the cause declared, or orally. Cf. 1103. Whence one violating it would be guilty of grave disobedience, yet would not therefore become irregular. L. 317, 318. But imposed upon a community as such, it indeed holds all as regards common offices or benefices; but by no means as regards particular benefices or duties, nor as a censure, but as a privation, and as a certain canonical penalty, and as a particular incapacity of persons for those things. L. 317; Lugo, Resp. Mor., book 1, disp. 18; Schmalzgrueber, n. 45.

Likewise it is not properly a censure if a Bishop, as a precaution, keeps a cleric from the exercise of the sacred ministry, not because he is guilty of crime, or already convicted of or confessed to a crime, but because it is not fitting that holy things be handled by one whom public report reports badly. Cardinal De Luca, Opera, tome 14, annotations to the Sacred Council of Trent, discourse 43, nn. 3, 4; Bonacina, tome 3, de Cens., in part., disp. 3, q. 5, part 1; Pichler, nn. 39, 41, 42.

What is suspension from informed conscience? Suspension can be imposed by the Ordinary from informed conscience, namely from causes known to him, and therefore extrajudicially, with no warning first given and with every appeal removed; nevertheless recourse to the Apostolic See will always remain free. The constant practice now is that only temporary suspension of this kind is permitted, by no means perpetual. S.C.C., April 8, 1848. But whether suspension of this kind can be imposed not only because of an occult crime, but also because of a public delict, is controverted. The affirmative opinion rests chiefly on the Council of Trent, sess. 14, chap. 1, de Ref., whence it is established that the Bishop can "from any cause whatsoever, even because of an occult crime, in whatever way, even extrajudicially, forbid ascent to sacred orders to a cleric, or suspend him from his orders or grades or ecclesiastical dignities." But the denying opinion is established from the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, October 20, 1884, n. 7; S.C.C., April 26, 1853. This suspension is sustained, even if given orally; nevertheless it is better that it be done in writing. S.C.C., April 8, 1843; September 14, 1782. It can also be imposed by a Capitular Vicar, and in inflicting it this must be expressed, that it is done according to the faculty handed down by Trent. Since suspension of this kind is because of an occult delict, or one somehow past, or, if because of a delict which depends on the future, warning and contumacy are lacking, it does not have the nature of censure. Therefore according to some, one violating this suspension does not incur irregularity. But according to others, and more of them, he incurs it. The S.C.C. embraces this opinion, April 8, 1848; Instruction of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide cited, October 20, 1884, n. 11. Likewise if suspension is imposed for a definite time, whether one violating it incurs irregularity: some deny, others affirm.

More truly it must be affirmed from C. Cum aeterni 1, de Sent. et re iud., in VI, if nevertheless this is because of a delict not merely past, but at least in some way future; namely if the suspension was imposed by way of precept, statute, or law because of a future crime, or also a past crime having successive continuance. For then it is now for preventing delicts, and not only for punishing past things. Therefore it then truly has the nature also of censure. L. 314; Salmanticenses, tome 10, chap. 5, n. 13; Benedict XIV, De Synodo, book 12, chap. 8, nn. 3-5; Bouix, De Iudiciis, vol. 2, Paris, 1885, p. 310 ff.; A.S.S., vol. 7; vol. 14, p. 299 ff.; E.M.

How does suspension cease? Suspension imposed by way of censure ceases through absolution. But suspension imposed by way of mere spiritual penalty ceases through dispensation or remission of the superior, or also of itself without another declaration of the superior, namely when the appointed time has elapsed or the imposed condition has been fulfilled. If suspension has been imposed by way of censure, the guilty person amended asks by his right that he be absolved. But if it has been imposed by way of penalty, the guilty person can ask by no right that he be released from it, although he has already been corrected and amended. Suspension of this kind by way of penalty is suspension in perpetuity, or for a certain time, e.g., for three years, or until the guilty person has made satisfaction or restored, or at the good pleasure of the See or of the superior; in this last case suspension also ceases when the superior has died or been deposed, etc. "Although suspensions which are imposed as pure penalties ought rather to be removed by dispensation, nevertheless some doctors, observing no distinction, say that every suspension imposed because of a delict, whether in perpetuity or for a certain time, is removed by absolution; which word (of absolution) is also customarily used in the formula of relaxation.... And by the same reason the privilege granted by the Apostolic See to confessors of the Society of Jesus, that, after hearing the confessions of the faithful, they can absolve them in the forum of conscience from any sentences, censures, and ecclesiastical penalties resulting from sins, extends indistinctly to suspensions of law, as Avila signifies." Laymann, chap. 4, n. 4. Indeed in the constitution Apostolicae Sedis, both excommunication and suspension and interdict are comprehended under the common name of censures. L. 322.

How many kinds of suspension are there? One suspension is total, by which a cleric is kept from every ecclesiastical function, and at the same time is deprived of the fruits and administration of a benefice; another is partial, by which he is deprived only of one or the other, wholly or even in part. If this is for a brief time and imposed by man, it can be inflicted for venial fault alone. L. 78, 321. One suspended from order simply is deprived of solemn exercise, or exercise by office, namely in that way in which it cannot be exercised by lay persons, of any order whatsoever, whether major or minor. Yet today lay persons also are accustomed to discharge the functions of minor orders. Hence suspension does not seem to extend as far as minor orders. Nor indeed is one suspended from order deprived of voice in chapter, nor is he prohibited from reciting the hours in choir. Likewise he is by no means deprived of jurisdiction and benefice. Hence he can also validly absolve. Yet others deny this, because it is also an act of order. One suspended from a higher order is not therefore suspended also from a lower order. One suspended from a lower order is not also suspended from a higher, unless the exercise of the higher order is contained in the exercise of the lower order. L. 314. One suspended from jurisdiction simply is deprived of all jurisdiction, both internal and external, but by no means of the exercise of order. Suspension from order holds the suspended person everywhere. Suspension from jurisdiction more truly has no force outside the territory of the one imposing it. One suspended from office simply is understood to be suspended from any office, whether it proceeds from order or from jurisdiction. For office here is every spiritual power. Hence he is deprived of the use both of jurisdiction and of order, or of any ecclesiastical ministry; but he is by no means also held by suspension from benefice. Therefore he will still be able to receive its fruits, if nevertheless, at least through others, he fulfills the offices and burdens of the benefice. This suspension is also called suspension from divine things. C. Medicinalis 1, de Sent. exc., in VI; C. Inter sollicitudines 10, de Purg. Can.; C. Cum aeterni 1, de Sent. et re iud., in VI.

Hence a parish priest suspended from office can neither celebrate Mass, nor preach, nor preside over offices, nor administer sacraments. A canon suspended from divine things, from S.C. Bishops and Regulars, February 29, 1869, cannot receive choral distributions or the remaining emoluments. One suspended from benefice simply is deprived of the fruits and administration of the benefice, but by no means also of the functions of order or office. Yet he is still bound to furnish the burdens and offices of the benefice, and then he can retain the part of the fruits which he would have to give to a substitute, because it would be the stipend of labor. Finally, one suspended from office and benefice together, or simply suspended, unless some limitation is gathered from the adjuncts, is judged totally suspended. Laymann, part 3, chap. 1; L. 315, 316; Schmalzgrueber, nn. 266-269, 290-305; Engel, nn. 74-79.

How does one sin who violates suspension? He sins gravely who, while suspended, exercises an act forbidden to him by the suspension; for he violates the precept of the Church in a grave matter. Indeed, one suspended from sacred order also incurs irregularity (which is incurred because of violation only of suspension from order, and not also from jurisdiction and benefice) if he knowingly and solemnly exercises the office of the same order, outside nevertheless the case of necessity or grave inconvenience. C. Is cui 20, de Sent. exc., in VI; C. Cum aeterni, de Sent. et re iud., in VI. Cf. also Lugo, Resp. Mor., book 2, disp. 10, where he treats the question, "whether an occult suspended person can celebrate without danger of irregularity in order to feed himself and his needy mother." Lightness of matter can also excuse in this matter, both from grave sin and from irregularity, e.g., if he were to exercise a light act of jurisdiction; or were to bless the table; were to exercise sacred order not solemnly, or a non-sacred order, which nevertheless today, as has already been said, since it is also exercised by lay persons, no longer seems to be comprehended by suspension. Moreover, if a suspended tolerated person does not thrust himself into the functions by which he is prohibited through suspension, but is required by others, he in no way sins, nor does he incur irregularity. The matter stands otherwise with one suspended who is not tolerated, one denounced; for outside a most urgent cause, even if he is asked by the faithful, he cannot exercise those offices from which he is suspended. But others are not bound under mortal sin to avoid him, unless they are judged to cooperate in the act from which he is suspended; whence to hear his Mass will not be a sin, if you do not serve, scandal nevertheless being set aside.

Are the acts of a suspended person valid? An act performed by a suspended person is null and void. "This penalty has place only in those things which depend on the Church, such as jurisdiction and benefice; therefore in these things a suspended person, if he administers a benefice and exercises jurisdiction, makes an invalid act, provided that he has been denounced as suspended; because, once denunciation has been made, he is deprived of every kind of power for exercising those acts. Before denunciation he is only impeded from their exercise when he is not required by the faithful; but when he is required by the faithful, he exercises those acts validly and licitly, and therefore it is necessary that he retain jurisdiction." Schmalzgrueber, nn. 309, 306, 308; L. 313. Moreover, "one suspended from benefice, if he thrusts himself into it and receives the fruits, does not indeed become irregular, yet according to the common opinion he loses the benefice by the law itself. C. Cupientes 16, sec. Ceterum, de Elect., in VI." Engel, n. 77. "Therefore, since a beneficed person thus suspended cannot administer the benefice by himself, an economus is customarily given to him, who collects the revenues and applies them by order of the Bishop to pious causes, with necessary support reserved to the suspended person." Schmalzgrueber, n. 308; Pichler, n. 43. Cf. here n. 1116 at the end.

What is suspension from Pontificals? "If a Bishop suspended from Pontificals celebrates Mass solemnly in pontifical attire, it is certain that he sins.... But whether he also incurs irregularity, Angelus, etc., affirm. But Laymann, etc., more probably deny it. The reason is that a Bishop, in sacrificing, does not exercise a substantial act of the episcopal order, but an act of the priestly order, from which he is not suspended; and that the celebration is done with Pontificals holds itself per accidens. But irregularity is not incurred except in the exercise of an act of the prohibited order." L. 314.

