The crimes that make irregular (Can. 985)

133. A cleric who knowingly and solemnly exercises a sacred order which he does not have becomes irregular.¹

1. Cleric: for since the title in the body of law has: "concerning a cleric not ordained who ministers," this irregularity is restricted to clerics alone. Therefore a layman does not become irregular who exercises sacred order, e.g. celebrates Mass, acts as subdeacon or deacon in solemn Mass, although he sins most gravely.

Some canonists² contend that laymen also contract this irregularity who solemnly exercise sacred order; nevertheless several canonists, and especially moralists, teach that clerics alone contract it. Therefore, since with regard to laymen this irregularity is doubtful by a doubt of law, in practice it is not to be established.³

2. Knowingly, i.e. knowing both that he lacks the order which he exercises and that a cleric exercising an order which he lacks becomes irregular: otherwise he would not sin gravely.

3. Solemnly, i.e. as from office and with the ceremonies and ornaments proper to the order which he exercises.

To discern whether an order is exercised solemnly, attention must be paid to this: if the act can be exercised only by those who have such an order, it is always exercised solemnly; thus absolution, extreme unction, which is administered by a priest alone, and confirmation, which is administered by a bishop alone, are always said to be administered solemnly. But if the action can also be exercised by others who do not have the order, it is said to be performed solemnly when it is performed in that form in which the same act is customarily exercised by ordained persons alone. Thus if an inferior cleric acts as subdeacon without maniple, or at the washing of feet on the Lord's Supper chants the gospel without stole, he does not become irregular, because he does not minister solemnly.⁴

4. Sacred order: for since from today's custom minor orders are commonly exercised solemnly even by laymen, a cleric solemnly exercising some order from the minor orders which he does not have does not become irregular.

Therefore a priest becomes irregular who solemnly exercises a pontifical function, e.g. consecrates a church or chalice, confers minor orders or tonsure; a deacon who sacramentally absolves; a subdeacon who solemnly baptizes, solemnly chants the gospel with stole, supplies the ceremonies of baptism, acts as hebdomadary in choir by saying the prayer with Dominus vobiscum; a cleric who solemnly chants the epistle with maniple, because all these solemnly exercise an order which they do not have. But a simple priest is not irregular who sacramentally absolves; a deacon who without commission of the pastor solemnly baptizes or distributes holy communion; a subdeacon who chants the gospel without stole; a cleric who chants the epistle without maniple, because they do not exercise, or at least do not solemnly exercise, the order which they lack.⁵

Note. The older theologians, relying on C. Veniens 1. De eo, qui furtive ordin. suscipit (V. 30), nearly all had taught that those illicitly promoted to orders are irregular. Thus, according to the testimony of St. Alphonsus (n. 361), one bound by censure who receives order, one having a wife and being ordained in sacred orders while she is unwilling, one who receives order from a bishop excommunicated, suspended, or interdicted by name, not his own, one who is ordained by leap or before the age or in another's diocese, one who receives major orders without title or on one and the same day, or one who is ordained outside the times, contracts irregularity. But more recent authors, following Suarez, show that these penalties established in law are not irregularities, but suspensions, or at least doubtful irregularities, and therefore none.

¹ C. Si quis 1 De clerico non ordin. ministrante (V. 28).

² Wernz II. n. 137. Scherer. Their reason is that c. Si quis 1 De clerico non ordin. ministrante (V. 28) does not restrict it to clerics alone, and that restriction from the rubric is not to be admitted.

³ Gasparri I. n. 334.

⁴ Ballerini-Palmieri VII. n. 426.

⁵ S. C. R., December 18, 1784 (n. 2525), responded: "Outside the case of absolute and precise necessity it cannot be permitted by superiors that a cleric in minor orders supply for a subdeacon in solemn Masses, vested without maniple," and that the bishop must take care that contrary custom be cut off. The same S. C. R., July 17, 1894 (n. 3832), resolved that a cleric can act as subdeacon in solemn Mass, provided he has been initiated with at least clerical tonsure, does not wear the maniple, and true necessity presses.

