You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 44.201.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪ST47‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a web host's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and they should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 23:54, 31 July 2024.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪AntiCompositeNumber‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: Visit the FAQ if you are affected .
- Start of block: 13:55, 18 August 2022
- Expiry of block: 13:55, 18 April 2025
Your current IP address is 44.201.28.123. The blocked range is 44.201.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Short description|Spiritual punishment imposed by the Catholic Church))
((Copy edit|date=June 2023))
((Update|date=June 2023|reason=The article is a copy-paste from the early-20th-century ''Catholic Encyclopedia''))((canon law))
A '''censure''', in the [[canon law of the Catholic Church]], is a medicinal and spiritual punishment imposed by the church on a [[baptized]], delinquent, and [[Contumacy|contumacious]] [[Person (Catholic canon law)|person]], by which he is deprived, either wholly or in part, of the use of certain spiritual goods until he recovers from his contumacy. These goods can encompass access to the sacraments, participation in certain [[Liturgy|liturgical]] activities, and involvement in [[Ecclesiology|ecclesiastical]] functions.

Censures in the Catholic Church can be traced back to ancient ecclesiastical practices and have evolved over centuries. They find their origins in the early church's efforts to maintain order and discipline among its members. Throughout history, censures have been utilized to uphold the Church's teachings and values and promote repentance and spiritual growth.

==History and development==
((main|Legal history of the Catholic Church))
((see also|Roman law|Corpus Juris Civilis))
This punishment's name and general nature date comes from the [[Roman Republic]]. With the ancient Romans, in the year [[Ab urbe condita|A.U.C.]] 311, we find established the office of public [[Roman censor|censor]] (''censores''), whose functions were the keeping of a register (''census'') of all Roman citizens and their proper classification, e.g., senators, knights, etc. Furthermore, their functions were the disciplinary control of manners and mores, in which their powers were absolute, both in sumptuary matters and in the degradation of any citizen from his proper class for reasons affecting the moral or material welfare of the State. This punishment was called censure (''censura''). As the Romans were strongly in favour of preserving the dignity of [[Roman citizenship|their citizenship]], so also was the Church solicitous for the purity and sanctity of her membership, i.e., the communion of the faithful. In the [[Early Christianity|early church]], the faithful in communion with her were inscribed in a certain register; these names were read in public gatherings, and from this list were excluded those who were [[excommunicated]], i.e., put out of the communion. These registers were called [[diptychs]] or canons, and contained the names of the faithful, both living and dead. The [[Canon of the Mass]] still preserves traces of this ancient discipline.<ref name=":0">((CathEncy|wstitle= Ecclesiastical Censures |volume= 3 |last= Gans |first= Leo |author-link= |short=1 ))</ref>

Excommunication was then the generic term for all coercive remedies used against delinquent members of the Church, and there were as many kinds of excommunication as there were grades of communion in the Christian society, either for the laity, or for the clergy. Thus some of the grades of the [[laity]] in the Church were the ((lang|la|expiatores)) and ((lang|la|pænitentes)), again subdivided into ((lang|la|consistentes, substrati, audientes)), and ''flentes'' or ''lugentes.'' Then also, as now, some goods of the Church were common to all its members, e.g., prayer, the sacraments, presence at the [[Mass (liturgy)|Holy Sacrifice]], and Christian burial. Other goods, again, were proper to the various grades of clerics. Whoever was deprived of one or all of these rights, came under the general designation of excommunicated, i.e., one placed outside the communion to which his grade in the Church entitled him, either wholly or in part.<ref group="Note">(Bernardi, Com. in Jus Eccl., II, pt. II, diss. 3, cap. 5.)</ref> In earlier ecclesiastical documents therefore, excommunication and similar terms did not always mean censure, or a certain species of censure, but sometimes meant censure, sometimes ''poena'', as explained below, and very often penance.<ref name=":0" />