What is understood by the name of Pontificals? By the name of Pontificals is understood the authoritative use of Pontifical insignia, namely the miter, pastoral staff, and pallium. Therefore one suspended from Pontificals is consequently repelled from acts of the episcopal order which ought not to be done without the aforesaid insignia, such as conferring the sacrament of confirmation or orders, and consecrating virgins, Churches, and altars. Yet he can celebrate Mass in the manner of other priests, hear Confessions, baptize, indeed also impose censures, confer benefices, and exercise other acts of jurisdiction, since they by no means pertain to Pontificals. Laymann, chap. 1, n. 6; Giraldi, Expos. Iur. Pontif., part 2, sec. 21, note 2, p. 826.

To perform sacred things in pontifical rite belongs to Bishops. But by privilege this is also granted to Protonotaries after the manner of Participants, and to other inferior Prelates, but with more moderate ornament. Pius VII, constitution Decet Rom. Pontif., July 4, 1822.

What are deposition and degradation? Deposition and degradation are usually placed under suspension because of the similarity which they have with it, since each is removal from ecclesiastical order, jurisdiction, and benefice, notwithstanding that the cleric had been ordained under its title or substituted in place of patrimony. Yet they differ far from it, since penalties of this kind proceed still further, and deprive not only of the use of ecclesiastical power but also of the radical right itself, insofar as this can be done, and this in perpetuity; whence they are not censures, but vindictive penalties. They deprive of radical right insofar as by deposition and degradation perpetual incapacity is had for every office and benefice, namely if the deposition is perfect, and not only from office or only from benefice. But if deposition is from office, then consequently it is also from benefice; for a benefice exists because of office. Likewise simple deprivation of benefice is not a censure, but a mere penalty. Once suspension has been removed, by the law itself the suspended person is restored to his office and benefice; but the deposed person needs a new title so that he may be newly placed in it. If deposition casts a cleric down from every office and benefice and clerical dignity, degradation is had; and it is verbal if by the mere sentence of a judge he is cast down from clerical privileges, real if a solemn rite is added by which the insignia of orders are taken away from the cleric, and, when these have been taken away, he is handed over to the secular court. Since penalties of this kind are most grave, they are not incurred before the sentence of a judge. L., book 3, n. 670; book 7, nn. 323, 327; Suarez, De Cens., disp. 13, sect. 2, n. 14; disp. 27, n. 5; Bouix, De Parocho, Paris, 1855, p. 365 ff.; Laymann, part 1, chap. 1, n. 3; part 3, chap. 5; Coninck, disp. 16; Schmalzgrueber, n. 7; Benedict XIV, De Synodo, book 9, chap. 6, n. 3 ff.; constitution Quam grave, August 2, 1757; C. Degradatio 2, de Poenis, in VI; Council of Trent, sess. 13, chap. 4, de Ref.; Roman Pontifical, form of Degradation.

I. Chapters and convents of churches and monasteries, and all others who receive Bishops or other Prelates to the governance and administration of those churches or monasteries provided in any way concerning the aforesaid churches or monasteries by the same Holy See, before they themselves have exhibited the Apostolic Letters concerning their promotion, incur by that very fact suspension from receiving their benefices, at the good pleasure of the Holy See.

From receiving their benefices. "When a chapter or convent is suspended, the individual persons are not judged suspended, unless they are at fault. When suspension is imposed on the community alone, it does not affect individual persons as regards particular duties, but only as regards offices or benefices of the whole community." L. 317. But benefices of the whole community are those which pertain to the community as a community, although their fruits are distributed to individual persons. Benefices: those things which are of order and jurisdiction remain intact. Receiving, not administration; namely receiving the fruits. At the good pleasure of the Holy See: therefore this suspension is not going to endure for some determinate time, but as long as it shall please the Holy See, i.e., the Roman Pontiff existing for the time and his successors, namely until the suspended persons have deserved to obtain the grace of the same See concerning this. Therefore, when the will of the Holy See to remit or revoke the suspension has been declared, without another absolution absolution it expires. Laymann, part 3, chap. 3, n. 3.

And all others: these words, in their obvious sense, do not seem to be understood of the individual persons of chapters and convents, but seem to be referred to others who are not members of chapters and convents. Hence chapters and convents are indeed suspended from common benefices, which those chapters and convents, as such, possessed, but by no means from the benefices which the individual persons possess. But others besides chapters and convents, all indeed are punished by deprivation of the reception of those things which they individually hold. This suspension, as regards chapters and convents, is partly a penalty, partly a privation; and those also incur it who, from among the chapters and convents, have not received. But as regards others it is simply a penalty; hence they do not incur it unless they are not free from mortal fault.

They receive to the governance and administration: a Bishop or Prelate is judged to be received into the governance and administration of a church as soon as his authority is acknowledged as legitimate by receiving and admitting him. Therefore, once the Prelate has been received, those who render obedience to him when already received and in peaceful possession of his office do not incur this suspension. Bishops: some understand this of consecrated Bishops; because, since we are in odious matters, we use strict interpretation. Others, however, understand also those simply elected or confirmed, though they have not yet received episcopal consecration, because it is said, provided in any way, and there is question of promotion. Cf. Ferraris, v. Episcopus, art. 2, nn. 32, 36, 38. Prelates: those who possess quasi-episcopal and external jurisdiction, not those who are sent as merely administrators. Provided in any way at the same Holy See, namely "who are promoted at the said See, or receive the office of confirmation, consecration, or blessing." Extravag. comm. Iniunctae nobis, chap. 1, de Electione. Bonacina, disp. 3, q. 4, part 40.

From the Council of Trent, s. 24, C. 1, de R. M., I. M. 1235: "If any parish priest... shall have dared to join in marriage spouses of another parish without the permission of their parish priest... by the law itself let him remain suspended for so long until he is absolved by the Ordinary of that parish priest, etc." Whether is this suspension a mere penalty, or a true censure?

R. It would be a mere penalty if it were at will. But this formula, "let him remain suspended for so long until he is absolved by the Ordinary, etc.," signifies in the obvious sense only that the absolution of this suspension is reserved to this Ordinary when the delinquent has repented. Wherefore it seems that this suspension is a true censure, but reserved.

993. Definition. - Suspension is a censure by which a Cleric is deprived for a time, in part or in whole, of the use of the power which he has by reason of Order, office, or benefice.

Suspension is a censure because of itself it is imposed medicinally by way of admonition, so that the delinquent may cease from contumacy. Thus: 1. it differs from deposition and degradation, which are mere and perpetual penalties for the vindication of a crime; 2. it differs from irregularity, which is not of itself a penalty, but a mere impediment or inability preventing not only the exercise of ecclesiastical power but also its reception.

Nevertheless, suspension is not necessarily and essentially a censure; for sometimes it is imposed either for a definite time or perpetually to punish fault which is merely past, and therefore it is then not medicinal. This is established from the practice of the Church, from book 2 of the Decretals, title 20, chapter 33.

Division. A twofold suspension is distinguished:

1. Total, by which a Cleric is barred from every ecclesiastical function or right.

2. Partial, by which he is deprived only of some function or right.

But partial suspension is threefold: 1. from Order, which deprives one of the exercise of the functions of Order, for example, the celebration of Mass, the solemn chanting of the Gospel or Epistle, etc.; 2. from office, which deprives one of the use both of Order and of jurisdiction, whether in the external forum or even in the internal forum; 3. from benefice, which deprives one of the revenues and administration of the benefice. But each of these can again be subdivided into total or partial suspension, whether from Order, office, or benefice. See St. Alphonsus, no. 315 and following.

996. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Can a suspended Priest be absolved from sins by a simple Confessor before he is released from the censure by the Superior?

Reply. Affirmatively. The reason is that the effect of suspension is not to deprive one of the reception of the Sacraments. It suffices, therefore, if he is disposed for the Sacrament of Penance, namely, if he is at least attrite concerning his sins and promises that as soon as possible, insofar as it lies in him, he will procure absolution from the censure, and that in the meantime he will not use the prohibited power or rights.

QUESTION 2. Can a partial suspension be imposed for only a venial fault?

Reply. Affirmatively, according to the common opinion, provided it is for a brief time ¹, and therefore imposed ab homine. The reason is that it does not then introduce a great burden, and therefore proportion between fault and penalty is not lacking. It is otherwise, however, if it were for a long time or imposed by law so that it is incurred without a previous admonition; for such a censure is not incurred except on account of mortal sin. St. Alphonsus, no. 320, etc.

¹ But the Author himself has already admonished several times that suspension for a definite time, whether long or brief, is not a censure properly so called. Concerning these things the Rieti Commentary speaks briefly and clearly thus (section 13): Suspension and interdict are sometimes imposed by way of punishment alone or of a certain deprivation. By way of punishment, when contumacy is not restrained, but they are imposed upon individuals for offenses altogether past, that is, which have no successive course, as they say; or are established perpetually, or until a certain day, or for as long as it shall seem good to the Ordinary. But by way of a certain deprivation, when they are imposed upon some College or University. Between censures and penalties or deprivations this especially differs: one who violates a censure by exercising Order incurs irregularity; but violation of a penalty or deprivation makes no one irregular unless something else is provided in law, as in chapter Cum aeterni 1, On Sentences and Matters Adjudged, in the Sext, where a judge is declared irregular if he damnably intrudes himself into divine things during the suspension otherwise imposed upon him for a year.

997. • QUESTION 3. How is suspension removed?

Reply 1. If the suspension has the character of a censure, it is removed like excommunication, namely, by absolution alone, and indeed that of the Superior if it is reserved. Nevertheless, if it was imposed for a definite determined time or under a condition, it ceases of itself when the time has elapsed or the established condition has been fulfilled.

Reply 2. But if it was imposed perpetually on account of fault altogether past, it is removed as a mere penalty by dispensation alone of the Prelate or his delegate, because it is not then a censure. Thus commonly.

QUESTION 4. What form must be employed for removing suspension?

Reply 1. If the suspension is occult, it is removed by absolution under the general form: I absolve you from every bond, etc.

Reply 2. If it is public, it is removed in the internal forum by the same form; but in the external forum the solemn form determined in the Ritual must be employed. But no one can solemnly absolve from suspension except the Superior himself or another specially delegated for this.

QUESTION 5. Can a Priest simply approved absolve a person suspended by censure at the point of death if the Superior or delegate is lacking?

Reply. Not a few deny this, being led by the reason that no cause appears why the Church should confer such power upon him; for suspension does not deprive one of the faculty of receiving the Sacraments, if you except promotion to a higher Order. It therefore suffices for eternal salvation that one suspended and constituted in such danger be absolved from sins. Others, however, probably judge that a Priest in this case can absolve the dying person. The reason is that the Council of Trent says generally and without distinction, from any censures; and thus, since it excepts no censure, it is not ours to distinguish where the law of the Council distinguishes nothing. See Diana, tome V, treatise 1, resolution 205.

