Book VI: Sanctions in the Church

The Code of Canon Law (new)

Book 6

PART I : OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENTS IN GENERAL

TITLE I: THE PUNISHMENT OF OFFENCES

IN GENERAL

Can. 1311 The Church has its own inherent right to constrain with penal sanctions Christ's faithful who commit offences.

Can. 1312 §1 The penal sanctions in the Church are:

1° medicinal penalties or censures, which are listed in canon. 1331 1333;

2° expiatory penalties, mentioned in Can. 1336;

§2 The law may determine other expiatory penalties which deprive a member of Christ's faithful of some spiritual or temporal good, and are consistent with the Church's supernatural purpose.

§3 Use is also made of penal remedies and penances: the former primarily to prevent offences, the latter rather to substitute for or to augment a penalty.

TITLE II: PENAL LAW AND PENAL PRECEPT

Can. 1313 §1 If a law is changed after an offence has been committed, the law more favorable to the offender is to be applied.

§2 If a later law removes a law, or at least a penalty, the penalty immediately lapses.

Can. 1314 A penalty is for the most part ferendae sententiae, that is, not binding upon the offender until it has been imposed. It is, however, latae sententiae, so that it is incurred automatically upon the commission of an offence, if a law or precept expressly lays this down.

Can. 1315 §1 Whoever has legislative power can also make penal laws. A legislator can, however, by laws of his own, reinforce with a fitting penalty a divine law or an ecclesiastical law of a higher authority, observing the limits of his competence in respect of territory or persons.

§2 A law can either itself determine the penalty or leave its determination to the prudent decision of a judge.

§3 A particular law can also add other penalties to those laid down for a certain offence in a universal law; this is not to be done, however, except for the gravest necessity. If a universal law threatens an undetermined penalty or a discretionary penalty, a particular law can establish in its place a determined or an obligatory penalty.

Can. 1316 Diocesan Bishops are to take care that as far as possible any penalties which are to be imposed by law are uniform within the same city or region.

Can. 1317 Penalties are to be established only in so far as they are really necessary for the better maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline. Dismissal from the clerical state, however, cannot be laid down by particular law.

Can. 1318 A legislator is not to threaten latae sententiae penalties, except perhaps for some outstanding and malicious offences which may be either more grave by reason of scandal or such that they cannot be effectively punished by ferendae sententiae penalties. He is not, however, to constitute censures, especially excommunication, except with the greatest moderation, and only for the more grave offences.

Can. 1319 §1 To the extent to which a legislator can impose precepts by virtue of the power of governance in the external forum, to that extent can he also by precept threaten a determined penalty, other than a perpetual expiatory penalty.

§2 A precept to which a penalty is attached is not to be issued unless the matter has been very carefully considered, and unless the provisions of Can. 1317 and 1318 concerning particular laws have been observed.

Can. 1320 In all matters in which they come under the authority of the local Ordinary, religious can be constrained by him with penalties.

TITLE III: THOSE WHO ARE LIABLE TO PENAL SANCTIONS

Can. 1321 §1 No one can be punished for the commission of an external violation of a law or precept unless it is gravely imputable by reason of malice or of culpability.

§2 A person who deliberately violated a law or precept is bound by the penalty prescribed in that law or precept. If, however, the violation was due to the omission of due diligence, the person is not punished unless the law or precept provides otherwise.

§3 Where there has been an external violation, imputability is presumed, unless it appears otherwise.

Can. 1322 Those who habitually lack the use of reason, even though they appeared sane when they violated a law or precept, are deemed incapable of committing an offence.

Can. 1323 No one is liable to a penalty who, when violating a law or precept:

1° has not completed the sixteenth year of age;

2° was, without fault, ignorant of violating the law or precept; inadvertence and error are equivalent to ignorance

3° acted under physical force, or under the impetus of a chance occurrence which the person could not foresee or if foreseen could not avoid;

4° acted under the compulsion of grave fear, even if only relative, or by reason of necessity or grave inconvenience, unless, however, the act is intrinsically evil or tends to be harmful to souls;

5° acted, within the limits of due moderation, in lawful self-defense or defense of another against an unjust aggressor;

6° lacked the use of reason, without prejudice to the provisions of canon. 1324, §1, n. 2 and 1325;

7° thought, through no personal fault, that some one of the circumstances existed which are mentioned in nn. 4 or 5.