In the later [[Roman law|Roman legal]] terminology (Codex Theod. I tit. I, 7 de off. rector. provinc.) we find the word censure used in the general sense of punishment. Accordingly, the Church used this term in the early ages to designate all her punishments, whether these were public penances, excommunications, or, in the case of clerics, suspension or degradation. In her ancient penal legislation, the Church, like the Roman State, looked on punishment as consisting, not so much as the infliction of positive suffering, as in the mere deprivation of certain goods, rights, or privileges; these in the Church were spiritual good and graces, such as participation with the faithful in prayer, in the Holy Sacrifice, in the [[sacraments]], in the general communion of the Church, or, as in the case of clerics, in the rights and honours of their office.<ref name=":0" />

===Legal developments of the ''Jus novum''===
((Further|Excommunication in the Catholic Church))
Some centuries later, however, in the period of the [[Decretals]], there was a great advance in [[legal science]]. In the schools and in the courts, a distinction was made between [[Internal and external forum (Catholic canon law)|internal and external forum]], the former referring to matters of sin and conscience, the latter to the external government and discipline of the Church. The different kinds and the nature of punishments were also more clearly defined by commentators, judges, and doctors of law. In this way, from the beginning of the thirteenth century, although not expressly so stated in the decretals, the term censure became the equivalent of a certain class of ecclesiastical penalties, i.e., interdict, suspension, and excommunication. [[Pope Innocent III|Innocent III]], who in 1200<ref group="Note">(cap. 13 X De judicious, II, 1)</ref> had used the term for punishment in general, at a later date (1214), answering a query as to the meaning of ecclesiastical censure in pontifical documents, expressly distinguished<ref group="Note">(cap. 20, X De verb, signif. V, 40)</ref> censure from any other ecclesiastical penalty, thereby authentically declaring that by ecclesiastical censure were meant the penalties of interdict, suspension, and ex-communication. Furthermore, in accordance with the internal nature of these three penalties, glossators and commentators, and in their wake later, canonists introduced and maintained the distinction, still universally recognized, between medicinal or remedial punishments (censures) and vindictive punishments. The primary scope of the former is the correction or reformation of the delinquent; this being properly accomplished, they cease. Vindictive punishments (''poenæ vindicativæ''), while not excluding the correction of the delinquent, are primarily intended to repair violated justice or restore the social order of justice by inflicting positive suffering. Such are corporal and pecuniary punishments, imprisonment and seclusion for life in a monastery, deprivation of Christian burial, also the deposition and degradation of clerics as well as their suspension for a definite period of time (suspension ''latæ sententiæ'', e.g., for one or for three years, is a censure, according to [[Alphonsus Liguori|St. Alphonsus]], Th. Mor. VII, n. 314.). Confession penances are vindictive punishments, their chief purpose being not reformation but reparation and satisfaction for sins. The irregularity arising from a crime is not a censure, nor is it a vindictive punishment; in fact, it is not a punishment at all, properly speaking, but rather a canonical impediment, an inability to support the honour of the sacred ministry, which forbids the reception of orders, and the exercise of those received.<ref name=":0" />

The matter of censures was seriously affected by the Constitution ''Ad vitanda'' of [[Pope Martin V|Martin V]] in 1418. Prior to this constitution, all censured persons, known to be such by the public, were [[Vitandus and toleratus|to be avoided (''vitandi'')]] and could not be communicated with ''in divinis'' or ''in humanis'', i.e., in religious or in civil intercourse. A censure, being a penal withdrawal of the right of participating in certain spiritual goods of the Christian society, was, of course, something relative; that is, it affected the person thus enjoined and also the persons who participated with him in the use of these goods. In this way, a suspended cleric could not accept the sacraments or other spiritual services. But, by the Constitution of Martin V, only those censured persons were in the future to be considered and treated as ''vitandi'' who were expressly and specifically by name declared to be such by a judicial sentence. The [[Roman Inquisition|Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition]] (9 Jan. 1884) declared this formality unnecessary in the case of notorious excommunicates ''vitandi'' for the reason of sacrilegious violence to clerics. Nor is the validity of the denunciation restricted to the locality where it takes place (Lehmkuhl, II, n.884). On the other hand, Martin V expressly declared that this relaxation was not in favor of the censured party, so that the ''tolerati'' really gained no direct privilege but was only in favor of the rest of the faithful, who could henceforth communicate with tolerated excommunicates, and, as far as the censure was in question, could deal with them as non-censured persons—all this on account of the grave changes in social conditions. In 1869 [[Pope Pius X|Pius X]] modified seriously the ecclesiastical discipline in the matter of censures by his constitution [[Apostolicae Sedis moderationi|''Apostolicæ Sedis Moderatoni'']] which abrogated many ''latæ sententiæ'' censures of the common law, changed others (thus reducing their number), and made a new list of common law censures ''latæ sentiæ''.<ref name=":0" />