1156. I. Nature. 1. Notion. Suspension is "a censure by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice or both." Hence: a) it touches only clerics, because only they can enjoy office or benefice and be deprived of it; b) suspension does not deprive one of ecclesiastical power itself, but only removes the right of using that power:²² and thus it differs from deposition,²³ which deprives the cleric of office itself.

²² Can. 2279, § 1.

²³ Can. 2303.

2. Species. a) Suspension ab homine can be brought in a threefold way: as a precaution, for removing scandals, against a cleric suspected of crime:²⁴ this suspension is not a penalty, but a simple prohibition; or by way of vindicative penalty, whether for a time or perpetually, in punishment of some delict; or by way of medicinal penalty, until the delinquent comes to his senses, and this is properly a censure. b) Suspension can be total or partial, according as it deprives a cleric wholly or partly of the use of ecclesiastical power.²⁵

²⁴ Code, c. 2222.

²⁵ Code, c. 2278.

1157. II. Effects. 1. He against whom total suspension is brought is suspended from office and from benefice, that is, from the exercise of a spiritual function (office), and from the right of using the temporal goods annexed to this function (benefice); but not from the right of administering benefice goods, unless the decree or sentence of suspension expressly takes away from the suspended person the very power of administering and attributes it to another.¹ - But the suspension which is brought absolutely without any determination is judged total.²

¹ Code, c. 2280.

² Code, c. 2278.

2. Partial suspension can be either from office or from benefice.

A) Office comprehends two things: the power of order and the power of jurisdiction.

a) Suspension from office simply, with no limitation added, forbids every act both of the power of order and of jurisdiction, and also of mere administration competent from office, with the administration of the goods of one's own benefice excepted.³

³ Code, c. 2279, § 1.

b) Suspension from divine things forbids every act of the power of order which one obtains either through sacred ordination or through privilege.⁴

⁴ Ibid., § 2.

c) Suspension from orders forbids every act of the power of order received through ordination; suspension from exercising a certain and definite order forbids every act of the designated order, the conferring of the same order, and the receiving of a higher one, and the exercise, after suspension, of one received; suspension from conferring a certain and definite order forbids the conferring of that order itself, but not an inferior or a higher one.⁵ - One suspended from an order, if he solemnly exercises an act of the sacred order from which he is suspended, becomes irregular.⁶

⁵ Ibid., § 2.

⁶ Code, c. 985.

d) Suspension from jurisdiction generally forbids every act of the power of jurisdiction for both forums, ordinary as well as delegated. Indeed a suspended person exercises jurisdiction invalidly if he is one to be avoided or under a declaratory or condemnatory sentence,⁷ and on the other hand jurisdiction is necessary for the validity of the act; but he does not become irregular. Someone can also be suspended from determinate acts of jurisdiction: in which case he can exercise other acts validly and licitly.

⁷ Code, c. 2265, 2283.

1158. B) Suspension from benefice deprives one of the fruits of the benefice, with habitation in the benefice buildings excepted, but not of the right of administering the benefice goods, unless this is expressly declared. - If, although the censure stands in the way, the beneficiary receives the fruits, he must restore the fruits, and can be compelled to this restitution even by canonical sanctions, if need be.⁸

⁸ Code, c. 2280.

If a community or college of clerics has committed a delict, suspension can be brought either upon the individual delinquent persons, or upon the community as such, or upon the delinquent persons and the community. 1) If the first, let the rules explained above be observed. 2) If the second, the community is prohibited from the exercise of spiritual rights which belong to it as a community. 3) If the third, the effects are combined.⁹

⁹ Code, c. 2285.

A suspended cleric can be absolved from sins by a simple confessor before he is absolved from a reserved suspension by a superior. For suspension does not deprive one of the reception of sacraments, excepting however order.¹⁰

¹⁰ Code, c. 2250.

In the Code there first occurs a very logically ordered distribution of penalties according to the varied nature and reason of delicts. For our use, we shall enumerate censures in order according to their severity. Those which pertain to moral theology have almost all been explained in their own places.

— I. Excommunications most specially reserved have been brought:

1. against him who has thrown away the consecrated species or has carried them off or retained them for an evil end (c. 2320).

Therefore there are punished the thief who throws away the species in order to steal the pyx, and the impious man who carries off or retains the consecrated species for sacrilegious abuses;

2. against him who has laid violent hands upon the person of the Roman Pontiff (c. 2343);

3. against one guilty of the absolution of an accomplice (c. 2367). Cf. what has been said at n. 502;

4. against a confessor who has presumed directly to violate the sacramental seal (c. 2368. Cf. what has been said at n. 524);

5. against those violating the secret of the Holy Office concerning the information required about candidates for the episcopate (cf. resp. S. C. Cons., 24 Apr. 1917, A.A.S. IX, 232);

6. against those who, having a part in the conclave, shall have directly or indirectly violated the secret in those things which regard the election of the Roman Pontiff and which are transacted in the conclave or in the place of election (Vacante Sede, Pius X, 25 Dec. 1904, nn. 51, 52).

You should observe that both of the latter are governed by a more severe law, since outside danger of death they cannot be absolved even by the Major Cardinal Penitentiary himself. But in practice the same Cardinal will be the smoother and safer way by which absolution can be obtained from the Supreme Pontiff.

— They incur an excommunication specially reserved to the Roman Pontiff:

1. apostates, heretics, schismatics (c. 2314);

2. those suspected of heresy, if, having been warned, after six months they do not amend themselves (c. 2315).

The following are suspected of heresy: those favoring the propagation of heresy or communicating in divine things with heretics (c. 2361); those who enter into a pact concerning the non-Catholic education of offspring or who procure its baptism or education outside the Catholic Church (c. 2319); those who sacrilegiously treat the consecrated species according to the norm of c. 2320; those appealing from the decrees of the Roman Pontiff to a Universal Council (c. 2332); those who, with hardened mind, for a year have remained sordid in excommunication (c. 2340); those who are ordained simoniacally, ordain, or administer other sacraments (c. 2371);

3. those publishing books of apostates, heretics, or schismatics which defend apostasy, heresy, or schism; those defending or knowingly reading the same books or books prohibited by name through apostolic letters (c. 2318; cf. n. 901 [apparent intended cross-reference: n. 904]);

4. one not promoted to the priesthood who simulates the celebration of Mass or hears a confession (c. 2322);

5. those appealing to a universal Council (c. 2332);

6. those impeding the letters or acts of the Holy See or of its legates (c. 2333);

7. those issuing laws, mandates, or decrees against the liberty or rights of the Church; those recurring to any lay power whatsoever to impede the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction (c. 2334).

"Those issuing," by force of the word, are only those promulgating, and Cerato, De censuris, n. 96, comprehends only them. Yet the more common opinion, relying on the interpretation of the old law, also embraces those who establish the same things either by individual will or by common and efficacious suffrage. Cf. Epitome Iuris, III, 684.

In the other part of the censure, recourse is understood as efficacious, and as made to some lay power;

8. those dragging before a lay judge a Cardinal, a Legate of the Holy See, a higher official of the Roman Curia, or their own Ordinary (c. 2341. Cf. n. 12 on the privilege of forum);

9. those laying violent hands upon a Cardinal, a Legate of the Holy See, a patriarch, archbishop, or bishop (c. 2343; cf. n. 10);

10. those usurping or detaining, by themselves or through others, the goods or rights of the Roman Church (c. 2345);

11. forgers of letters of the Holy See and those using forged ones (c. 2360);

12. one falsely denouncing a confessor for solicitation before Superiors (c. 2363; cf. n. 569).

— III. They incur an excommunication simply reserved to the Roman Pontiff:

1. those making gain from indulgences (c. 2327).

They make gain from indulgences who strive to obtain monies either for the obtaining, or for the concession, or for the publication of indulgences, even in favor of a pious cause. From the moment the money has been accepted, the excommunication is contracted. All, and no longer only those inferior to bishops, as in the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, are punished by this penalty.

— 2. Those giving their name to a Masonic sect (c. 2355).

Sects here are distinguished by two notes: 1. by secrecy, by which, whether members or leaders, they are bound as to the constitution, ends, and means of the sect; 2. by machination, secret or open, against the Church or legitimate civil powers.

Religious or clerics giving their name to a sect of this kind must be denounced to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.

You ask what things must be required for absolving him who has given his name to a Masonic sect?

1. If the faculty has been sought from the Sacred Penitentiary, its prescriptions must be observed, and recourse must be made to it if any difficulty seems to obstruct the execution.

But the Holy See is accustomed to require, besides separation from the sect and repair of scandal, abjuration of the sect [printed/OCR: "stopping up of the sect"] (excepting children and the dying), the handing over of books, manuscripts, and signs pertaining to the sect into the hands of confessors, so that they may be transmitted as soon as possible to the Ordinary, or at least, if just and grave causes demand it, burned; and the injunction of a grave penance with frequency of the sacraments.

2. Therefore we shall prudently try to obtain these things, even when recourse to the Holy See was not necessary. If too great a difficulty has obstructed this, at least those things must be required which the natural law demands: the suppression of cooperation, the repair of scandal, the revelation of a harmful secret. But let us explain the obligations in such a way that we seem to require nothing which is opposed to "honor."

Nor are those immediately to be dismissed unabsolved who, in order to avoid penalties, do not break off all communication with the sect, if the communication is neither scandalous, nor useful to the sect, nor spiritually dangerous to themselves (cf. d'Annibale, I, 391, note 4).

Those will be able to be absolved more easily who no longer attend meetings, but, for grave reasons, abstain from formal repudiation.

A dying man, near to death and who seems to be constituted in good faith, will be able to be absolved if in general he subjects himself to the authority and mandates of the Holy See. But the scandal is to be repaired in the best way in which it can be, even after death;

— 3. those absolving without faculty from an excommunication most specially or specially reserved to the Holy See (c. 2338);

4. those communicating in a delict or in divine things with an excommunicate to be avoided (c. 2338);

5. those dragging before a lay judge a Bishop, a Prelate nullius, or a supreme religious Superior (c. 2341);

6. those violating the cloister of nuns, and nuns illegitimately going out from the cloister (c. 2342; cf. n. 145);

7. those violating the cloister of Regulars (c. 2342; cf. n. 145);

8. those usurping ecclesiastical goods (c. 2346);

9. duelists and their accomplices (c. 2351; cf. tome II);

10. clerics in sacred orders and those bound by a solemn vow of chastity, attempting matrimony, and their partners (c. 2388; cf. n. 128);

11. simoniacs in offices, benefices, and dignities (c. 2392; cf. tome II);

12. those removing or changing a document from the episcopal Curia (c. 2405).

