Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/19

ABRYTUS An irregularity, that is, a hindrance to the reception or exercise of orders in the Church, from which an ordinary cannot dispense, even in case of his own subject, is incurred by those who procure the abortion of a human foetus, and their co-operators. The Code does not restrict the penalty to the case of an animated fɶtus as was formerly the accepted doctrine. It should be noted that these penalties are imposed only for abortion, not for other operations even when they are sinful or criminal.

Abrytus, a titular see of Lower Mɶsia, a country of ancient Europe loosely corresponding to modern Bulgaria, and suffragan of Marcianopolis. This city is first mentioned by the historian Dexippus as the place near which the Emperor Decius was killed in his pursuit of the invading Goths in 251. A bishop of Abrytus, Marcian, defended Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus (431). Some historians identify the ancient city with Aboba, seven miles northwest of Jenibazaar and north of Shumla; others with Abtaat in Dobrudja.

Abstinence (cf. C. E., I-67b).—The law of abstinence only the quality of food, while that of fasting is concerned now merely with the quantity of food that may be taken. The law of abstinence is binding on all those who have completed their seventh year; it forbids the eating of flesh meat or soup from meat, but not the use of eggs, milk, butter, cheese, or of condiments even when made from animal fat. The prohibition against eating fish and flesh at the same meal has been abolished. Abstinence is now obligatory only on Fridays, Ember Days, the igile Pentecost, the Assumption, All Saints’, and Christmas, on Ash Wednesday and the Saturdays of Lent; but the obligation ceases on Holy Saturday at noon, and also on all feasts of precept, except those falling on week-days in Lent; furthermore, if one of the vigils mentioned above falls on Sunday there is no abstinence on the Sunday, or on the preceding Saturday as was formerly the case. For ages the Holy See had persistently refused to abolish the Saturday abstinence, though in many places indults dispensing from it had been granted; but now abstinence, as noted above, is obligatory only on the Saturdays of Lent and the vigil of Pentecost. In some countries an indult been granted to transfer Saturday abstinence in Lent to Wednesdays, excepting ber Saturday. There is no mention in the Code of abstinence on Rogation Days nor of the Advent fast or abstinence as such. The regulations set forth in the Code do not affect special indults or obligations imposed by vow or by the rules of religious or of communities not bound by vow.

Local ordinaries may appoint a special day of abstinence for their own territories as an isolated occurrence. They and parish priests can in individual cases and for just reasons dispense from abstinence persons or families subject to them even if they are outside of their territories, also travelers, possessing a domicile or quasi-domicile elsewhere, who happen to be within their territories. An ordinary can dispense the entire diocese or a particular locality for reasons of public health or on occasions of a gathering of the people; superiors of exempt clerical religious have the same power as parish priests over their subjects and those living day and night in their houses.

In reply to a query concerning the doctrine that since publication of the Code it is permissible to eat meat more than once on days of fast only, the Commission for the interpretation of the Code said that it could not be safely held in conscience (Acta Ap. Sedis, 1919, p. 480). In answer to another query the Sacred Penitentiary said that when in virtue if an indult certain meats are allowed on days specified in the indult, persons who by reason of age or labor are not bound to fast may eat meat as often as they like on such days; many years earlier a similar reply was given in case of people excused from illness. Apart from these instances, in virtue of a special indult in the United States “workingmen and their families are permitted to use flesh meat once a day on all fast days and days of abstinence throughout the year, with the exception of Fridays, Ash Wednesday, Spy Wednesday, the forenoon of Easter Saturday, and Christmas Eve.”

Abuse of Power or Office.—The power placed in the hands of the clengy being so very great, we find in the Church, as might expected, insisting strongly that it shall not misused. Anyone, therefore, who misuses his ecclesiastical office or power is to be punished in whatever way seems proper to his lawful superior, unless a definite penalty is laid down by the canons. Thus, vicars capitular and all others, whether members of a chapter or not, who, personally or through others, remove, destroy, conceal or substantially change any document belonging to the episcopal curia, incur excommunication reserved simply to the Holy See; in addition they may be deprived of their office or benefice by the ordinary. Again, should a person who is officially entrusted with the compilation or care of the records of the ecclesiastical curia or of the parish registers, presume to falsify, forge, destroy, or conceal anyof them, he is to be deprived of his office, and if the circumstances demand it, he should be otherwise severely punished by the ordinary. If anyone betrays his trust in transcribing, transmitting or showing acts, documents, or books, when his services have been lawfully asked, he may be punished by the ordii by privation of office, suspension therefrom, and by a fine, according as circumstances demand. Persons who en eavor to bribe curial officials or ecclesiastical administrators, judges, advocates, or procurators, are to punished, and compelled to make restitution if they have caused any injury. Anyone he charges more than the lawfully approved fees for voluntary acts of jurisdiction, or for the administration of the sacraments or sacramentals, or the legal costs of a suit is to be heavily fined, and if it is his second offense he is to be suspended or removed from office, as circumstances demand, and in addition he must restore what he thus unjustly obtained.

A vicar capitular who grants dimissorial letters for ordination, without the consent of the chapter, when the see has been vacant more than a year, or if, when it has been vacant less than a year, he grants them to anyone except a person who is obliged to receive orders by reason of a benefice he has obtained or is to obtain or by reason of an office which the interests of the diocese require to be filled without delay, is by that very fact suspended from the exercise of his sacred orders. If a religious superior unlawfully presumes to send dimissorial letters for ordination to a bishop other than the ordinary of the diocese in which the house to which the candidate belongs is situated, or if he defrauds the diocesan bishop by sending the candidate to another house or deliberately delays granting. the dimissorial letters unto such time as the bishop is away or is not ordaining, he is by that very fact suspended from saying Mass for a month.

If the superior of an exempt religious house or church, on being admonished, does not correct abuses that have crept in, the local ordinary must