==Nature of the penalties==
The Catholic Church believes that it receives the power to enforce these conditions directly from [[Jesus Christ]]. It also believes that it has the right to make disciplinary laws to govern its members and that such a right would be meaningless if it had no way of enforcing the observance of canonical laws. Moreover, from its very origin, the church has used this right to enforce its laws, as the church interprets in the action of St. Paul against the incestuous Corinthian<ref group="Note">(I Cor. v, i sqq.)</ref> and against Hymeneus and Alexander.<ref group="Note">(I Tim. i 20)</ref><ref name=":0" />

The end for which the Church is striving is the eternal salvation of the faithful (((lang|la|salus animarum lex suprema)), "The salvation of souls is the supreme law"<ref group="Note">Cf. Canon 1752, [[1983 Code of Canon Law]].</ref>). In dealing with delinquent members, therefore, she seeks principally their correction; she wishes for the reformation of the sinner, his return to God, and the salvation of his soul. This primary effect of her penalties is often followed by other results, such as the example given to the rest of the faithful, and, ultimately, the preservation of Christian society. On the Divine principle, therefore, that God does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted from his ways and live ([[Book of Ezechiel|Ezechiel]], xviii, 23), the Church has always inclined to the infliction of censures, as medicinal or remedial in their nature and effects, rather than to vindictive punishments, which she uses only when there is little or no hope for the sinner himself.<ref name=":0" />

It follows, then, that the primary and proximate end of censures is to overcome contumacy or willful stubbornness in order to bring back the guilty person to a better sense of his spiritual condition; the secondary and remote end is to furnish an example of punishment in order that other evil-doers may be deterred. A contumacy is an act of stubborn or abstinent disobedience to the laws; but it must imply contempt of authority; i.e., it must not only be directed against the law, but must also, generally express contempt for the punishment or the censure attached to the la (Lehmkuhl, Cas. Consc., Freiburg, 1903, no. 984.). [[Vincible and invincible ignorance|Ignorance]] of the threatened punishment or grave fear would, therefore, generally excuse a person from incurring censure; under such circumstances, there can be no question of real contumacy. Since contumacy implies abstinent persistence in crime, in order to become liable to these punishments, a person must not only be guilty of crime but must also persist in his criminal course after having been duly warned and admonished. This warning (''monitio canonica''), which must precede the punishment, can emanate either from the law itself or from the ecclesiastical superior or judge. Contumacy can, therefore occur in one of two ways: first, when the delinquent does not heed the warning of his ecclesiastical superior or judge, addressed to him personally and individually; second, when he violates a law of the Church with full knowledge of the law, and of the censure attached, in the latter case the law itself being a standing warning to all (''Lex interpellat pro homine'').<ref name=":0" />