— IV. They incur an excommunication reserved to the Ordinary:

1. those entering into matrimony before a non-Catholic minister (c. 2319);

2. those contracting matrimony with a pact that offspring be educated outside the Church (c. 2319);

3. those knowingly offering children to be baptized by a non-Catholic minister (c. 2319);

4. those knowingly handing over children to be educated in a non-Catholic religion (c. 2319);

5. those making, distributing, or exposing false relics (c. 2326);

6. those laying violent hands upon simple clerics or religious (c. 2343; cf. n. 12);

7. those procuring abortion, the effect following (c. 2350; cf. tome II);

8. a religious apostate from religion (c. 2385; cf. n. 155);

9. professed of perpetual simple vows contracting matrimony, and their partners (c. 2388; cf. n. 137).

— V. They incur an excommunication reserved to no one:

1. those publishing without license books on Sacred Scripture (c. 2318; cf. n. 900):

— 2. those daring to order or compel that unbelievers, apostates, non-Catholics, censured persons excluded by c. 1240 be given ecclesiastical burial (c. 2339).

Unless before death they have given some signs of repentance, the following are deprived of ecclesiastical burial: 1. "notorious apostates from the Christian faith, or those notoriously attached to a heretical or schismatic sect, or to a Masonic sect or other societies of the same kind; 2° excommunicates or interdicted persons after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence; 3° those who killed themselves by deliberate counsel; 4° those who died in a duel or from a wound received from it; 5° those who have ordered their body to be given to cremation; 6° other public and manifest sinners" (c. 1240, §1).

To remove scandal in certain cases, as c. 1240, §2 insinuates, every funeral pomp will sometimes have to be denied; in doubt about this matter, the Ordinary will have to be consulted.

Ecclesiastical burial embraces three things: the transfer of the corpse to the church; the obsequies celebrated over it; its deposition in a place legitimately deputed for burying the faithful. Wherefore several authors, Cerato, n. 64; Eichmann, Strafrecht der Kirche, §41; Cappello, De Censuris, n. 173, think that the censure is not contracted by those who merely order inhumation, but not the sacred rite; nevertheless most judge that these are affected by the censure, e.g., Creusen, III, 538: that severity is required by the interpretation of the old law, by the end of the law, and by the manner in which the rights of the Church are violated today. Yet we would not wish to call the more benign opinion improbable, especially if we consider the number of those who are ordered to be deprived of burial.

Although even private persons can compel, nevertheless those ordering or compelling can be understood only of public powers. But those who are compelled by law are immune from censure, since a daring act is required.

Finally, on 30 March 1859, the Holy Office declared that it can be tolerated that non-Catholic blood-relatives be brought into the family tomb of Catholic families, to avoid greater evils.

Concerning cremation, let these things be noted. A twofold cremation must be distinguished: one which is sometimes commanded for reasons of public health or of promoting anatomical science; this the Church tacitly tolerates; another which attacks the very inhumation of bodies in a general way. This the decrees of the Holy Office severely forbid, as one which is opposed to the reverence of the Christian body, which is alien from the usages of the Church, and which is propagated with a mind hostile to religion. As is clear, those alone who by their own will have chosen cremation for themselves are to be deprived of ecclesiastical burial. Besides, giving one's name to sects which promote cremation is forbidden; and never (therefore not even if an inheritance can be entered upon for this reason alone) is it licit to cooperate formally with cremation by command or counsel (S. Off., 27 July 1892). Material cooperation, with due cautions, for a proportionate cause, will sometimes be able to be tolerated: for example, that of workers who are hired in cemeteries. He also will sometimes be able to be excused who accompanies the corpse of a blood-relative or connected person as far as the place of combustion, scandal having been removed (Genicot-Salsmans, II, n. 628);

— 3. those omitting the apostolic beneplacitum for alienating ecclesiastical goods (c. 2347). Ecclesiastical goods are goods which belong to an ecclesiastical moral person.

Alienation designates every act by which ownership is either transferred or, a right in the thing having been conceded, diminished, e.g., sale, exchange, the constitution of a passive mortgage or servitude, the renunciation of an active servitude; and also a lease beyond nine years.

Besides the other conditions of every ecclesiastical alienation, the apostolic beneplacitum must be sought when there is question of precious things, or of things which, according to the estimation of experts, exceed the value of 30,000 lire or francs; or when the value of the lease (for individual terms) exceeds 30,000 lire or francs (cc. 1532, 1541).

But things are precious to which there belongs a notable value because of art or history or material (c. 1497, §2). But a notable value can be estimated at about 1000 lire or francs.

Those lire seem able to be taken as gold money, lest the value itself be too uncertain.

N.B. Nor can notable relics or relics of great devotion be alienated or transferred without the permission of the Holy See (c. 1281, §1);

4. those compelling someone to embrace the clerical or religious state (c. 2352);

5. one knowingly omitting to denounce a confessor by whom he has been solicited (c. 2368; cf. n. 611).

Although this censure is reserved to no one, nevertheless he cannot be absolved from it unless he has satisfied the obligation or has seriously promised that he will fulfill it.

— I. They incur a suspension reserved to the Holy See:

1. from divine things: those presuming to receive orders from an apostate, heretic, schismatic, or censured person (c. 2372; cf. n. 737);

2. a general one: a bishop consecrating a bishop without the mandate of the Holy See, and his assistants (c. 2370; cf. n. 683); those knowingly, through simony, ordaining or being ordained, administering or receiving sacraments (c. 2371; cf. n. 673).

II. They incur a suspension reserved to the Ordinary:

from office: those dragging before a lay judge a simple cleric or religious (c. 2341; cf. n. 12).

III. They incur a general suspension reserved to the major Superior: fugitive religious (c. 2386; cf. n. 144).

IV. They incur a suspension reserved to no one:

1. from hearing confessions: one absolving from reserved cases without faculty (c. 2366);

2. from divine things: one presuming to hear confessions without jurisdiction (c. 2366); one presuming to resign an office, benefice, or dignity into the hands of laymen (c. 2400); a capitular Vicar unduly granting dimissorial letters for ordination (c. 2409; cf. c. 958);

3. from the order received: one ordained without dimissorial letters, before the age, or by leap (c. 2374; cf. n. 737);

4. from jurisdiction: a Prelate nullius not seeking the blessing within the due time (c. 2402, §2; cf. 322, §2).

— I. They incur an interdict specially reserved to the Holy See:

moral persons appealing to a universal Council (c. 2332).

II. They incur a personal interdict reserved to no one:

those who have given cause to a local interdict or to an interdict upon a community (c. 2338, §4).

III. They incur an interdict from entrance into a church reserved to the Ordinary:

those spontaneously giving ecclesiastical burial to those whom the law prohibits (c. 2339).

— I. On penalties in general. 1. Penalties are established in law as latae sententiae, which are incurred at the very moment of the delict, without a sentence, and as ferendae sententiae, which require condemnation. Penalties are of ferendae sententiae unless they are expressly or equivalently said to be contracted by the fact itself or by the law itself.

2. Before a sentence, at least a declaratory one, he who cannot observe it without infamy is excused from observing the penalty.

3. If the amendment of the delinquent is principally intended, the penalty is medicinal; otherwise it is vindicative. A medicinal penalty is a censure, which always supposes a grave delict, external, consummated according to the description of the law, and joined with contumacy, i.e., with some evil will from which there must be withdrawal. If there is withdrawal from this, the penalty does not cease by the fact itself, but the guilty party has the right of obtaining absolution.

A penalty established by law is also incurred by one who has concurred in the delict by physical or moral, necessary or principal causality.

The impubes escape penalties latae sententiae, and so do Cardinals, unless they are expressly named.

Affected ignorance excuses from no penalties latae sententiae; nor does crass or supine ignorance, unless the law has used the words: has presumed, knowingly, studiously. Simple ignorance excuses from medicinal penalties, but not from vindicative penalties which are established without the words "has presumed" or similar words.

Grave fear of itself excuses, unless the delict tends to contempt of faith or of ecclesiastical authority, or to the public harm of souls.

II. On censures. 1. They can annex censures to a law or precept who can make laws or command by force of jurisdiction.

Concerning the reservation of censures and absolution, cf. what has been said in the treatise on Penance. There are three censures: excommunication, suspension, interdict.

II. Excommunication directly excludes from the communion of the faithful; and consequently: a) it deprives one of the right of assisting at divine offices, preaching excepted, of the licit reception of the sacraments, and, after sentence, also of sacramentals, of the licit confection and administration of the sacraments, saving the temperaments indicated where the sacraments were treated; of indulgences, suffrages, public prayers; b) it prohibits the attainment and execution of offices, acts of jurisdiction, election, presentation, nomination: for validity, an excommunicate to be avoided and one declared excommunicated must be distinguished from another excommunicate.

An excommunicate is not to be avoided unless, in the decree or sentence, the Apostolic See has expressly said that he must be avoided, or unless he has been a notorious striker of the Supreme Pontiff.

III. Suspension prohibits by office or benefice, or by both; it is total, or partial in various ways.

Suspension from informed conscience is had when the Ordinary, to avoid grave inconveniences, declares by simple decree that he imposes suspension from causes known to himself. The Ordinary must be certain concerning the grave delict, which is not notorious.

IV. Interdict directly prohibits from sacred things. It is distinguished into personal and local, which can be general or particular.

Interdict from entrance into a church prohibits participation in divine offices in church, and ecclesiastical burial.

V. On certain absolutions or censures. 1. He who absolves an adherent of a Masonic sect by force of a faculty given by the Sacred Penitentiary must observe its prescriptions, and must recur to it if a difficulty arises. He who absolves without recourse, for example by force of a privilege, must always prudently require what the natural law requires: suppression of cooperation, repair of scandal, revelation of a harmful secret. And unless too great a difficulty obstructs, he will prudently ask the other things which the Holy See is accustomed to require.

2. On the apostolic beneplacitum in alienation. Alienation designates every act by which ownership is either transferred or, a right in the thing having been conceded, diminished, and also a lease beyond nine years. The apostolic beneplacitum must be sought when there is question of precious things, or of things which, according to the estimation of experts, exceed the value of 30,000 lire or francs, or when the value of a lease made beyond nine years, for individual terms, exceeds the same sum.