135. Voluntary homicide. Unjust homicide directly, or at least indirectly, voluntary and gravely sinful, once the effect has followed, induces irregularity.¹

1. Homicide is the killing of a human being done by a human being.

For homicide in this question it makes no difference whether he whose life is taken away has been born or has not yet been born; therefore also the procuring of abortion of an animated fetus is homicide.² Likewise it makes no difference by what means life is taken away: by fire, iron, poison, hunger, etc. He also contracts irregularity on account of homicide who is only the cause because of which death follows or is inflicted more quickly.

a. Homicide is voluntary when homicide itself is intended, and it is casual when it happens beyond the intention.

b. Casual homicide is either entirely involuntary and inculpable, or it is indirectly voluntary and culpable, namely if due diligence is not employed to guard against foreseen homicide.

2. Real homicide. a. To contract irregularity from homicide it is required that death in fact follow: for where there is question of a penalty to be incurred, the words of law are to be taken strictly and properly.

C. Pro humani 1. De homicidio in 6. (V. 4), where one mandating killing through assassins is declared irregular even if perchance death does not follow, seems opposed to this doctrine. But it is a special case in which the supreme pontiff on account of an enormous crime established that irregularity be incurred even if death has not followed. But an exception does not weaken, but confirms, the rule.

b. Not only he who is the physical cause of homicide, but also he who is its moral cause, by mandate, counsel, or consent, provided he is an efficacious cause, incurs irregularity.³

a. Those who excite themselves to homicide are all irregular, even if only one is killed, because they are to be regarded after the manner of those counseling. Therefore if in an unjust war even one of the adversaries is killed, supposing grave sin, all become irregular who cooperated proximately in the killing by mutually exciting themselves; those nearer to the one killing are judged such. A soldier who is certain that he killed no one, because he either did not discharge or discharged into the air, is not irregular.

b. There are those who say that he also becomes irregular who does not impede a homicide which from justice he is bound to impede, even if he does not positively influence the homicide. Therefore they judge irregular a hired physician, a guard of roads, an advocate, who does not impede the death of a sick person, a traveler, or a client, which he could impede and from justice ought to impede. But since irregularity which is contracted from negative cooperation is nowhere read as expressed in law, it is rather to be denied.

c. Homicide induces irregularity even if it remains occult. Likewise, from a special disposition of law, doubtful homicide also constitutes a priest irregular, as was explained above (127); but irregularity is not incurred where it is doubtful whether the moral cause, mandate or counsel, was the efficacious cause of the homicide.

3. Unjust, i.e. joined with sin against justice: for homicide which is not against justice is not strictly and rigorously homicide.

Therefore he who kills another in defense of himself and with the moderation of blameless defense having been observed, or he who kills another from legitimate power, as soldiers in a just war or executioners, do not become irregular from this title, because they do not commit the sin of homicide.

¹ C. Si quis 1 De homicidio (V. 12).

² Constitution Effraenatam of Sixtus V, October 29, 1588.

³ C. Is qui 3 De homicidio in 6. (V. 4).

136. Casual homicide. Not only voluntary homicide, but also casual homicide, provided it is gravely culpable, induces irregularity.

1. If casual homicide is entirely involuntary, no irregularity is incurred: for there is no irregularity from delict where no fault intervenes.

2. If the omission of diligence in guarding against homicide is gravely culpable, irregularity is contracted, whether someone applies his work to a licit or illicit thing, provided he foresaw the homicide: for the omission of diligence, not the prohibition of the action which someone exercises, effects that homicide is indirectly voluntary and therefore culpable and inducing irregularity. The case is to be excepted in which the thing is illicit on account of the danger of homicide.

a. He who discharges a gun where the people are customarily numerous; he who throws a tile from a roof and does not warn passersby by voice or sign, becomes irregular if a human being is killed for that reason.

b. Therefore he does not become irregular who in good faith gives food or drink to a sick person, or moves him, or transfers him to another place, or does something else about him, from which death follows beyond intention, because there is no irregularity from delict where there is no fault; but in the case supposed, due diligence is not omitted.