Can. 1324 §1 The perpetrator of a violation is not exempted from penalty, but the penalty prescribed in the law or precept must be diminished, or a penance substituted in its place, if the offence was committed by:

1° one who had only an imperfect use of reason;

2° one who was lacking the use of reason because of culpable drunkenness or other mental disturbance of a similar kind;

3° one who acted in the heat of passion which, while serious, nevertheless did not precede or hinder all mental deliberation and consent of the will, provided that the passion itself had not been deliberately stimulated or nourished

4° a minor who has completed the sixteenth year of age;

5° one who was compelled by grave fear, even if only relative, or by reason of necessity or grave inconvenience, if the act is intrinsically evil or tends to be harmful to souls;

6° one who acted in lawful self-defense or defense of another against an unjust aggressor, but did not observe due moderation;

7° one who acted against another person who was gravely and unjustly provocative;

8° one who erroneously, but culpably, thought that some one of the circumstances existed which are mentioned in Can. 1323, nn. 4 or 5;

9° one who through no personal fault was unaware that a penalty was attached to the law or precept;

10° one who acted without full imputability, provided it remained grave.

§2 A judge can do the same if there is any other circumstance present which would reduce the gravity of the offence.

§3 In the circumstances mentioned in §1, the offender is not bound by a latae sententiae penalty.

Can. 1325 Ignorance which is crass or supine or affected can never be taken into account when applying the provisions of canon. 1323 and 1324. Likewise, drunkenness or other mental disturbances cannot be taken into account if these have been deliberately sought so as to commit the offence or to excuse it; nor can passion which has been deliberately stimulated or nourished.

Can. 1326 §1 A judge may inflict a more serious punishment than that prescribed in the law or precept when:

1° a person, after being condemned, or after the penalty has been declared, continues so to offend that obstinate ill will may prudently be concluded from the circumstances;

2° a person who is established in some position of dignity, or who has abused a position of authority or an office, in order to commit a crime;

3° an offender who, after a penalty for a culpable offence was constituted, foresaw the event but nevertheless omitted to take the precautions to avoid it which any careful person would have taken.

§2 In the cases mentioned in 1, if the penalty constituted is latae sententiae, another penalty or a penance may be added.

Can. 1327 A particular law may, either as a general rule or for individual offences, determine excusing, attenuating or aggravating circumstances, over and above the cases mentioned in canon. 1323 1326. Likewise, circumstances may be determined in a precept which excuse from, attenuate or aggravate the penalty constituted in the precept.

Can. 1328 §1 One who in furtherance of an offence did something or failed to do something but then, involuntarily, did not complete the offence, is not bound by the penalty prescribed for the completed offence, unless the law or a precept provides otherwise.

§2 If the acts or the omissions of their nature lead to the carrying out of the offence, the person responsible may be subjected to a penance or to a penal remedy, unless he or she had spontaneously desisted from the offence which had been initiated. However, if scandal or other serious harm or danger has resulted, the perpetrator, even though spontaneously desisting, may be punished by a just penalty, but of a lesser kind than that determined for the completed crime.

Can. 1329 §1 Where a number of persons conspire together to commit an offence, and accomplices are not expressly mentioned in the law or precept, if ferendae sententiae penalties were constituted for the principal offender, then the others are subject to the same penalties or to other penalties of the same or a lesser gravity.

§2 In the case of a latae sententiae penalty attached to an offence, accomplices, even though not mentioned in the law or precept, incur the same penalty if, without their assistance, the crime would not have been committed, and if the penalty is of such a nature as to be able to affect them; otherwise, they can be punished with ferendae sententiae penalties.

Can. 1330 §1 An offence which consists in a declaration or in some other manifestation of doctrine or knowledge, is not to be regarded as effected if no one actually perceives the declaration or manifestation.

TITLE IV: PENALTIES AND OTHER PUNISHMENTS

CHAPTER I : CENSURES

Can. 1331 §1 An excommunicated person is forbidden:

1° to have any ministerial part in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist or in any other ceremonies of public worship;

2° to celebrate the sacraments or sacramentals and to receive the sacraments ;

3° to exercise any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, functions or acts of governance.

