BOOK VI : SANCTIONS IN
THE CHURCH
PART II : PENALTIES FOR PARTICULAR OFFENCES
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
baptised 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:
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 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 cann. 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.
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