c. An unskilled physician or surgeon who exercises the medical or surgical art becomes irregular if the death of the sick person follows, even if he employed every diligence to guard against it; but a skilled physician or surgeon does not, even if, with necessary diligence supposed, the death of the sick person follows from the remedy which he employs. Benedict XIV reports that physicians wishing to be promoted to orders are customarily granted dispensation for caution, because perhaps in the exercise of their art they did not always employ due diligence concerning those who died during their care.¹

d. A cleric constituted in major orders and a religious who exercises the medical or surgical art joined with cutting or cauterizing becomes irregular, even if without his fault the death of the sick person follows. The reason for this irregularity is that he applies his work to an action prohibited to clerics for this reason, that it easily induces homicide or mutilation.² But he does not become irregular if he exercises, short of cutting or cauterizing, an art which he knows well, although the sick person whose care he conducts dies.

¹ De synodo l. 13. c. 10. n. 4.

² C. Dilectus 13 De homicidio (V. 12).

137. Procuring abortion. Those procuring abortion, and those cooperating for it, once the effect has followed, also contract irregularity.

a. Those procuring abortion do not contract irregularity unless the fetus is animated. Since there is question of an odious thing, concerning the animation of the fetus judgment can be made from the ancient and thus far unchanged canonical laws, which establish that the male fetus is informed by a rational soul after 40 days from conception, but the female fetus after 80 days. In doubt whether the fetus was animated or not, and in doubt whether the fetus was male or female, one must stand for the minimum; therefore that it was not animated, or was female.

b. In antiquity those procuring abortion and those cooperating in it incurred excommunication and irregularity; excommunication through the constitution Apostolicae sedis was restricted to those alone procuring abortion. But because concerning irregularity the ancient law was not changed through the said constitution, those cooperating also contract this irregularity.

138. Notion of mutilation. Mutilation is the cutting off of a member. By the name of member is understood a part of the body having a proper and distinct office, such as eye, arm, foot, hand, tongue, ear, etc.

In applying this definition, difficulty arises where it must be determined what part of the body has its own function and therefore is signified by the name of member. For since almost all members of the body are duplicated, it is asked whether one part, such as an eye, ear, leg, can be judged a member having its own office. But now, with common estimation considered, it seems to be said that those parts which are distinct and separate from each other, such as the eyes, have their own function; but those which are not distinct and separate from each other, such as nostrils, do not have their own function and therefore are not members. And indeed, where an eye is torn out, we say a member is cut off; where a nostril is cut off, we say part of a member, the nose, is cut off.¹

a. Therefore he who injures some member or renders it useless, e.g. does not dig out the eye but blinds it, does not become irregular, because he does not cut off the member: for mutilation is cutting off or separation from the body.

b. He who knocks out a tooth, cuts off the outer ear, the cartilage of the ear, or a finger, and a fortiori he who tears out nails, beard, or hair, does not become irregular, because he does not cut off a member: for these do not have their own function in the human body. According to the mind of St. Alphonsus (n. 379), not even the knocking out of all the teeth is judged mutilation; but the cutting off of fingers certainly is mutilation.

¹ Ballerini-Palmieri VII. n. 444 ss.

139. Unjust mutilation induces irregularity. He who unjustly mutilates himself or another by a physical or moral action, or cooperates in it, becomes irregular.

1. What has been said above concerning homicide holds also concerning mutilation, with this case excepted: in doubt of fact whether a priest was the efficacious cause of mutilation or not, he does not become irregular; on the contrary, if the same doubt concerns homicide, irregularity is contracted.

2. He who freely mutilates or castrates himself, from a special disposition of law, becomes irregular,¹ even if he has not cut off for himself a member having its own office, but only a finger or joint of a finger.²

¹ C. Ex parte 3 De corpore vitiatis (I. 20).

² C. Qui partem 6. dist. 55.

140. Note. To these must be added the irregularity which is established by the decree Vigilanti of S. C. C., May 25, 1893, and renewed by the decree Ut debita of the same sacred congregation, May 11, 1904. Besides the penalty of suspension (n. 113), clerics not yet initiated to the priesthood contract it who exercise shameful commerce concerning Mass stipends, so that they are incapable of receiving higher orders unless they have received dispensation from the Roman pontiff or from S. C. C.