§2 If the excommunication has been imposed or declared, the offender:

1° proposing to act in defiance of the provision of §1, n. 1 is to be removed, or else the liturgical action is to be suspended, unless there is a grave reason to the contrary

2° invalidly exercises any acts of governance which, in accordance with §1, n.3, are unlawful;

3° is forbidden to benefit from privileges already granted;

4° cannot validly assume any dignity, office or other function in the Church

5° loses the title to the benefits of any dignity, office, function or pension held in the Church.

Can. 1332 One who is under interdict is obliged by the prohibition of Can. 1331 §1, nn. 1 and 2 if the interdict was imposed or declared, the provision of Can. 1331 §2, n. 1 is to be observed.

Can. 1333 §1 Suspension, which can affect only clerics, prohibits:

1° all or some of the acts of the power of order

2° all or some of the acts of the power of governance;

3° the exercise of all or some of the rights or functions attaching to an office.

§2 In a law or a precept it may be prescribed that, after a judgment which imposes or declares the penalty, a suspended person cannot validly perform acts of the power of governance.

§3 The prohibition never affects:

1° any offices or power of governance which are not within the control of the Superior who establishes the penalty;

2° a right of residence which the offender may have by virtue of office;

3° the right to administer goods which may belong to an office held by the person suspended, if the penalty is latae sententiae.

§4 A suspension prohibiting the receipt of benefits, stipends, pensions or other such things, carries with it the obligation of restitution of whatever has been unlawfully received, even though this was in good faith.

Can. 1334 §1 The extent of a suspension, within the limits laid down in the preceding canon, is defined either by the law or precept, or by the judgment or decree whereby the penalty is imposed.

§2 A law, but not a precept, can establish a latae sententiae suspension without an added determination or limitation; such a penalty has all the effects enumerated in Can. 1333 §1.

Can. 1335 If a censure prohibits the celebration of the sacraments or sacramentals or the exercise of a power of governance, the prohibition is suspended whenever this is necessary to provide for the faithful who are in danger of death. If a latae sententiae censure has not been declared, the prohibition is also suspended whenever one of the faithful requests a sacrament or sacramental or an act of the power of governance; for any just reason it is lawful to make such a request.

CHAPTER II : EXPIATORY PENALTIES

Can. 1336 §1 Expiatory penalties can affect the offender either forever or for a determinate or an indeterminate period. Apart from others which the law may perhaps establish, these penalties are as follows:

1° a prohibition against residence, or an order to reside, in a certain place or territory;

2° deprivation of power, office, function, right, privilege, faculty, favor, title or insignia, even of a merely honorary nature;

3° a prohibition on the exercise of those things enumerated in n. 2, or a prohibition on their exercise inside or outside a certain place; such a prohibition is never under pain of nullity;

4° a penal transfer to another office;

5° dismissal from the clerical state.

§2 Only those expiatory penalties may be latae sententiae which are enumerated in §1, n. 3.

Can. 1337 §1 A prohibition against residing in a certain place or territory can affect both clerics and religious. An order to reside in a certain place can affect secular clerics and, within the limits of their constitutions, religious.

§2 An order imposing residence in a certain place or territory must have the consent of the Ordinary of that place, unless there is question of a house set up for penance or rehabilitation of clerics, including extradiocesans.

Can. 1338 §1 The deprivations and prohibitions enumerated in Can. 1336 §1, nn. 2 and 3 never affect powers, offices, functions, rights, privileges, faculties, favors, titles or insignia, which are not within the control of the Superior who establishes the penalty.

§2 There can be no deprivation of the power of order, but only a prohibition against the exercise of it or of some of its acts; neither can there be a deprivation of academic degrees.

§3 The norm laid down for censures in Can. 1335 is to be observed in regard to the prohibitions mentioned in Can. 1336 §1, n. 3.

CHAPTER III : PENAL REMEDIES AND PENANCES

Can. 1339 §1 When someone is in a proximate occasion of committing an offence or when, after an investigation, there is a serious suspicion that an offence has been committed, the Ordinary either personally or through another can give that person warning.