But precious things are things in which there is a notable value of art or history or material. Notable value can be estimated at about 1000 lire or francs. And the lire seem able to be taken as gold money.

Nor without the permission of the Holy See can notable relics or relics of great devotion be alienated or transferred elsewhere.

3. On those compelling that ecclesiastical burial be given. Those ordering or compelling are understood as those who, endowed with public authority, command, or those who compel others by force or fear. If they themselves are compelled by law, they do not act with rash daring, which here is required for the censure. And since ecclesiastical burial embraces the obsequies and deposition in a sacred place, this censure seems to certain commentators not now to punish merely inhumation alone in a sacred place.

Cremation which is commanded by no different reason of public utility is so prohibited from being chosen by Christians in place of inhumation that formal cooperation is never excused.

We shall treat: 1. suspension in general; 2. suspensions in force today.

683. Suspension (schorsing) is a censure by which a cleric is deprived of the exercise or use of some power or function which belongs to him by reason of order, office, or benefice; or "by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice or both" (can. 2278).

It can also be not a censure, but a vindicative penalty, or even a certain penance or mere prohibition of exercising an office; it is not a censure if it is brought in perpetuity, or for a predefined time, or at the good pleasure of the superior (can. 2298, 2), but in doubt whether it is a censure or another penalty, it is presumed to be a censure (can. 2255, § 2). For an occult delict it can also be brought from informed conscience, but this is not lawful for the Ordinary if he can proceed according to the norm of law against the subject without grave inconvenience (can. 2186); in a case in which it is brought from informed conscience, generally it is a vindicative penalty, although it can also be a censure (cf. can. 2188).

One suspension is general or special according as it deprives of every use both of Order, of office, and of benefice, or only of the use of one of these; the latter again is total or partial according as it deprives of every use of order, office, or benefice, or only of partial use, such as suspension from divine things, from confessions, from pontifical order, or from pontificals (cf. can. 2279).

A. Effects. One suspended is not prohibited from receiving the sacraments, provided he sincerely grieves for sins; but

1. he sins gravely who, without a grave excusing cause, exercises an act prohibited to him; this sin, however, admits lightness of matter, for example, in the mere exercise of a minor order;

2. one suspended from order and culpably violating the suspension by the exercise of sacred order becomes irregular (can. 985, 7);

3. one suspended who is merely tolerated validly exercises jurisdiction, yet illicitly unless he has been asked; after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, also invalidly (can. 2284);

4. one suspended from office simply and absolutely is also deprived of the use of order, as of jurisdiction: namely, suspension from office includes suspension from order (can. 2279, § 1);

5. anyone suspended is prohibited from the right of electing, presenting, nominating; he cannot obtain dignities, offices, benefices, ecclesiastical pensions, or any other function in the Church, nor can he be promoted to orders (can. 2283), in the same way as was stated concerning excommunicates (can. 2265);

6. one suspended from a benefice who usurps the benefice's fruits is bound to restitution even before the sentence of the judge, and can also be coerced to it by canonical penalties; nevertheless he can live in the buildings of the benefice, and, unless something else is expressly said, administer its goods (can. 2280).

It should be noted from can. 2285: if a community or college of clerics has committed a delict, suspension can be brought either upon the individual delinquent persons, or upon the community as such, or upon the delinquent persons and the community. If the first, what was said above has force; if the second, the community is prohibited from the exercise of the spiritual rights which belong to it, as a community; if the third, the effects are accumulated.

B. The suspensions latae sententiae in force today are:

a) Censures reserved to the Holy See:

1. Clerics simoniacally giving or receiving ordination and the other sacraments incur suspension (can. 2371).

2. Those who presume to receive orders from one excommunicated or suspended or interdicted after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic, or schismatic, contract suspension from divine things (can. 2372); likewise priests who without due license and dimissorial letters have rashly and arrogantly migrated from Europe or the shores of the Mediterranean to America or to the Philippine Islands (S. C. Consist., Dec. 30, 1918).

3. A religious cleric in sacred orders, dismissed for delicts according to the norm of law, by the fact itself is subject to suspension until he has obtained absolution from the Holy See (can. 670-671).

b) Reserved to the Ordinary of the place:

A cleric who has dared to bring before a lay judge, without obtaining the permission of the Ordinary, another ecclesiastical person who is not constituted in a higher dignity incurs suspension from office (can. 2341).

c) Reserved to the major religious superior:

A fugitive religious incurs suspension if he is in sacred orders (can. 2386);

that man is a fugitive who departs from the religious house with the intention of living for a time outside religious obedience, but afterward returning.

d) Not reserved:

1. A priest who has presumed to hear sacramental confessions without necessary jurisdiction is by the fact itself suspended from divine things; but one who has presumed to absolve from reserved sins is by the fact itself suspended from hearing confessions (can. 2366).

2. One who without letters or with false dimissorial letters, or before canonical age, or by a leap has maliciously approached orders, is by the fact itself suspended from the order received (can. 2374).

3. A cleric who has presumed to resign an ecclesiastical office, benefice, or dignity into the hands of laymen, by the fact itself incurs suspension from divine things (can. 2400).

4. A vicar capitular illegitimately granting dimissorial letters for ordination, by the fact itself is subject to suspension from divine things (can. 2409).

5. An abbot or prelate nullius who, a legitimate impediment ceasing, has not received benediction within three months from receiving apostolic letters, is by the fact itself suspended from jurisdiction (can. 2402).

e) As vindicative penalties:

1. By the law itself, a bishop consecrating a bishop without apostolic mandate, his assistants, and the one receiving consecration are suspended until the Apostolic See has dispensed them (can. 2370).

2. Religious constituted in major orders whose profession has been declared null because of fraud admitted by them are suspended, until it shall seem otherwise to the Apostolic See (can. 2387).

3. Those who confer orders without the required testimonial letters, or without a canonical title, or without the necessary licenses in the ordination of religious, by the fact itself incur suspension for a year from the conferral of orders (can. 2373).

4. Religious superiors who have presumed illegitimately to send their subjects to another bishop to be ordained, by the fact itself are suspended for a month from the celebration of Mass (can. 2410).

5. Chapters of a convent and others admitting those elected, presented, or nominated to a benefice, office, or ecclesiastical dignity before the exhibition of the letters remain by the fact itself suspended from the right of electing, nominating, or presenting, at the good pleasure of the Apostolic See (can. 2394, 3).

C. Cessation of suspension. 1. Suspension brought as a censure is removed only by legitimate absolution.

2. Suspension which is a vindicative penalty is taken away by dispensation of the legitimate superior, or by lapse of time if it has been inflicted for a time; but if it was from informed conscience, it also ceases by the death of the prelate who brought it, unless it was imposed by a legitimate document or before two witnesses (can. 24).

Concerning these it is treated in the Code in can. 2255-2285. Three species are had in can. 2255 § 1. - 1290 The definition of excommunication is had in can. 2237 § 1. The effects cannot be separated; therefore the distinction between greater and lesser excommunication is altogether taken away; 2º is confirmed by can. 2258 § 1. Today from § 2 of the same canon only those are to be avoided who are excommunicated by name by the Holy See; besides, the excommunication must be publicly denounced, and in the decree or sentence it must be expressly said that he must be avoided. - 1291 1º is confirmed by can. 985 n. 7; 2º can. 2340 § 1. - 1292 1º can. 2260 § 1. Note can. 2250 § 1; 2º can. 2261 §§ 1, 2, 3. The Note which pertains to 1º, can. 2260 § 1; 3º can. 2259 §§ 1 and 2, cf. also can. 2256 n. 1; 4º can. 2262 § 1, but it is extended to all excommunicates. As regards private suffrages, it is confirmed by the same canon § 2; 5º can. 2264. As regards assistance at marriage, can. 1095 § 1, 1º (it is extended to the interdicted); 6º can. 2265 § 1 nn. 1 and 2; in § 2 of the same canon the nullity of acts is restricted to the case in which there is had a declaratory sentence of excommunication. As regards rescripts, cf. there and can. 36 § 2. As regards privation of benefice, it is confirmed by can. 2340 § 1, 2315, 2314 § 1 n. 2 taken together. As regards fruits, can. 2266; 7º can. 2263, 2256 n. 2, 1654; 8º can. 2267; 9º can. 2260 § 2 and 2240 § 1 n. 2, where it is limited only to excommunicates after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence. As regards extracting corpses, the obligation from can. 1242 is limited to those alone who are to be avoided, and if indeed it can be done without grave inconvenience. An excommunicate, although he has not been condemned or declared, sometimes must be deprived of ecclesiastical burial from another head, can. 1241 § 1, e.g., from n. 6. - 1294 and 1295 are confirmed by can. 2267. Private prayer is licit from can. 2262 § 2 n. 1; 4º one communicating in a criminal crime is confirmed by can. 2338 § 2. - 1298. A doubt concerning one to be avoided, after can. 2258 § 2, can scarcely be had any longer.

1299. The definition of suspension is had in can. 2278 § 1. The division is somewhat other: suspension is total or partial, and this is either from office or from benefice from can. 2278 § 2; partial suspension from office is again total or partial from can. 2279 § 1; from benefice it is had in can. 2280 § 1. - 1300 1º is confirmed by can. 2298 n. 2; 2º can. 2222 § 2 and by the last words of the same: "they do not have the nature of a penalty." - 1301 is confirmed by can. 2186-2194 and can. 2222 § 1. - 1302 can. 2278 § 2. - 1303 can. 2279 § 2. In this canon the species of partial suspension from office are clearly indicated with their effects; 4º is confirmed from can. 2280 §§ 1, 2; 5º from can. 2285. - 1304 I is confirmed by can. 986; II can. 985 n. 7. The question concerning violation of suspension as a vindictive penalty is solved through this canon, so that then an irregularity is also incurred; III is confirmed by can. 2284. - 1305 1º and 2º can. 2236 § 1, 2248 § 1 and 2289.