The actions by which shameful commerce concerning Mass stipends is exercised are these:

a. Knowingly handing over the intention of Masses received from the faithful or from pious places to those who request them not in order that they may satisfy them, but for any other end whatever; likewise knowingly accepting them.

b. Separating stipends of manual Masses from their celebration, commuting them into other things, or diminishing them, namely by not handing them over wholly and in their own kind.

c. Selling or buying books or other things and entering into associations with newspapers and periodicals by means of Masses to be celebrated or celebrated, if this latter thing is done habitually and turns into the support of some commerce.

d. Subtracting something from the stipends of Masses which the faithful are accustomed to hand over to more celebrated sanctuaries, so that provision may be made for their dignity and ornament.

491. Because of Defection from Faith these are irregular: apostates from the faith, heretics, and schismatics.¹

a. For making a just judgment about this irregularity, attention must be paid to the notions as they are determined in the Code: if someone after receiving baptism: alpha. totally recedes from the Christian faith, he is an apostate; beta. while retaining the Christian name, pertinaciously denies or doubts some truth to be believed by divine and Catholic faith, he is a heretic; gamma. if he refuses to be subject to the supreme pontiff or refuses to communicate with members of the Church subject to him, he is a schismatic.²

b. From these definitions it is gathered that to contract this irregularity it is not necessary that someone give his name to an acatholic sect, provided that he denies the Catholic faith either wholly or in part, even if he does not outwardly break communion with the Catholic Church.

A Catholic Christian who denies or calls into doubt the infallibility of the Roman pontiff is irregular, provided he outwardly manifests heresy.

c. He who lives in a heretical or schismatic sect in good faith, whether he is a material heretic or schismatic only, does not contract irregularity, because his delict is not a grave sin.

¹ Cn. 985, 1.

² Cn. 1325, 2.

492. Because of Baptism Received from an Acatholic these are irregular: those who, except in a case of extreme necessity, allowed baptism to be conferred on themselves in any way by acatholics.¹

a. Acatholics here are understood as heretics and schismatics, whether they exist outside the Catholic Church in good or bad faith.

b. One receiving baptism from an acatholic does not contract irregularity unless by receiving it he commits a grave sin. Therefore those are not irregular who, before the use of reason, receive baptism from an acatholic; nor those who in danger of death have no one else who can baptize them except an acatholic.

¹ Cn. 985, 2.

493. Because of Attempted Marriage these are irregular: those who have dared to attempt marriage, or to place only a civil act, while they themselves are bound either by a matrimonial bond, or by sacred order, or by religious vows even simple and temporary; or those who have attempted marriage with a woman bound by the same vows or joined in valid marriage.¹

a. It does not matter whether the diriment impediment existed on the part of the man or of the woman; whether they attempted marriage before the Church or placed only a civil act.

b. In all cases which the cited canon enumerates, the marriage is invalid because the same marriage is opposed by either a marriage still existing, or sacred order, or solemn vow. Yet in that case in which a man bound by simple vows, or an entirely free man, contracts marriage with a woman bound by simple vows, the marriage is indeed valid, but irregularity is nevertheless contracted, even if the simple religious vows are temporary only.

¹ Cn. 985, 3.

494. Because of Homicide or Procurement of Abortion these are irregular: those who have perpetrated voluntary homicide or procured the abortion of a human fetus, the effect having followed, and all cooperators.¹

a. Every and only voluntary homicide gravely sinful, but not also homicide from an indirect cause, induces irregularity; for in an odious matter homicide must be restricted to directly voluntary homicide.

b. Cooperators are understood as all who by command, counsel, or consent effectively influence the homicide. But those are not irregular who only do not impede homicide, although they could impede it, indeed are bound to impede it either from charity or even from justice. In either case, cooperators in homicide and in procurement of abortion also become irregular.

Concerning abortion and its procurement, see the declaration of the terms in the volume on the Precepts.

¹ Cn. 985, 4.

495. Because of Mutilation or Attempt of Suicide these are irregular: those who mutilated themselves or others, or attempted to take life from themselves.¹

1. Mutilation is the cutting off of a member. By the name of member is understood a part of the body having a proper and distinct office, such as eye, arm, foot, hand, tongue, ear, etc.