§2 In the case of behavior which gives rise to scandal or serious disturbance of public order, the Ordinary can also correct the person, in a way appropriate to the particular conditions of the person and of what has been done.

§3 The fact that there has been a warning or a correction must always be proven, at least from some document to be kept in the secret archive of the curia.

Can. 1340 §1 A penance, which is imposed in the external forum, is the performance of some work of religion or piety or charity.

§2 A public penance is never to be imposed for an occult transgression.

§3 According to his prudent judgment, the Ordinary may add penances to the penal remedy of warning or correction.

TITLE V: THE APPLICATION OF PENALTIES

Can. 1341 The Ordinary is to start a judicial or an administrative procedure for the imposition or the declaration of penalties only when he perceives that neither by fraternal correction or reproof, nor by any methods of pastoral care, can the scandal be sufficiently repaired, justice restored and the offender reformed.

Can. 1342 §1 Whenever there are just reasons against the use of a judicial procedure, a penalty can be imposed or declared by means of an extra judicial decree; in every case, penal remedies and penances may be applied by a decree.

§2 Perpetual penalties cannot be imposed or declared by means of a decree; nor can penalties which the law or precept establishing them forbids to be applied by decree.

§3 What the law or decree says of a judge in regard to the imposition or declaration of a penalty in a trial, is to be applied also to a Superior who imposes or declares a penalty by an extra judicial decree, unless it is otherwise clear, or unless there is question of provisions which concern only procedural matters.

Can. 1343 If a law or precept gives the judge the power to apply or not to apply a penalty, the judge may also, according to his own conscience and prudence, modify the penalty or in its place impose a penance.

Can. 1344 Even though the law may use obligatory words, the judge may, according to his own conscience and prudence:

1° defer the imposition of the penalty to a more opportune time, if it is foreseen that greater evils may arise from a too hasty punishment of the offender;

2° abstain from imposing the penalty or substitute a milder penalty or a penance, if the offender has repented and repaired the scandal, or if the offender has been or foreseeably will be sufficiently punished by the civil authority;

3° may suspend the obligation of observing an expiatory penalty, if the person is a first offender after a hitherto blameless life, and there is no urgent need to repair scandal; this is, however, to be done in such a way that if the person again commits an offence within a time laid down by the judge, then that person must pay the penalty for both offences, unless in the meanwhile the time for prescription of a penal action in respect of the former offence has expired.

Can. 1345 Whenever the offender had only an imperfect use of reason, or committed the offence out of fear or necessity or in the heat of passion or with a mind disturbed by drunkenness or a similar cause, the judge can refrain from inflicting any punishment if he considers that the person's reform may be better accomplished in some other way.

Can. 1346 Whenever the offender has committed a number of offences and the sum of penalties which should be imposed seems excessive, it is left to the prudent decision of the judge to moderate the penalties in an equitable fashion.

Can. 1347 §1 A censure cannot validly be imposed unless the offender has beforehand received at least one warning to purge the contempt, and has been allowed suitable time to do so.

§2 The offender is said to have purged the contempt if he or she has truly repented of the offence and has made, or at least seriously promised to make, reparation for the damage and scandal.

Can. 1348 When the person has been found not guilty of an accusation, or where no penalty has been imposed, the Ordinary may provide for the person's welfare or for the common good by opportune warnings or other solicitous means, and even, if the case calls for it, by the use of penal remedies.

Can. 1349 If a penalty is indeterminate, and if the law does not provide otherwise, the judge is not to impose graver penalties, especially censures, unless the seriousness of the case really demands it. He may not impose penalties which are perpetual.

Can. 1350 §1 In imposing penalties on a cleric, except in the case of dismissal from the clerical state, care must always be taken that he does not lack what is necessary for his worthy support.

§2 If a person is truly in need because he has been dismissed from the clerical state, the Ordinary is to provide in the best way possible.

Can. 1351 A penalty binds an offender everywhere, even when the one who established or imposed it has ceased from office, unless it is otherwise expressly provided.

Can. 1352 §1 If a penalty prohibits the reception of the sacraments or sacramentals, the prohibition is suspended for as long as the offender is in danger of death.