Censures, being a privation of grave spiritual benefit, are inflicted on Christians only for a sin internally and externally grave, and ''in genere suo'', i.e., in its own kind, or that contemplated by the censure, perfect and complete. There must be a just proportion between the crime and the penalty. Being medicinal, the punishment of a censure consists not in depriving the delinquent of the spiritual goods themselves, but only of the use of the spiritual goods, and this, not perpetually, but for an indeterminant time, i.e., until he repents, in other words, until the patient is convalescent from his spiritual illness. Hence excommunication, being by far the gravest of censures, is never inflicted for a certain definite time; on the other hand, suspension and interdict, under certain conditions, may be inflicted for a definite time. The real punishment of ecclesiastical censures consists in the privation of the use of certain spiritual good or benefits. These spiritual goods are those within the power of the Church or those that depend on the Church, e.g., the sacraments, public prayers, Indulgences, sacred functions, jurisdictions, ecclesiastical benefices and offices. Censures, however, do not deprive of grace nor of the private prayers and good works of the faithful; for, even if censured, the eternal communion of the saints still remains by virtue of the indelible character imprinted by baptism. Thus, to distinguish the various effects of the three censures: Excommunication may be inflicted on clerics and laymen and excludes from the communion of the faithful, prohibits also the use of all spiritual goods in which the faithful participate as members of the visible body whose visible head is the Roman Pontiff. Suspension is for clerics only, leaves them participating in the communion of the faithful, but directly prohibits them from the active use of sacred things, i.e., as ministers (''qua ministri''), and deprives them of some or all of the rights of the clerical state, e.g., jurisdiction, the hearing of confessions, the holding of office, etc. Interdict prohibits the faithful, either clerics or laymen, from the passive use of some ecclesiastical goods, as far as these are sacred things (''res sacræ'') or as far as the faithful are participants, e.g., certain sacraments, Christian burial, etc.<ref name=":0" />

==Division==
===Censures ''a jure'' and ''ab homine''===
Besides the particular division of censures into excommunication, suspension, and interdict, there are several general divisions of censures. First censures ''a jure'' and ''ab homine.'' Censures ''a jure'' (by the law) are those inflicted by a permanent edict of the lawgiver, i.e., which the law attaches to a crime. We must distinguish here between a law, i.e., an enactment having, of itself, permanent and perpetual binding force, and a mere command or precept, usually temporal in obligation and lapsing with the death of the superior by whom it was given. Censures ''a jure'', therefore, are annexed either to the common law of the Church, such as decrees of popes and general councils, or are inflicted by general law, e.g., by bishops for their particular diocese or territory, usually in provincial or diocesan synods. Censures ''ab homine'' (by man) are those that are passed by the sentence, command, or particular precept of the judge, e.g., by the bishop, as contradistinguished from the law described above. They are usually owing to particular and transient circumstances, and are intended to last only as long as such circumstances exist. The censure ''ab homine'' may be in the form of a general order, command, or precept, binding on all subjects (((lang|la|per sententiam generalum))), or it may be only by a particular command or precept for an individual case, e.g., in a trial where the delinquent is found guilty and censured, or as a particular precept to stop a particular delinquency.<ref name=":0" />

===Censures ((lang|la|latæ sententiæ)) and ((lang|la|ferendæ sententiæ))===
Another division of censures is important and peculiar to the penal legislation of the Church. A censure ''a jure'' or ''ab homine'' may be either (1) ((lang|la|[[latæ sententiæ]])) or (2) ((lang|la|[[ferendæ sententiæ]])).<ref name=":0" />

(1) Censures ((lang|la|latæ sententiæ)) (of sentence pronounced) are incurred ((lang|la|[[ipso facto]])) by the commission of the crime; in other words, the delinquent incurs the penalty in the very act of breaking the law, and the censure binds the conscience of the delinquent immediately, without the process of a trial, or the formality of a judicial sentence. The law itself inflicts the penalty in the moment when the violation of the law is complete. this kind of penalty is especially effective in the Church, whose subjects are obliged in conscience to obey her laws. If the crime be secret, the censure is also secret, but it is binding before God and in conscience; if the crime be public the censure is also public; but if the secret censure thus incurred is to be made public, then a judicial examination of the crime is had, and the formal declaration (declaratory sentence) is made that the delinquent has incurred the censure.<ref name=":0" />

(2) Censures ((lang|la|ferendæ sententiæ)) (of sentence awaiting pronouncement) are so attached to the law or to the precept that the delinquent does not incur the penalty until, after a legal process, it is formally imposed by a judicial or condemnatory sentence. Whether a censure be ((lang|la|latæ)) or ((lang|la|ferendæ sententiæ)) is ascertained from the terms in which it is couched. The expressions most commonly used in the censure ((lang|la|latæ sententiæ)) are: ((lang|la|[[ipso facto]], [[ipso jure]], [[eo ipso sit excommunicatus]])), etc. If however, the expressions are of the future and imply judicial intervention, the censure is ((lang|la|ferendæ sententiæ)) e.g., ((lang|la|excommunicetur, suspenditur)), etc. In doubtful cases, the sentence is presumed to be ((lang|la|ferendæ sententiæ)), because in penal matters the more benign [[Interpretation (Catholic canon law)|interpretation]] is to be followed. Moreover, before the infliction of the latter kind of censures, three warnings (((lang|la|monitiones))) are necessary, or one peremptory warning, except when both the crime and the contumacy of the delinquent are notorious and therefore sufficiently proved.<ref name=":0" />