In applying this definition difficulty arises when it must be determined what part of the body has a proper function and therefore is signified by the name of member. For although almost all parts of the body are paired, it may be asked whether one part, an eye, ear, leg, can be considered as having a proper office. Now, with regard had to common estimation, it seems it must be said that those parts which are distinct and separated as the eyes are, have a proper function, but those which are not distinct and separated, as the nostrils, do not have a proper function and therefore are not members. And certainly where the eye is torn out, a member is cut off; where the nostril is cut, a part of a member, the nose, is cut off.²

a. Therefore he who harms some member or renders it useless, e.g., does not tear out an eye but blinds it, does not become irregular, because he did not cut off the member; for mutilation is cutting off or separation from the body.

b. He who knocks out a tooth, cuts off the ear, the cartilage of the ear, or cuts off a finger, is not made irregular, because he has not cut off a member; for these do not have a proper function in the human body.

2. Attempt to take life from oneself must be gravely sinful in order to induce irregularity. It can happen that with this irregularity a twofold other irregularity is joined, one from the delict of mutilation, another from deformity of body.

¹ Cn. 985, 5.

² Ballerini-Palmieri VII, n. 444 ss.

496. Because of the Exercise of Medical or Surgical Art these are irregular: clerics who exercise the medical or surgical art forbidden to them, if death follows from it.¹

a. This irregularity affects only clerics who exercise the medical or surgical art forbidden to them. Those to whom by apostolic indult it is licit to exercise medicine or surgery, as not rarely happens in regions of missions, do not become irregular even if death follows from their care.

b. A cleric contracts irregularity whatever kind of medicine or surgery he exercises; for all are forbidden to clerics in an equal way.²

c. In order that irregularity be induced, it is necessary that the very exercise of his art be the cause, not only the occasion, of death, if death follows from it.

¹ Cn. 985, 6.

² Cn. 139, 2.

497. Because of Abuse of Order these are irregular: those who place an act of order reserved to clerics constituted in sacred order, either while lacking that order or while prohibited from its exercise by a canonical penalty, whether personal, medicinal or vindicative, or local.¹ Therefore this irregularity can arise from a twofold head: from usurpation of order and from violation of censure.

1. Through usurpation of order he becomes irregular who exercises an order which he does not have. It must be noted:

a. Not only clerics but also laymen contract irregularity if they exercise a sacred order, e.g., celebrate Mass, act as deacon or subdeacon in solemn Mass.

A seminarian, although not yet a cleric, who acts as subdeacon in solemn Mass does not become irregular, because this exercise of sacred order is not prohibited to clerics constituted in minor orders, at least those marked with tonsure, in a case of necessity and without maniple.²

b. It is required that they exercise a sacred order; therefore those who exercise a minor order which they do not have, e.g., bless fruits and breads or perform the office of exorcist, although they can sin gravely by doing this, do not contract irregularity.

c. It is required that they exercise the order solemnly with the ceremonies and ornaments proper to that order. "Solemnly," says Laurentius, "is understood as that exercise which either from the nature of the thing supposes a certain order, as the consecration of the Eucharist, absolution, or sacramental anointing, or if the act according to its substance can be validly done by laymen, is done with a certain apparatus." Therefore a deacon singing the Gospel in Mass with a dalmatic indeed, but without stole, or a subdeacon singing the epistle with a tunicle but without maniple, does not exercise a solemn or proper act of the order.

Therefore a priest becomes irregular who solemnly exercises a pontifical function, e.g., consecrates a church or chalice, confers minor orders or tonsure; a deacon who sacramentally absolves; a subdeacon who solemnly baptizes, solemnly sings the Gospel with stole, supplies the ceremonies of baptism, acts as hebdomadary in choir by saying the prayer with The Lord be with you; a cleric who solemnly sings the epistle with maniple, because all these solemnly exercise an order which they do not have. But a simple priest is not irregular who sacramentally absolves, nor a deacon who solemnly baptizes without commission or distributes holy communion; nor a subdeacon who sings the Gospel without stole; nor a cleric who sings the epistle without maniple, because they either do not exercise an order which they lack, or at least do not solemnly exercise it.