§2 The obligation of observing a latae sententiae penalty which has not been declared, and is not notorious in the place where the offender actually is, is suspended either in whole or in part to the extent that the offender cannot observe it without the danger of grave scandal or loss of good name.

Can. 1352 An appeal or a recourse against judgments of a court or against decrees which impose or declare any penalty, has a suspensive effect.

TITLE VI: THE CESSATION OF PENALTIES

Can. 1354 §1 Besides those who are enumerated in canon. 1355 56, all who can dispense from a law which is supported by a penalty, can also remit the penalty itself.

§2 Moreover, a law or precept which establishes a penalty can also grant to others the power of remitting the penalty.

§3 If the Apostolic See has reserved the remission of a penalty to itself or to others, the reservation is to be strictly interpreted.

Can. 1355 §1 Provided it is not reserved to the Apostolic See, a penalty which is established by law and has been imposed or declared, can be remitted by the following:

1° the Ordinary who initiated the judicial proceedings to impose or declare the penalty, or who by a decree, either personally or through another, imposed or declared it;

2° the Ordinary of the place where the offender actually is, after consulting the Ordinary mentioned in n. 1, unless because of extraordinary circumstances this is impossible.

§2 Provided it is not reserved to the Apostolic See, a latae sententiae penalty established by law but not yet declared, can be remitted by the Ordinary in respect of his subjects and of those actually in his territory or of those who committed the offence in his territory. Moreover, any Bishop can do this, but only in the course of sacramental confession.

Can. 1356 §1 A ferendae or a latae sententiae penalty established in a precept not issued by the Apostolic See, can be remitted by the following:

1° the Ordinary of the place where the offender actually is;

2° if the penalty has been imposed or declared, the Ordinary who initiated the judicial proceedings to impose or declare the penalty, or who by a decree, either personally or through another, imposed or declared it.

§2 Before the remission is granted, the author of the precept is to be consulted, unless because of extraordinary circumstance this is impossible.

Can. 1357 §1 Without prejudice to the provisions of canon. 508 and 976, a confessor can in the internal sacramental forum remit a latae sententiae censure of excommunication or interdict which has not been declared, if it is difficult for the penitent to remain in a state of grave sin for the time necessary for the competent Superior to provide.

§2 In granting the remission, the confessor is to impose upon the penitent, under pain of again incurring the censure, the obligation to have recourse within one month to the competent Superior or to a priest having the requisite faculty, and to abide by his instructions. In the meantime, the confessor is to impose an appropriate penance and, to the extent demanded, to require reparation of scandal and damage. The recourse, however, may be made even through the confessor, without mention of a name.

§3 The same duty of recourse, when they have recovered, binds those who in accordance with Can. 976 have had remitted an imposed or declared censure or one reserved to the Holy See.

Can. 1358 §1 The remission of a censure cannot be granted except to an offender whose contempt has been purged in accordance with Can. 1347 §2. However, once the contempt has been purged, the remission cannot be refused.

§2 The one who remits a censure can make provision in accordance with Can. 1348, and can also impose a penance.

Can. 1359 If one is bound by a number of penalties, a remission is valid only for those penalties expressed in it. A general remission, however, removes all penalties, except those which in the petition have been concealed in bad faith.

Can. 1360 The remission of a penalty extorted by grave fear is invalid

Can. 1361 §1 A remission can be granted even to a person who is not present, or conditionally.

§2 A remission in the external forum is to be granted in writing, unless a grave reason suggests otherwise.

§3 Care is to be taken that the petition for remission or the remission itself is not made public, except insofar as this would either be useful for the protection of the good name of the offender, or be necessary to repair scandal.

Can. 1362 §1 A criminal action is extinguished by prescription after three years, except for:

1° offences reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;

2° an action arising from any of the offences mentioned in canon. 1394, 1395, 1397, 1398, which is extinguished after five years;

3° offences not punished by the universal law, where a particular law has prescribed a different period of prescription.

§2 Prescription runs from the day the offence was committed or, if the offence was enduring or habitual, from the day it ceased.

Can. 1363 §1 An action to execute a penalty is extinguished by prescription if the judge's decree of execution mentioned in Can. 1651 was not notified to the offender within the periods mentioned in Can. 1362; these periods are to be reckoned from the day the condemnatory judgment became an adjudged matter.