Censures are again divided into reserved and non-reserved censures. As sins may be reserved, so also may censures, reservation, in this case, being limited to limitation or negation of an inferior's jurisdiction to absolve from the censure, and the retention of this power by his superior.<ref name=":0" />

==Requirements for censures==

For the infliction of censures, either ''a jure'' or ''ab homine'', are required:<ref name=":0" /> 
#Jurisdiction in the legislature or the judge; 
#sufficient cause; 
#correct method of procedure. 
As to jurisdiction, since censures belong to the [[Internal and external forum (Catholic canon law)|external forum]] or external government of the Church, it necessarily follows that for their infliction, either by law or by judge, jurisdiction or power to act in this forum is required. Sufficient cause moreover, must be had for the infliction of a censure. A censure, as a sanction of the law, is an accessory to the law; therefore a substantial defect in the law, e.g., injustice or unreasonableness, modifying the law, nullifies also the censure attached to the law. This sufficient cause for a censure may be lacking in the law, either because in its formulation the legal order was not observed, or because the fault considered in the law was not sufficiently grave to justify the penalty of ecclesiastical censure. The penalty must be in proportion to the crime. If in the legislative act the legal order was observed, but the proportion of punishment to crime was lacking, i.e., if the offense did not justify the extreme penalty attached to the law, then as the law has two parts, it is sustained in the first part, i.e., the precept, but not in the second, i.e., the penalty or censure.<ref group="Note">(Suarez Disp. IV, sect. VI, no. 10)</ref> In doubt, however, both law and penalty are presumably valid. As to the correct procedure method, a censure sentence may be void if any substantial rule of procedure is not observed, e.g., the warnings in a censure inflicted ''ab homine.'' The censure is valid, however, if there be any objective proportion between the gravity of the penalty and the gravity of the fault, even if the sentence have some accidental defect, e.g., a censure inflicted through hatred for a person who, however, is a transgressor, or if some other accidental rule of procedure has not been observed. A question arises concerning censures invalid ''in foro interno'' ("in the [[Internal and external forum (Catholic canon law)|external forum]]") or according to truth, but valid ''in foro externo'' or according to [[presumption (canon law)|presumption of law]]. For instance, a person is convicted of a crime ''in foro externo'' to which a censure is attached, but in his conscience he knows himself to be innocent. What are the effects of a censure thus inflicted? Having been found guilty ''in foro externo'', the censure has valid effects in that forum and must be observed externally, to avoid scandal and for good discipline. All acts of jurisdiction ''in foro externo'' of such a censured party might be declared invalid. But in foro interno he would possess jurisdiction, and, should there be no scandal, he could act uncensured without incurring the penalty of violating the censure, e.g., irregularity. A censure may also be inflicted conditionally; if the condition is fulfilled, the censure is valid.<ref name=":0" />

