Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/591

 CENSURES

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CENSURES

Church let him be to thee as the heathen and publi- can" (Matt., xviii, 17). Moreover, from her very- origin the Church has used this right to enforce her laws, as may be seen from the action of St. Paul against the incestuous Corinthian (I Cor., v, 1 sqq.) and against Hynieneus and Alexander (I Tim., i, 20). The end for which the Church is striving is the eternal salvation of the faithful. In dealing with delinquent members, therefore, she seeks principally their correction; she wishes 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 gi\en 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 be converted from his ways and live (Ezechiel. xviii, 23), the Church has always inclined to the infliction of censures, as medici- nal 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.

It follows, then, that the primary and proximate end of censures is to overcome contumacy or wilful stubbornness in order to bring back the guilty person to a better sense of his spiritual condition ; the second- ary and remote end is to furnish an example of pun- ishment, in order that other evil-doers may be de- terred. Contumacy is an act of stubborn or obstinate 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 speaking, express contempt for the punishment, or the censure attached to the law. (Lehmkiihl, Cas. Consc, Freiburg, 1903, no. 984.) Ignorance of the threatened punish- ment or grave fear, would, therefore, generally excuse a person from incurring a censure ; under such circum- stances there can be no question of real contumacy. Since contumacy implies obstinate 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 am 1 admonished. This warning (monitio ca7ionica). which must precede the punishment, can emanate either from the law itself or from the ec- -tieal superior or judge. Contumacy can there- fore occur in one of two ways: first, when the delin- quent 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 cen- sure attached, in the latter case the law itself being a standing warning to all (Lex interpellat pro homim I.

i ensures, being a privation of grave spiritual bene- fit, are inflicted on < hristians only for a sin internally and externally grave, and in generesuo, i.e. in its own kind, or thai contemplated by the censure, perfect and complete, There must be a just proportion between the crime and its penalty. Being medici- nal, the punishment of a censure consists, not in de- priving the delinquent of the spiritual goods them- selves, 1 H if only of the use of the spiritual goods: and this not perpetually, but for an indeterminate time, i. e., until he repents, in other words, until the patient is convali scent from his spiritual illness. Hence ex- communication, 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 con- sist -■ in the privation of the use of certain spiritual goods or In spiritual goods are those

which are within the power of the Church or those which depend on the Church, e. g. the sacraments, public prayers. Indulgences, sacred functions, jur- isdiction, ecclesiastical benefices and offices. Cen- sures, however, do not deprive of grace nor of III.— 34

the private prayers and good works of the faith- ful; for, even if censured, the internal communion of the saints still remains by virtue of the indel- ible character imprinted on the soul by baptism. Thus, to distinguish the various effects of the three censures: Excommunication may be inflictei Ion 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 oi (he visi- ble body whose visible head is the Roman Pontiff. Suspension is for clerics only, leaves them part icipating in the communion of the faithful, but directly prohibits them from the active use of sacred things, i. e. as minis- ters (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. Inter- dict prohibits the faithful, either clerics or laymen, from the passive use of some ecclesiastical goods, as far as these are sacred things (res sacree), or as far as the faithful are participants, e.g. certain sacraments, Christian burial, etc.

Division. — Besides the particular division of cen- sures into excommunication, suspension, and inter- dict, there are several general divisions of censures. First censures a jure and nb homine. Censures a jure (by the law) are those inflicted by a permanent edict of the lawgiver, i. e. which the law itself attaches to a crime. We must distinguish lure between a law, i. e. an enactment having, of itself, permanent and perpetual binding force, and a mere command or pre- cept, usually temporary 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 arc inflicted by particular law, e. g. by bishops for their particular diocese or territory, usually in provincial or diocesan synods. Censures ab homine (by man) are those which are passed by the sentence, command, or particular pre- cept of the judge, e. g. by the bishop, as contradis- tinguished from the law described above. They are usually owing to peculiar and transient circumstances, and are intended to last only as long as BUch circum- stances exist. The censure ab homine may be in the form of a general order, command, or precept, binding all subjects (per senlentiam generalcm), or it may be only by a particular command or precept for an indi- vidual case, e. g. in a trial where the delinquent is found guilty and censured, or as a particular precept to stop a ] 'articular delinquency.

Another general division of censures is important and peculiar to the penal legislation of the Church. A censure a jure or nb homine may be either (1) later sentential or (2) ferendcB sentential. (1) ('ensure- loin- sentcntitr (of sentence pronounced) are incurred ipso fact/) by the commission of the crime; in other words the delinquent incurs the penalty in the very ad of breaking the law, and the censure binds the eon science of the delinquent immediately, without the process of a trial or the formality of a judicial sen tence. 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 tn obey her laws. If the crime be secret the censure also is secret, but is binding before God and in con- e; if the crime be public the ci i 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 declaratioi sen-

tence) is made that the delinquent has incurred the censure. — (2) Censur.

awaiting pronouncement) an 1 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 lata or jerenda: sentential is