§2 The same applies, with the necessary adjustments, if the penalty was imposed by an extra judicial decree.

PART II : PENALTIES FOR PARTICULAR OFFENCES

TITLE I: OFFENCES AGAINST RELIGION AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

Can. 1364 §1 An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication, without prejudice to the provision of Can. 194 §1, n. 2; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with the penalties mentioned in Can. 1336 §1, nn. 1, 2 and 3.

§2 If a longstanding contempt or the gravity of scandal calls for it, other penalties may be added, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.

Can. 1365 One who is guilty of prohibited participation in religious rites is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1366 Parents, and those taking the place of parents, who hand over their children to be baptized or brought up in a non-Catholic religion, are to be punished with a censure or other just penalty.

Can. 1367 One who throws away the consecrated species or, for a sacrilegious purpose, takes them away or keeps them, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with some other penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.

Can. 1368 A person who, in asserting or promising something before an ecclesiastical authority, commits perjury, is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1369 A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church.

TITLE II : OFFENCES AGAINST CHURCH AUTHORITIES AND THE FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH

Can. 1370 §1 A person who uses physical force against the Roman Pontiff incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if the offender is a cleric, another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, may be added according to the gravity of the crime.

§2 One who does this against a Bishop incurs a latae sententiae interdict and, if a cleric, he incurs also a latae sententiae suspension.

§3 A person who uses physical force against a cleric or religious out of contempt for the faith, or the Church, or ecclesiastical authority or the ministry, is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1371 The following are to be punished with a just penalty:

[updated via Ad Tuendam Fidam]
1° a person who, apart from the case mentioned in Can. 1364 §1, teaches a doctrine condemned by the Roman Pontiff, or by an Ecumenical Council, or obstinately rejects the teaching mentioned in Canon 750 §2 or in Can. 752 and, when warned by the Apostolic See or by the Ordinary, does not retract;

2° a person who in any other way does not obey the lawful command or prohibition of the Apostolic See or the Ordinary or Superior and, after being warned, persists in disobedience.

Can. 1372 A person who appeals from an act of the Roman Pontiff to an Ecumenical Council or to the College of Bishops, is to be punished with a censure.

Can. 1373 A person who publicly incites his or her subjects to hatred or animosity against the Apostolic See or the Ordinary because of some act of ecclesiastical authority or ministry, or who provokes the subjects to disobedience against them, is to be punished by interdict or other just penalties.

Can. 1374 A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict.

Can. 1375 Those who hinder the freedom of the ministry or of an election or of the exercise of ecclesiastical power, or the lawful use of sacred or other ecclesiastical goods, or who intimidate either an elector or one who is elected or one who exercises ecclesiastical power or ministry, may be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1376 A person who profanes a sacred object, moveable or immovable, is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1377 A person who without the prescribed permission alienates ecclesiastical goods, is to be punished with a just penalty.

TITLE III : USURPATION OF ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES AND OFFENCES COMMITTED IN THEIR EXERCISE

Can. 1378 §1 A priest who acts against the prescription of Can. 977 incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

§2 The following incur a latae sententiae interdict or, if a cleric, a latae sententiae suspension:

1° a person who, not being an ordained priest, attempts to celebrate Mass

2° a person who, apart from the case mentioned in §1, though unable to give valid sacramental absolution, attempts to do so, or hears a sacramental confession.

§3 In the cases mentioned in §2, other penalties, not excluding excommunication, can be added, according to the gravity of the offence.

Can. 1379 A person who, apart from the cases mentioned in Can. 1378, pretends to administer a sacrament, is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1380 A person who through simony celebrates or receives a sacrament, is to be punished with an interdict or suspension.

Can. 1381 §1 Anyone who usurps an ecclesiastical office is to be punished with a just penalty.

§2 The unlawful retention of an ecclesiastical office after being deprived of it, or ceasing from it, is equivalent to usurpation.