Can censures be inflicted as vindictive penalties, i.e., not primarily as remedial measures, but rather to avenge a crime? This is a graver question, and canonists has sought to solve it by an interpretation of certain texts of the law, chiefly from ''[[Decretum Gratiani|Decretum]]'' of [[Gratian (jurist)|Gratian]].<ref group="Note">(''Eos qui rapiunt, Raptores.''— Caus. XXXVI, Q. 2, c. 1, 2, ''Si quis episcopus'', Caus. XXVII, Q. 1, c. 6. etc.)</ref> These laws, however, contemplate the earlier discipline of censures, when the name was applied to punishments in general, without any specific signification. It is evident, therefore, that the solution must now be sought in positive law. In the law of the Decretals, no express decision of the question is to be found, although the species of penalties are there more accurately distinguished. In later law, the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, c. iii, De ref.) most wisely warns bishops that the sword of censures is to be used only with sobriety and with great circumspection. Censures, essentially a deprivation of the use of spiritual goods or benefits, are to be inflicted medicinally, and should be lifted as soon as the delinquent recedes from his contumacy. We have seen above that St. Alphonsus and other authors after him hold that secondarily, a censure mat have punitive and deterrent motive, and from that point of view, may be inflicted for a given time. This is generally speaking, for while it is certain that excommunication can never be thus inflicted as a vindictive punishment, suspension and interdict can be inflicted, rarely and for a short period, as vindictive penalties by positive law. The reason of this is that suspension and interdict do not, like excommunication, cast the delinquent out from the communion of the faithful, nor do they deprive him absolutely of all spiritual goods; they may, therefore, for grave reasons take on the nature of vindictive penalties. This is especially true when their effect is the privation of some temporal right, e.g., when a cleric is suspended from his office or benefice; for whenever censures deprive primarily of the use of temporal goods, they are rather punishments properly so called than censures, whose primary character is the deprivation of the use of spiritual goods.<ref group="Note">(Suarez, op. cit., disp. IV, sect. V, 29-30)</ref><ref name=":0" />

==Subject of censures, active and passive==

As regards the active subject of censures, i.e., who can inflict them, censures belong to the external government of the Church. They can therefore be inflicted only by those who have proper jurisdiction in the external government of the church, called the "[[Internal and external forum (Catholic canon law)|external forum]]". Censures ''a jure'', i.e., incorporated into laws binding Christian society, in whole or in part, can be passed by him who has the power to legislate thus. Thus the [[pope]] or a [[Ecumenical council|general council]] can inflict such censures on the whole world, the [[Congregation (Roman Curia)|Roman congregations]] in their own spheres, the bishop within his own diocese, the chapter or [[vicar]] capitular during the vacancy of a see (''[[sede vacante]]''), regular prelates having external jurisdiction, [[Papal legate|legates]] of the [[Holy See]], also chapters of regulars over their own subjects. However, parish priests, abbesses, and secular judges have no such power. Censures ''ab homine'', or inflicted by an ecclesiastical judge, whether his jurisdiction be ordinary or delegated, can be inflicted to enforce a certain law, or to prevent certain evils. Vicars-general and delegated judges not having legislative power cannot inflict censures ''a jure'', but only ''ab homine'', in order to assert and protect their power, e.g., to enforce the execution of a judicial decree.<ref name=":0" />

Censures, being spiritual punishments, can only be inflicted on Christians, i.e. baptized persons. Moreover, being punishments, they can only be inflicted on the subjects of the superior inflicting the censure; such subjection may arise from domicile, quasi-domicile, or by reason of the crime committed (''ratione delicti''). Pilgrims violating a particular law are not subject to censure, but if they transgress the common law with a censure ''[[ferendæ sentientiæ]]'' attached, the latter can be inflicted on them by the local bishop. Cardinals and bishops are not subject to censures ''a jure'' (except [[excommunication (Catholic Church)|excommunication]]) unless in the law express mention be made of them.<ref name=":0" /> The [[pope]] alone can judge heads of state.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/__P58.HTM Canon 1405 §1 1°], 1983 Code of Canon Law (Intratext), accessed 16 April 2016.</ref>

Kings and sovereigns cannot be censured by bishops, nor can they excommunicate communities or chapters. However, a community can suffer interdict and suspension. In that case, it would not be a censure, properly speaking, but rather a penal privation; ceasing to be a community member, one would cease to undergo the penalty.<ref name=":0" />

==Absolution from censures==

All canonists agree in this, that a censure once incurred can only be taken away by absolution. Although censures are medicinal punishments destined to overcome contumacy, they do not cease immediately upon repentance. As the sentence was a judicial act, so there is required a judicial absolution, lawfully given when there is amendment. Not even the death of the censured party, if excommunicated or interdicted, would remove the censure, because even in this case there would still remain some of the effects of the censure, e.g., the privation of Christian burial. The only case in which formal absolution would not be required is when a censure is inflicted with a ''conditio resolutiva'', e.g., suspension pending the performance of a certain act. When suspension or interdict are inflicted as vindictive punishments, not being censures properly so called, they may cease, not by absolution, but by lapse of the time for which they are inflicted. Censures themselves, i.e., not yet incurred, cease by the abrogation of the law to which they were annexed, by revocation, or (usually) by the superior's death, if issued ''ab homine'' as a particular precept.<ref name=":0" />