1306. The definition of interdict is in can. 2268 § 1. As regards the division, 1º mixed is to be omitted, can. 2268 § 2. The rest is confirmed by can. 2269 § 1. Concerning interdict from entrance of the church, it is treated in can. 2277. - 1307 I is confirmed by can. 2273, but as regards the note, the cemetery is not interdicted when the church has been interdicted. Those who did not give the cause from can. 2276 can receive the sacraments. Concerning the faculty of the Bishop, confer can. 2269 § 1; II is confirmed in some measure by can. 2269 § 2; III Bishops are exempt from can. 2227 § 2; innocents from can. 2276; externs from can. 2269 § 2; infants from can. 2230 and the insane from can. 2201 § 1 and 2218 § 2, who are not even

deprived of ecclesiastical burial from can. 1240 § 1 n. 2. - 1308 must be changed in some measure, although it is substantially confirmed. 1º The effect of a local interdict (whether general or partial) is the prohibition of any divine office or sacred rite in the interdicted place from can. 2269 § 1. What is understood by divine offices, see can. 2256 n. 1. The limits as regards the dying are in can. 2270 § 1; as regards clerics they are confirmed by can. 2271, 1º; as regards days, can. 2270 § 2; as regards sacraments, if the church is the only one or is parochial, can. 2271 n. 2. Ecclesiastical burial is prohibited only for those who are personally interdicted from can. 1240 § 1 n. 2, and only after sentence. For the rest in a local interdict only solemnities in funerals are prohibited from can. 2271 n. 2; b) if it is a particular local one; cf. besides can. 2272. - 1309. 1º a) is confirmed by can. 985, 7º; b) can. 2372; c) can. 2338 § 3; 2º is confirmed by can. 2338 § 3 and can. 2275. - 1310. 1º is confirmed by can. 2353 n. 1; as regards reserved ones confer can. 2237 § 1; 2º is confirmed by can. 2253 n. 2 and can. 2247 § 2; 3º can. 2253 n. 1.

1º A Bishop consecrating someone as Bishop, the Bishops or, in place of Bishops, the assisting priests, and he who receives consecration without an apostolic mandate against the prescription of can. 953,

from can. 2370. This censure is new, inasmuch as it was no longer in force either from the Piana Constitution or from the Council of Trent. But Alexander VII in the Apostolic Letter Alias of the day 27 Feb. 1660 supposed it to exist. Now indeed it has been restored. There are four who in such a case incur the censure.

2º Those who presume to receive orders from one excommunicated or suspended or interdicted after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic, schismatic; but he who in good faith has been ordained by any of these lacks the exercise of the order thus received until he is dispensed,

from can. 2372. In antiquity it was had in the Const. Ap. Sedis under n. IV; cf. in the author n. 1366.

3º They incur by the very fact a suspension for one year from the conferral of orders, reserved to the Apostolic See: 1º those who, against the prescription of can. 955, shall have ordained another's subject without dimissorial letters of his proper Ordinary; 2º those who shall have ordained their own subject, who has stayed elsewhere for so much time that he could have contracted a canonical impediment there, against the prescription of can. 993, 994; 3º those who shall have promoted someone to major orders without a canonical title against the prescription of can. 974 § 1 n. 7; 4º those who, with legitimate privilege being saved, shall have promoted a religious pertaining to a family which is outside the territory of the one ordaining, even with dimissorial letters of his proper Superior, unless it has been legitimately proved that some one of the cases occurs concerning which in can. 966,

from can. 2373. The two prior censures were formerly had in the Const. of Pius IX under n. III Susp. l. s.; cf. in the author n. 1363; the third was in force from the same Const. n. II; cf. in the author n. 1362; the fourth is new. It is understood from can. 966. A legitimate privilege is not when it is had only by communication from the Const. Impositi nobis of Benedict XIV.

4º A religious cleric whose profession, because of fraud admitted by himself, shall have been declared null, if he is constituted in major orders, remains by the very fact suspended until it shall have seemed otherwise to the Apostolic See,

from can. 2387. The censure is new. Note that it is incurred only after the declaration of nullity of the profession, and indeed it is required that the cause why it is declared null be fraud admitted by the religious himself.

5º Chapters, convents, and all others to whom it pertains, admitting those elected, presented, or nominated (of this kind) before the exhibition of the letters, remain by the very fact suspended from the right of electing, nominating, or presenting, at the good pleasure of the Apostolic See,

from can. 2394 n. 3. Formerly they were suspended from the perception of their benefices; cf. in the author n. 1361.

1º If a cleric, against the prescription of can. 120, without having obtained license from the Ordinary of the place, shall have dared to draw to a lay judge another person (besides those who are enumerated in can. 2341 in the first place) enjoying the privilege of forum, he incurs by the very fact suspension from Office reserved to the Ordinary,

from can. 2341. Cf. in the author n. 1321 and the things said above under A, II, 8º and III, 5º. With license of the Ordinary it is licit.

2º A fugitive religious, if he is in sacred orders, incurs a suspension reserved to his own major Superior,

from can. 2386. Cf. in the author n. 2172 and above under A, IV, n. 8º.

1º A priest who, without necessary jurisdiction, shall have presumed to hear sacramental confessions is by the very fact suspended from divine things; but he who absolves from reserved sins is by the very fact suspended from hearing confessions,

from can. 2366. Presumption is required for incurring the censure. In the 2nd part of the canon there is question only of reserved sins (with or without censure) and not of sins reserved because of a censure, concerning which there is question in can. 2338.

2º He who without letters, or with false dimissorial letters, or before canonical age, or by a leap shall maliciously have approached orders, is by the very fact suspended from the order received,

from can. 2374. Formerly some censure was present from the Council of Trent for the 1st and 2nd case; cf. in the author n. 1370. Concerning those ordained by a leap there was a question; see in the author n. 1372.

3º A cleric who shall have presumed to resign an ecclesiastical office, benefice, or dignity into the hands of laymen, incurs by the very fact suspension from divine things,

from can. 2400. The resignation of a benefice cannot be made except into the hands of the legitimate superior, and indeed only in favor of some suitable person who accepts. He who therefore

sends his benefice into the hands of laymen so that they may dispose of it, incurs this censure. The censure is new.

4º An Abbot or Prelate nullius who, against the prescription of can. 322 § 2, shall not have received the blessing, is by the very fact suspended from jurisdiction,

from can. 2402. In the aforesaid can. 322 § 2 it is said: "Abbots or Prelates nullius who by apostolic prescription or from the constitutions of their own religion must be blessed, within three months from the received apostolic letters, a legitimate impediment ceasing, are to receive the blessing from the Bishop whom they shall have preferred." The censure is new.

5º A Chapter Vicar granting dimissorial letters for ordination against the prescription of can. 958 § 1 n. 3, by the very fact is subject to suspension from divine things,

from can. 2409. Formerly an interdict was had from the Council of Trent. Cf. in the author n. 1379. Therefore now he incurs it if he grants them before a year has elapsed from the vacant see, to those not constrained by reason of a benefice received or to be received, or by reason of some certain office, for which because of the necessity of the diocese provision must be made without delay.

6º Religious Superiors who, against the prescription of can. 965-967, shall have presumed to send their subjects to another Bishop to be ordained, are by the very fact suspended for one month from the celebration of Mass,

from can. 2410. Religious must be ordained by the Bishop of the diocese in which the religious house is situated. Only some cases are excepted, concerning which in vol. II n. 1910. The censure is new.

§ 1. Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is prohibited from office or benefice, or from both.

§ 2. The effects also of suspension can be separated; but, unless something else is established, in a suspension brought generally there are comprehended all the effects which are enumerated in the canons of this article; on the contrary, in suspension from office or from benefice, only all the effects of either species (Can. 2278).

Suspension is brought only against a cleric, since it prohibits the use of his ecclesiastical power and ecclesiastical functions. Now the activities of a cleric are, as it were, embraced by two things: office, that is, order and jurisdiction, and benefice. Hence suspensions can be partial and total. A suspension brought absolutely and without restriction suspends both from office and from benefice. By canon law the effects of suspension can be separated, as will be clear from its various kinds.

Suspension from office does not take away office, but prohibits the use of order, jurisdiction, and administration: therefore the use of the power of jurisdiction for both forums, of the power of order which one receives by force of ordination or by privilege, and of all administration competent from office, except the administration of one's own benefice. Suspension can be partial, for example suspension from jurisdiction, from divine things, etc., or from some function, say, of order.

I say 1°. § 1. Suspension from benefice deprives one of the fruits of the benefice, except habitation in beneficial buildings, but not of the right of administering beneficial goods, unless the decree or sentence of suspension expressly takes away from the suspended person the very power of administering and assigns it to another.

§ 2. If, although the censure stands in the way, the beneficiary receives the fruits, he must restore the fruits and can be compelled to this restitution also by canonical sanctions, if need be (Can. 2280).

Such a suspension does not effect that he is not a beneficiary, but that he cannot accept the fruits of the benefice; it leaves the right of administration, unless it expressly takes that away. But if the suspended person receives the fruits, he does not have any right to retain them; they are not his and he is held to restitution.

§ 1. Suspension from office simply, with no limitation added, forbids every act both of the power of order and of jurisdiction, and also of mere administration competent from office, except administration of the goods of one's own benefice.

§ 2. Suspension:

1°. From jurisdiction generally, forbids every act of the power of jurisdiction for both forums, both ordinary and delegated;

2°. From divine things, every act of the power of order which someone obtains either by sacred ordination or by privilege;

3°. From orders, every act of the power of order received through ordination;

4°. From sacred orders, every act of the power of order received through ordination in sacred orders;

5°. From exercising a certain and definite order, every act of the designated order; but the suspended person is prohibited besides from conferring the same order and from receiving a higher one, and from exercising one received after suspension;

6°. From conferring a certain and definite order, from conferring that order itself, but not an inferior or higher one;

7°. From a certain and definite ministry, for example, of hearing confessions, or office, for example, with care of souls, every act of the same ministry or office;

8°. From episcopal order, every act of the power of episcopal order;

9°. From pontificals, the exercise of pontifical acts, according to the norm of can. 337, § 2 (Can. 2279).

I say 2°. Suspension brought generally, or suspension from office or from benefice, affects all offices or benefices which the cleric has in the diocese of the suspending Superior, unless something else appears (Can. 2281).

I say 3°. The local Ordinary cannot suspend a cleric from a determinate office or benefice which is found in another diocese; but a suspension latae sententiae, imposed by common law, affects all offices or benefices in whatever diocese they are possessed (Can. 2282).

Because the right of a cleric having an office or benefice in another diocese is his right insofar as he is a subject of the superior of that other diocese, hence he cannot be deprived of that right by another superior; besides, such a suspension would easily disturb the course of the government of dioceses. Nevertheless, since common law reigns everywhere, a suspension brought by common law affects offices and benefices which the suspended person may have also in other dioceses.

I say 4°. The things which are established concerning excommunication in can. 2265 are also to be applied to suspension (Can. 2283).

And therefore any suspended person is prohibited from various rights; he cannot obtain dignities and offices or be promoted to orders, just as was said concerning an excommunicated person in can. 2265, § 1, nn. 1, 2, 3; see also § 2.