Can. 1382 Both the Bishop who, without a pontifical mandate, consecrates a person a Bishop, and the one who receives the consecration from him, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

Can. 1383 A Bishop who, contrary to the provision of Can. 1015, ordained someone else's subject without the lawful dimissorial letters, is prohibited from conferring orders for one year. The person who received the order is ipso facto suspended from the order received.

Can. 1384 A person who, apart from the cases mentioned in canon 1378 1383, unlawfully exercises the office of a priest or another sacred ministry, may be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1385 A person who unlawfully traffics in Mass offerings is to be punished with a censure or other just penalty.

Can. 1386 A person who gives or promises something so that some one who exercises an office in the Church would unlawfully act or fail to act, is to be punished with a just penalty; likewise, the person who accepts such gifts or promises.

Can. 1387 A priest who in confession, or on the occasion or under the pretext of confession, solicits a penitent to commit a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, is to be punished, according to the gravity of the offence, with suspension, prohibitions and deprivations; in the more serious cases he is to be dismissed from the clerical state.

Can. 1388 §1 A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.

§2 Interpreters and the others mentioned in can. 983 §2, who violate the secret, are to be punished with a just penalty, not excluding excommunication.

Can. 1389 §1 A person who abuses ecclesiastical power or an office, is to be punished according to the gravity of the act or the omission, not excluding by deprivation of the office, unless a penalty for that abuse is already established by law or precept.

§2 A person who, through culpable negligence, unlawfully and with harm to another, performs or omits an act of ecclesiastical power or ministry or office, is to be punished with a just penalty.

TITLE IV: THE OFFENCE OF FALSEHOOD

Can. 1390 §1 A person who falsely denounces a confessor of the offence mentioned in can. 1387 to an ecclesiastical Superior, incurs a latae sententiae interdict and, if a cleric, he incurs also a suspension.

§2 A person who calumniously denounces an offence to an ecclesiastical Superior, or otherwise injures the good name of another, can be punished with a just penalty, not excluding a censure.

§3 The calumniator can also be compelled to make appropriate amends.

Can. 1391 The following can be punished with a just penalty, according to the gravity of the offence:

1° a person who composes a false public ecclesiastical document, or who changes or conceals a genuine one, or who uses a false or altered one

2° a person who in an ecclesiastical matter uses some other false or altered document;

3° a person who, in a public ecclesiastical document, asserts something false.

TITLE V : OFFENCES AGAINST SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS

Can. 1392 Clerics or religious who engage in trading or business contrary to the provisions of the canons, are to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.

Can. 1393 A person who violates obligations imposed by a penalty, can be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1394 §1 Without prejudice to the provisions of can. 194, §1, n. 3, a cleric who attempts marriage, even if only civilly, incurs a latae sententiae suspension. If, after warning, he has not reformed and continues to give scandal, he can be progressively punished by deprivations, or even by dismissal from the clerical state.

§2 Without prejudice to the provisions of can. 694, a religious in perpetual vows who is not a cleric but who attempts marriage, even if only civilly, incurs a latae sententiae interdict.

Can. 1395 §1 Apart from the case mentioned in can. 1394, a cleric living in concubinage, and a cleric who continues in some other external sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue which causes scandal, is to be punished with suspension. To this, other penalties can progressively be added if after a warning he persists in the offence, until eventually he can be dismissed from the clerical state.

§2 A cleric who has offended in other ways against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the crime was committed by force, or by threats, or in public, or with a minor under the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants.

Can. 1396 A person who gravely violates the obligation of residence to which he is bound by reason of an ecclesiastical office, is to be punished with a just penalty, not excluding, after a warning, deprivation of the office.

TITLE VI : OFFENCES AGAINST HUMAN LIFE AND LIBERTY

Can. 1397 One who commits murder, or who by force or by fraud abducts, imprisons, mutilates or gravely wounds a person, is to be punished, according to the gravity of the offence, with the deprivations and prohibitions mentioned in can. 1336. In the case of the murder of one of those persons mentioned in can. 1370, the offender is punished with the penalties there prescribed.

Can. 1398 A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.

TITLE VII: GENERAL NORM

Can. 1399 Besides the cases prescribed in this or in other laws, the external violation of divine or canon law can be punished, and with a just penalty, only when the special gravity of the violation requires it and necessity demands that scandals be prevented or repaired.