Absolution, which is the loosing or relaxation of the penalty by competent authority, is an act of justice, and a ''res favorabilis'' in censures, and hence cannot be denied to a penitent censured person. It can be given in two ways: (1) In the [[Internal and external forum (Catholic canon law)|internal forum]], that is, for the sin and hidden censure. This can be given by any priest having the necessary jurisdiction; can be given in confession or outside of confession, in what is called the forum of conscience (''forum conscientiæ''). In either case, however, the formula used is that of the sacramental absolution referring to censures. (2) In the ''forum externum'' absolution can only be given by those vested with the necessary judicial power, i.e., by the one who inflicted the censure, his successor, delegate, or his superior, e.g., the pope. The formula used here is either the solemn one or the shorter formula, as the occasion demands; both are found in the Roman Ritual. Absolution can be given either absolutely or conditionally, i.e., depending on the fulfillment of some condition for its validity. It is also given ''ad cautelam'' (for safety's sake) in all rescripts, [[papal bull|Bulls]], and Apostolic privileges, lest the effects of the concession be impeded by some hidden censure. Lastly, we have absolution ''ad reincidentiam''; this takes effect immediately, but if the penitent, within a certain time, does not do something prescribed, he at once occurs, ''ipso facto'', a censure of the same kind as that from which he had just been absolved. He who takes away the censure can impose the ''reincidentia.'' Today there is only a ''reincidentia ab homine'', i.e., although sometimes called for and provided for in the law. it must be applied ''ab homine'', i.e., by the absolving person (Lega, lib II, vol. III, nos. 130–31).<ref name=":0" />

In regard to the question of the minister of absolution, or who can absolve from censures, we have the general principle: "only he can loose who can bind" (''illius est solvere cujus est ligare''); in other words, only those can absolve who have the necessary jurisdiction. This jurisdiction is either ordinary or delegated. In case of censures ''ab homine'', by particular sentence or by way of precept, also in the case of reserved censure ''a jure'', only he who inflicted the censure or his successor, superior, or delegate can absolve. Hence a vicar capitular can absolve from the censures passed by the ordinary power of the late bishop, having succeeded to the power held by that late prelate. In regard to the power of the superior, the pope as universal superior can always remove the censures inflicted by his inferiors, bishops, etc. An archbishop, not being the absolute superior of his suffragans, but only in certain things, can remove censures imposed by his suffragans only when on visitation or in case of appeal. When, however, the superior absolves from the censure imposed by an inferior, he must in all cases notify the inferior and must demand that the delinquent give him full satisfaction. The extent of the power of a delegated judge to absolve must be clearly stated in his letters.<ref name=":0" />