I say 5°. If a censure of suspension has been incurred which forbids the administration of Sacraments and Sacramentals, let the prescription of can. 2261 be observed; if a censure of suspension which prohibits an act of jurisdiction in either the internal or external forum, the act is invalid, for example, sacramental absolution, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has been brought, or if the Superior expressly declares that he revokes the very power of jurisdiction; otherwise it is illicit only, unless it has been asked by the faithful according to the norm of the mentioned can. 2261, § 2 (Can. 2284).

Therefore, if a condemnatory or declaratory sentence has preceded, or that declaration of the superior asserted in the canon has been pronounced, the act is invalid outside the article of death; but in the article of death it is not invalid or illicit to concede absolution to the faithful asking. If the aforesaid sentences have not preceded, the act is valid and licit if the faithful ask.

Question 1. Can a suspended priest be absolved from sins by a simple confessor before he is loosed from the censure by the superior?

Resp. Affirmatively, and the reason is that the effect of suspension is not to deprive one of reception of the sacraments. Therefore it suffices if he is disposed for the sacrament of Penance, namely if he is at least attrite for his sins, and promises that he will procure, as soon as possible, as much as will be in him, absolution from the censure, and meanwhile that he will not use the prohibited power or rights. - Cf. Can. 2250, § 1.

Question 2. In what way is suspension removed?

Resp. If suspension has the character of a censure, it is removed like excommunication, namely by absolution alone and indeed by that of the superior, if it is reserved; nevertheless if it has been brought for a certain determinate time or under a condition, it ceases by itself when the time has passed or the established condition has been fulfilled. But if it has been imposed perpetually on account of fault wholly past, it is removed, as a mere penalty, by dispensation alone of the Prelate or his delegate, because then it is not a censure.

Question 3. What form is to be employed for removing suspension?

Resp. If the suspension is occult, it is removed by absolution under the general form: I absolve you from every bond, etc. If it is public, in the internal forum it is removed by the same form; but in the external forum the solemn form determined in the Ritual is to be employed. But no one can absolve solemnly from suspension except the superior or another specially delegated for this.

Question 4. Can a simple priest absolve from censure one suspended in the article of death, whether the superior or delegate is absent or present?

Resp. Certainly he can; but according to the norm of Can. 2252. Wherefore if it is a case in which recourse is required, as if the suspension was ab homine, he must recur after he has recovered to the legitimate superior. - Cf. Can. 882.

Question 5. Can suspension be brought against a community of clerics?

Resp. Affirmatively, as is clear from the following canon:

§ 1. If a community or college of clerics has committed a delict, suspension can be brought either against the individual delinquent persons, or against the community as such, or against the delinquent persons and the community.

§ 2. If the first, let the canons of this article be observed.

§ 3. If the second, the community is prohibited from the exercise of the spiritual rights which belong to it as a community.

§ 4. If the third, the effects are cumulated (Can. 2285).

A community as such cannot be excommunicated; but because all the members make one moral body which has its own proper goods, it can be punished by suspension. But the mode by which it strikes the members can be diverse in diverse cases: if the individual persons are suspended, those things which have been said up to this point will have to be observed; if the college is struck, the suspension is brought against acts of jurisdiction and others which belong to it as such; but if the persons and the college are suspended, the persons are held by the preceding canons and the chapter is deprived of the exercise of the spiritual rights which are proper to it, for example, certain collations of benefices, or elections.

I. QUESTION I. What is suspension, and of how many kinds is it? ANSWER. It is a privation of the use and exercise of any office and dignity, if it be regarded absolutely. But at present it is an ecclesiastical censure by which a cleric is deprived of the use of an office or of a benefice. It is divided into that which is from the office only, into another which is from the benefice only, and into that which is from both. Moreover one is from law, another from man. By the name of office is understood every spiritual power, whether of order, or of jurisdiction, or of administration ecclesiastical. But by the name of benefice comes the right of perceiving ecclesiastical proceeds by force of a spiritual title. Suspension is also divided into temporal and perpetual. The former is for a month, for a year, for a biennium, and so forth; the latter is limited by no duration. Partial suspension is subdivided into several other partial ones. For a priest is sometimes suspended from the celebration of Mass alone, sometimes from hearing confessions, sometimes simply from his Order. A bishop can be suspended from the collation either of the tonsure alone, or of the presbyterate, or of Order absolutely. Similarly in a benefice a man is sometimes suspended from the daily distributions, or from half the part of the fruits; and the same can be done in jurisdiction. For the form of suspension no words are designated in law, but those are employed which manifest the superior's will.

II. Those who violate a suspension absolutely sin mortally. One suspended from an Order, if he exercise it, besides the mortal sin contracts irregularity. Acts nevertheless exercised by one suspended are valid, although unlawful, if they be acts of Order, not of jurisdiction. But he who is suspended from jurisdiction, if he be one to be shunned, then exercises acts of jurisdiction invalidly, because suspension of jurisdiction is an actual privation of it. One suspended from an Order is not by that very fact suspended from jurisdiction.

III. QUESTION II. Whether one suspended from an office be suspended from a benefice, or conversely? ANSWER. One suspended from a benefice is not by that very fact suspended from the office. Wherefore he can and is bound to celebrate and to recite the other divine offices, because the penalty does not exempt from the burden. And although the office be on account of the benefice, yet in punishment of the delict the guilty party can be deprived of the fruits of the benefice, the burden of serving the Church remaining. One suspended from an office, even a most grave one, is not by that very fact suspended from the benefice, as the more probable opinion teaches.

IV. QUESTION III. What are the effects of suspension from an office, from jurisdiction, from a benefice? ANSWER. One suspended absolutely from an office remains deprived of all use of Order and of jurisdiction, and of any ministry whatsoever which can be exercised by a cleric alone. Wherefore he cannot administer the sacraments, celebrate, excommunicate, absolve, impart indulgences, approve for confessions, exercise pontifical functions, nor perform the other ministries which depend upon Order. It is nevertheless certain that if he be suspended from Order only, he is not suspended from jurisdiction.

V. Suspension from jurisdiction passed absolutely deprives one of all use of spiritual jurisdiction, and of an act of Order which cannot be exercised without jurisdiction, as the collation of Order and sacramental absolution. But one thus suspended can celebrate and minister the other sacraments; unless nevertheless he should administer them by office as a parish priest, because then he would exercise an act of jurisdiction of which he is deprived. If a man be suspended from a determinate part of jurisdiction, he is not suspended from another; as if a parish priest be suspended from hearing confessions, he can celebrate and administer the other sacraments.

VI. Suspension of Order passed absolutely and simply deprives one of every act of any Order whatsoever, both major and minor, because an indefinite proposition in moral matter is equivalent to a universal one. Similarly he who is suspended from the collation of Orders can confer no Order. I omit other little questions, whose decision depends upon the formula by which the suspension is prescribed.

VII. QUESTION IV. For what cause can suspension be passed? ANSWER. It cannot be passed for a venial sin, as has been said above. For suspension by its own nature is a grave penalty, which cannot by right be inflicted save for a grave fault. Obnoxious to suspension are clerics even marked with the first tonsure. Censures passed in law absolutely against clerics do not comprehend Cardinals and bishops. Suspension can be passed directly against the community itself, and indirectly against the members. It does not nevertheless affect distributively the individual persons as regards their particular ministries, but according as they constitute one body, and according to the offices and ministries common to them.

VIII. Suspension can be hindered by a lawful appeal interposed at a congruous time, as has been said above of an appeal from censures. The appeal nevertheless ought to precede the suspension itself, that it may hinder it, if it be a suspension from office and from entrance into the Church, as is had in chapter Is qui 20 on sentences of excommunication in the Sixth. Any other suspension is hindered by a subsequent appeal.

IX. A suspension passed for a time ceases of itself, that time having elapsed, without absolution. From a suspension passed by man he can absolve who passed it. From a suspension passed by law the Ordinary of the suspended person can absolve, or his Vicar. From a suspension reserved to the Pope, if it proceed from an occult delict, a bishop can absolve his own subjects, if it have not been brought to the contentious forum.

X. QUESTION V. What do deposition and degradation signify? ANSWER. Often deposition and degradation are taken for the same; authors nevertheless distinguish the one from the other. Simple deposition they describe in these words: It is a penalty depriving a cleric of office and benefice in perpetuity by ordinary right irremissibly. Degradation is divided into verbal and real. Each deprives a cleric in perpetuity of office and benefice; but the former retains the privilege of the canon and of the forum; the latter utterly loses it. A cleric nevertheless struck with either verbal or real degradation is bound to recite the canonical hours, if he be constituted in sacred Orders, nor can he validly contract matrimony.

XI. Verbal degradation was formerly made for adultery, theft, homicide, and other graver crimes. According to the present-day discipline of the Church only the more atrocious crimes are struck with degradation. The crimes expressed in canon law for which a cleric ought to be struck with real degradation are heresy, the falsification of apostolic letters, sodomy, and conspiracy against his own bishop with incorrigibility acceding. Several things are wont to be said of the solemnity to be observed in real degradation, which do not pertain to our purpose.

Caius, a priest of the province of England, began to indulge in drunkenness and other vices and, neglecting clerical obligations also, visited a public theater where stage performances were being given. Shortly afterwards, having been deprived of his faculties by the Bishop, he withdrew to Scotland, where under another Bishop he again began to exercise priestly functions. When Titius, Caius’s confessor, had learned all these things, he consequently doubted what was to be done, for Caius had never sought absolution from any censure imposed upon priests in England for attendance at the theater. Hence it is asked:

1. What penalty is imposed upon English priests for attendance at the theater?

2. What are the effects of suspension?

3. How does a censure cease?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. What penalty is imposed on English priests for frequenting the theater?

The Fourth Council of Westminster decreed as follows: “ We strictly prohibit ecclesiastics who have received sacred Orders from being present at stage representations in public theaters, or in places temporarily made use of as public theaters, under the penalty to transgressors of suspension to be incurred ipso facto such as has hitherto been the rule in all parts of England with reservation to the respective ordinaries.”¹

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. i, 614.

2. What are the effects of suspension?

Total suspension deprives the cleric of the use of all sacred Orders, the exercise of his office, and the fruits of his benefice.²

2 Ibid., vol. ii, 380.

3. How does a censure cease?

As a general rule a censure which has been incurred only ceases when absolution has been obtained by the delinquent from one who is competent to give it. Sometimes, however, a censure is imposed to last as long as certain conditions last, and then on the termination of those conditions the censure ceases.³

3 Ibid., 373.

4. The case. Caius incurred suspension reserved to his bishop by going to the theater. He had never been absolved from this censure. His confessor Titius, or else Caius himself, should wi-ite to his former bishop and ask him for powers to put Caius straight. On the receipt of those powers Titius may deal with the case. In the meantime Caius should abstain from the exercise of his office as a priest under pain of grave sin. If since his suspension he has exercised sacred Orders solemnly, he has incurred irregularity from which he must be dispensed before again exercising his functions.