2. Through violation of censure he becomes irregular who, bound by censure, exercises an order whose exercise the censure prohibits, whether the censure is excommunication, or suspension from order, or a personal or local interdict, as by celebrating in an interdicted place.

a. Only through the exercise of sacred order does one censured become irregular.

b. Since grave fault is required for contracting irregularity, neither the man ignorant of censure nor the censured man who exercises order to avoid grave inconvenience becomes irregular.

c. It is required that the censured man place an act of sacred order, not of jurisdiction.

Therefore a censured bishop who approves confessors or dispenses in vows, or a parish priest who while under censure assists at matrimony without nuptial blessing, is not made irregular, because these are not acts of order but of jurisdiction or simple power, whose exercise the censure does not violate.

¹ Cn. 985, 7.

² S. C. R., July 17, 1894, n. 3832.

ACCORDING to Canon 985, the following are irregular from crime. These crimes, however, do not cause irregularity unless they were grave, external sins, whether public or occult, and committed after Baptism, except in the case of receiving Baptism from non-Catholics (Can. 986).

(1) Apostates from the faith, heretics, schismatics.

(2) Those who have allowed themselves to be baptized by non-Catholics in any way except in case of extreme necessity.

(3) Those who have dared to attempt marriage or to go through the form of a civil marriage, when either they themselves are bound by the bond of marriage or of a sacred Order or religious vows though only simple and temporary, or with a woman bound by the same vows or united in a valid marriage.

(4) Those who have committed voluntary homicide, or procured with effect the abortion of a human foetus, and all who co-operate in these crimes.

(5) Those who have mutilated themselves or others or have attempted to take away their own life, (6) Clerics who practise medicine or surgery forbidden to them, if death follows therefrom.

(7) Those who exercise an act of Orders reserved to clerics constituted in a sacred Order, when either they do not possess that Order, or have been forbidden its exercise by a canonical penalty, whether personal or local, medicinal or vindictive.

1035. • By this appellation are understood heresy and apostasy from the Faith. The supporters, receivers, and defenders of heretics and apostates, and even their sons, also incur this irregularity, chapter Statutum, On Heretics, in the Sixth. But these crimes, in order to induce irregularity, must be public; hence this irregularity falls back into irregularity from defect of reputation, as St. Alphonsus says, no. 362.

620. 1. apostates from the faith, heretics, schismatics, and those who are or have been enrolled in an atheistic sect (Pontifical Commission, July 30, 1934: A. A. S. XXVI, 494);

2. those who, except in a case of extreme necessity, have permitted baptism to be conferred upon themselves by non-Catholics in any manner. Thus the irregularity from abuse of baptism is limited and can occur most rarely;

3. those who have dared to attempt marriage or to place merely a civil act, whether they themselves are bound by the bond of marriage, sacred order, or religious vows, even simple and temporary, or with a woman bound by the same vows or joined in a valid marriage. This irregularity is nothing other than an extension of that which was called by the ancient authors similitudinary bigamy. Concerning the other penalties against bigamists who attempt another marriage while the prior marriage remains, and against clerics and religious who attempt marriage, see above in the treatise on ecclesiastical penalties, n. 515.

They are irregular from delict:

1°. Apostates from the faith, heretics, schismatics;

2°. Those who, except in a case of extreme necessity, have allowed baptism to be conferred upon themselves in any way by acatholics;

3°. Those who have dared to attempt marriage or to place only a civil act, either themselves bound by a matrimonial bond or sacred order or religious vows, even simple and temporary, or with a woman bound by the same vows or joined by a valid marriage;

4°. Those who have perpetrated voluntary homicide or procured the abortion of a human fetus, the effect having followed, and all cooperating;

5°. Those who have mutilated themselves or others, or have attempted to take life from themselves;

6°. Clerics exercising the medical or surgical art forbidden to them, if death follows from it;

7°. Those who place an act of order reserved to clerics constituted in sacred order, either lacking that order, or being prohibited from its exercise by a canonical penalty, whether personal, medicinal or vindicative, or local (Can. 985).

These delicts do not beget irregularity unless they have been grave sins, perpetrated after baptism, with the prescription of can. 985, n. 2 saved, and likewise external, whether public or occult (Can. 986).