When censures are passed ''a jure communi'' or ''ab homine'' by a general sentence, if these censures be not reserved, any approved confessor having jurisdiction to absolve from sin may absolve from them both in the external and the internal forum, the absolution in the one forum being valid in the other, except when the censure has been carried to the ''forum contentiosum'', i.e., is already in litigation before a court, in which case the absolution of the internal forum would not hold for the external. A priest not approved or does not have jurisdiction to hear confessions cannot be absolved from censures, even if not reserved, except in danger of death. Lastly, when censures are reserved ''a jure'' no one can absolve except the one to whom to whom they are reserved, or his superior, successor, or delegate. Censures which are reserved to the pope are either reserved or reserved in a special manner. In relation to the former, the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIV, c. vi, De ref.) formulated the common law according to which a bishop or one delegated by him can absolve, ''in foro conscientiæ'' and in his own diocese, his subjects from these censures when the crime is occult and not notorious, or when it has not been brought before a judicial tribunal. By bishops are also meant, abbots having ecclesiastical territory, vicars capitular, and others having episcopal jurisdiction; not, however, vicars general in virtue of their general commission, nor regular prelates. The subjects for whom these faculties may be used are those who live in the bishop's diocese, or outsiders who come to confession in his diocese, these being his subjects in view of the absolution to be imparted. Such absolution, however, cannot be given ''in foro externo'', but is limited to the ''forum conscientiæ'', i.e., to the domain of conscience. If censures are specially reserved to the Roman Pontiff, a bishop by his ordinary power cannot absolve, except in case of necessity. Special concessions for these cases are, however, given to the bishops by the Holy See for a certain time, or for the life of the bishop, or for a certain number of cases. Censures that are reserved by pontifical law to bishops or ordinaries can be absolved by all bishops, abbots, vicars capitular and vicars-general, in any forum, and even in notorious cases. At the point of death (''in articulo mortis''), any priest, even if not approved, can absolve from all censures, but also all absolution from them as governed by the provision of the aforesaid papal Constitution (Pius IX, 1869), ''[[Apostolicæ Sedis Moderationi]]''.<ref group="Note">For serious changes in the method of absolution (in cases of necessity) from papal censures, owing to the decree of [[Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition|S. Cong. Inquis.]] (23 June 1886) and later interpretations, see Tanquery, Synop. Th. Mor., III (II), 1907, pp. 321-24, and Gury-Ferrères, Th. Mor., II, nn. 575-76.</ref><ref name=":0" />

===Conditions for absolution===

These conditions affect both the priest who absolves and the person absolved. The absolution of a priest is invalid if obtained by force or if extorted by grave, unjust fear. Furthermore, the absolution would be invalid if the principal, moving cause be false, e.g., if the judge absolves precisely because alleges that he has already made satisfaction when in reality he has not done so. The conditions to be absolved are generally expressed in the above-mentioned formula, ''injunctis de more injungendis'', i.e., enjoining what the law requires. These are: (1) satisfaction to the offended party; (2) that the delinquent repair the scandal according to the prudent judgment of the bishop or confessor and remove the occasion of sin, if there be any; (3) that, in the case of one absolved from censures specially reserved, he promise (''in foro externo'', on oath) to abide by the further direction of the Church in the matter (''stare mandatis ecclesiæ''); (4) sometimes also, in graver crimes, an oath is required not to perpetrate them again; (5) that apart from the penance imposed in confession, the absolved person receive and perform some other salutary penance as a satisfaction for this fault.<ref name=":0" />

== Notes ==
((reflist|group=Note|2))

==References==
((reflist|2))

((Subject bar |portal1= Catholicism |portal2= Christianity))

[[Category:Catholic penal canon law]]
[[Category:Excommunication]]
[[Category:Censure]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

Censure (Catholic canon law) (edit)
Template:Ambox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Ambox globe (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Ambox globe current red (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Canon law (view source) (semi-protected)
Template:CathEncy (view source) (protected)
Template:Catholic canon law (view source) (semi-protected)
Template:Circa (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Cite Catholic Encyclopedia (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Cite encyclopedia (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite wikisource/make link (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Copy edit (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Further (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Hlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Lang (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Template:Portal-inline (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Template:SUBJECTSPACE formatted (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:See also (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Short description (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description/lowercasecheck (view source) (protected)
Template:Sidebar with collapsible lists (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Subject bar (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Trim (view source) (protected)
Template:Update (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1 (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/COinS (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Date validation (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Disambiguation/templates (view source) (protected)
Module:Exponential search (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Format link (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Hatnote (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Hatnote/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Hatnote list (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Labelled list hatnote (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang/ISO 639 synonyms (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang/data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana languages (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana regions (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana suppressed scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana variants (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Message box (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/ambox.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/disambiguation (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/setindex (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/softredirect (view source) (protected)
Module:Portal (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal-inline (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal/images/aliases (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal/images/c (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal bar (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal bar/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Module:Sidebar (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:Subject bar (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:TableTools (view source) (protected)
Module:Template wrapper (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unicode data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unicode data/scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:Wikitext Parsing (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to Censure (Catholic canon law).

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censure_(Catholic_canon_law)"