Titius, a priest, exercising the functions of the sacred ministry in a certain diocese, is "reported" to his bishop for indulging too freely in intoxicating drink—in fact, for being well under its influence on several occasions. Without being granted the benefit of a canonical trial, or even a thorough investigation of the charges preferred against him, the accused Titius is suspended by his bishop and ordered to repair to a monastery and remain there till he (the bishop) sees fit to recall him. Under protest Titius submits, complies with the bishop's command, and spends a considerable time in a monastery, where he is obliged to defray his own expenses.

Now it is asked:

1. Had the bishop a right to suspend Titius without a previous canonical trial or thorough investigation of the charges brought against him?

2. Had the bishop a right to order Titius to a monastery without previous trial or canonical procedure?

3. Had the bishop a right to compel Titius to defray his own expenses while in the monastery?

Solution.—1. Had the bishop a right to suspend Titius without canonical trial or other legal formality?

Prior to the Council of Trent no ecclesiastic could be punished by his bishop, v. g., suspended from the exercise of his orders, except upon a regular or formal criminal trial as prescribed by the sacred canons. This was the general law of the Catholic Church up to the time of the Council of Trent, and admitted of no exception whatever, save only in the case of murder, heresy, and in the case of regulars, who for secret crimes might be restrained by their superiors from receiving higher orders even without trial. Stremler (Eccl. Punish. p. 310) says: Before the Council of Trent, a bishop could not restrain any unworthy candidate from holy orders, nor punish a delinquent ecclesiastic, except upon a formal or an ordinary criminal trial, as established by the law of the Church and contained in the decretals. No crime could be punished, except when the delinquent had been judicially convicted, in a canonical trial conducted with the formalities established by canon law for proceedings in criminal causes."

The Council of Trent, in its 14th session, chapter I, de Reform., introduced in this respect, a complete and radical change in the existing discipline of the Church. For in its 14th session the Council enacted that in certain cases bishops could inflict punishment upon their delinquent ecclesiastics without previous trial or judicial formality of any kind whatever. By virtue of this power the bishops may in certain cases condemn an ecclesiastic, without giving him an opportunity to defend himself, for reasons proved in no trial, but weighed in his (the bishop’s) conscience.... For imposing this suspension neither judicial forms nor canonical admonitions are required (Instr. Congr. de Prop. Fide, 1884). This power of the bishop to suspend his priest without canonical trial or legal procedure, but simply for reasons known to him extrajudicially, and sufficient for his own conscience, is known in Canon Law as the power to suspend a priest, or other cleric in major orders, ex informata conscientia. It was conferred on the bishops by the Council of Trent, to safeguard the dignity of the priesthood as well as the spiritual interests of the faithful, and to eradicate evils that could not be reached in any other way.

The bishop is not required to give any reasons to the priest whom he suspends, but he is required to give reasons to Rome, if appeal is taken to Rome. There lies no appeal from the suspension ex informata conscientia. That is, if the suspended priest takes an appeal to Rome, he does not thereby cause a suspension of the censure until a final decision is given by Rome. The only recourse for a priest in these circumstances is to observe the articles of his suspension, and appeal extrajudicially to the Holy See. A decreto suspensions ex informata conscientia non datur appellatio, sed semper patet recursus extrajudicialis ad S. Sedem, suspensione interim in vigore permanente (Instr. Congr. de Prop. Fide, n. v. II and 12).

There may exist among some persons a persuasion that this power of the bishops to suspend ecclesiastics without due process of law, or ex informata conscientia, was somehow abrogated for the United States by the III. PI. Council of Baltimore. Such persuasion is altogether unfounded. The power of a bishop to suspend his priest ex informata conscientia, in the United States, is reaffirmed by the Council of Baltimore and by the instruction issued by the S. C. de Prop. Fide, to the American bishops, October 20, 1884.

Thus the S. C. de Prop. Fide expressly says:

But as regards repressive remedies or penalties, let Ordinaries note that the extrajudicial remedy based on informed conscience, established by the Holy Council of Trent for hidden offenses, session 14, chapter 1, On Reform, remains in its full force.

(Appendix, III. PI. Coun. Bait.)

Titius was guilty of crimen occultum. He was well under the influence of strong drink on several occasions. He is liable to give, if he has not already given, grave scandal. He is already sacrificing the dignity of the priesthood and jeopardizing the spiritual interests of the faithful. The bishop is perfectly within his rights when he suspends Titius ex informata conscientia, without previous warning or canonical trial or other legal formality. Justam ac legitimam causam suspensioni ex informata conscientia, praebet crimen seu culpa a suspenso commissa. (Instr. Cum Magnopere, Oct. 20, 1884.)

The suspension may not be inflicted, ex informata conscientia, in perpetuum, but only for a certain period of time, or until the delinquent manifests sufficient signs of amendment.

Stremler (p. 329) says that no general rule can be laid down regarding the duration of the suspension; but he thinks that two or three months are a long time and that the suspension should rarely last longer. Only very exceptional circumstances would justify a suspension to last six months. The suspension ceases without other formality at the death of the bishop who inflicts it, but whether it also ceases in the case of the transfer or resignation or removal of the bishop imposing it, Fr. Smith says, is not so certain.

2. We proceed now to the discussion of the second question, namely: Had the bishop a right to order Titius to a monastery to do penance without giving him the benefit of a canonical trial?

In the Instruction Cum Magnopere of the Propaganda to the bishops of the United States, October 20, 1884, concerning the manner of proceeding in criminal and disciplinary causes of ecclesiastics, we read:

I. The Ordinary is bound, by virtue of his pastoral office, diligently to look after the discipline and correction of ecclesiastics. Hence he should watch assiduously over their conduct, and make wise use of the remedies established by the canons, either for the purpose of preventing or doing away with abuses which sometimes creep in among the clergy.

II. These remedies are of two kinds: some are preventive, others repressive. The former have for their object the prevention of evils, the removing of causes of scandal, and the avoiding of voluntary proximate occasions of sin. The latter are established for the purpose of recalling the delinquent to the path of duty, etc.

III. The application of these remedies is left to the conscientious discretion of the Ordinary, provided, etc.

IV. The following are the chief preventive remedies: spiritual exercises, etc.

V. Before they are imposed upon any one, the facts calling for them must be verified in a summary manner, etc.

Now in the case of Titius, the bishop acted within the provisions of this Instruction in applying a preventive remedy, namely, in commanding Titius to make a retreat in a monastery.

"A bishop, therefore, has the right to impose a special spiritual retreat upon an ecclesiastic who is the occasion of scandal, or who remains voluntarily in the proximate occasion of sin, and who consequently, though not yet guilty of crime, follows a slippery road leading to spiritual ruin." (Smith, Eccl. Law, n. 1746.)

As space will not allow us to treat of this more fully, we refer our readers to Smith, Elements of Eccl. Law, and New Procedure, and Zitelli, Apparatus Jur. Eccl., etc.

3. Did the bishop act within his power when he obliged Titius to defray his expenses while in the monastery?

We take for granted that Titius was ordained ad titulum missionis.

Some readers may be under the impression that the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore changed the status of priests ordained ad titulum missionis, with regard to removal, etc. The council did not change the status of the ordinary missionary priest. It did create irremovable rectors and made special laws governing their removal, but it reaffirmed the laws of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, regarding all other priests ordained ad titulum missionis. In the Instruction of the Propaganda to the American bishops issued in 1884, the title of which is: "De modo servando in cognoscendis et definiendis causis criminalibus et disciplinaribus clericorum in Foederatis Statibus Americae Septentrionalis," the laws of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, concerning missionary priests, with the exception of the newly created irremovable rectors, are expressly stated to be still in force.

The decrees of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, no. 125 concerning the nature of missions and nos. 77 and 108 concerning the juridical effects of removing missionaries from office, are understood to have been in no way changed or weakened, without prejudice to what has more recently been established concerning pastors or irremovable rectors (cf. Appendix, III. PI. Con. Bait., p. 292, XLV).

If we refer now to the II. PI. Con. Bait., n. 125, we read:

By using the terms parochial right, parish, and pastor, we in no way intend to confer upon the rector of any church the right, as they say, of irremovability, or to take away or in any way diminish that power which, according to the discipline received in these provinces, a bishop has to deprive any priest of office or transfer him elsewhere.

And n. 77 of the same Council we are told that, as was decreed in the Provincial Council of St. Louis, in the year 1855, and confirmed by the Holy See: Priests to whom exercise of the priesthood has been forbidden by the Ordinary’s sentence have no right to demand support from him, since by their own fault they have rendered themselves incapable of working in the missions.

The American bishops proposed the following Dubium to the Congr. of the Propaganda:

Whether and how it is to be declared that priests ordained under the title of the mission, who have rendered themselves unworthy of exercising sacred ministry, are deprived of this title; and that the Ordinary is not bound to provide support to them.

The Sacred Congr. answered on Feb. 4, 1873:

In the case as presented, after a prior declaration of this kind is to be made to the priest by the bishop, and so long as the aforesaid priest perseveres in his depraved manner of life, displaying no sign of sincere repentance, the bishop is not bound to provide him support. (Zitelli, Apparatus Jur. Eccl. de tit. Ord., p. 352.)

Strictly speaking, therefore, the bishop had a right to require of Titius that he defray his own expenses while in the monastery, since Titius, by his own fault, forfeited his living, his missionary title ad honestam sustentationem. If, however, Titius have no means to defray his own expenses, the bishop will provide means ad NECES- SARIAM sustentationem, that is, the bishop will provide what is necessary for life, but not what would make life comfortable and pleasant.

If the bishop knows that Titius has means of his own to procure the necessaries of life, then the bishop is not obliged to defray any of Titius' expenses while Titius is accomplishing his penance. Stremler says:

"For the rest, dismissal from benefice always leaves to the ecclesiastic who is dismissed the right to the means of subsistence. The ecclesiastical judge should assign to the cleric who is deprived of his benefice, and who has no other means of subsistence, an alimentary pension, or keep him in a monastery, according to the gravity of his offense, and not allow him to tramp about, deprived of all means of living. For, say the Sacred Canons: Paupertas cogit ad turpia.