Last week’s post examined prescription in canonical penal law. Today’s post begins the discussions on particular delicts and focuses on heresy. Please contact me if there are particular delicts that you would like me to discuss in my posts.
As a recap, the principle of legality states that for an act to be a canonical delict and for one to be punished for it, there must have been a law or precept established by a competent ecclesiastical authority designating that action or inaction as an offence. Also, the presumption of innocence is the primary principle guiding penal law, while the presumption of imputability is the subordinate principle (cf. Can. 1321).
Heresy is one of the three ‘delicts against the faith.’ The others, apostasy and schism, will be discussed in subsequent posts. Although these delicts are not part of the more grave delicts (delicti graviora) committed against morals and in the celebration of the sacraments, they are reserved to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith. Therefore, judgment for this delict is reserved to the Dicastery, though the Ordinary can carry out a trial at the first instance. (Norms Regarding Delicts Reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, art 2 §2).
A person baptised in the Catholic Church or received into it is in full communion with the Catholic Church when the person is joined with the Church “through the bonds of profession of faith, the sacraments and ecclesiastical governance” (Canon 205). Hence, canon 751 states: “Heresy is the obstinate denial or doubt, after baptism, of a truth which must be believed by divine and catholic faith.” Canon 1364 states: “§1 An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication… §2 If a long-standing contempt or the gravity of scandal calls for it, other penalties may be added, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.”
To ascertain a heresy, two essential factors must be present: ‘obstinate denial or doubt’ and ‘divine and catholic faith.’
The adjective ‘obstinate’ means “to be stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing.” Therefore, when we say someone has committed heresy, we have to ascertain that there was an “obstinate denial or doubt”. This means that the accused persisted after being reminded, and even warned, that his or her views were contrary to the truth believed by the Catholic Church. This obstinacy accommodates several instances in which people could have naively denied or doubted the truth of the Catholic faith.
As doctrinal issues are topical in the Church again, does merely having a contrary view make one a heretic? The second factor comes into play.
Canon 750 §1 states: “Those things are to be believed by divine and catholic faith which are contained in the word of God as it has been written or handed down by tradition, that is, in the single deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, and which are at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn Magisterium of the Church, or by its ordinary and universal Magisterium, which in fact is manifested by the common adherence of Christ’s faithful under the guidance of the sacred Magisterium. All are therefore bound to avoid any contrary doctrines.”
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in its Doctrinal Commentary on the Concluding Formula of the Profession of Faith, provides examples, though not exhaustive. They are “the articles of faith of the Creed, the various Christological dogmas and Marian dogmas; the doctrine of the institution of the sacraments by Christ and their efficacy with regard to grace; the doctrine of the real and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the sacrificial nature of the eucharistic celebration; the foundation of the Church by the will of Christ; the doctrine on the primacy and infallibility of the Roman Pontiff; the doctrine on the existence of original sin; the doctrine on the immortality of the spiritual soul and on the immediate recompense after death; the absence of error in the inspired sacred texts; the doctrine on the grave immorality of direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being” (Doctrinal Commentary, 11).
On the other hand, “to protect the faith of the Catholic Church against errors arising from certain members of the Christian faithful, especially from among those dedicated to the various disciplines of sacred theology,” Pope John Paul II, in 1998 and through the apostolic letter motu proprio, Ad Tuendam Fidem, adds a second paragraph to canon 750, thereby distinguishing clearly what a heresy and what it is not. It says: “each and everything set forth definitively by the Magisterium of the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals must be firmly accepted and held; namely, those things required for the holy keeping and faithful exposition of the deposit of faith; therefore, anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church” (Can. 750 §2). Examples include the Church’s teaching on the ordination of women or the illicitness of euthanasia, prostitution, and fornication, the legitimacy of the election of the pope, the celebration of an ecumenical council, and the canonisations of saints. One also adds the morality of artificial contraception.
Although this second paragraph constitutes the “secondary object of infallibility”, heresy does not occur when there is an obstinate denial or doubt of teachings in this second category because they do not fall into the category of those things which must be believed by ‘divine and catholic faith’. In the same way, the provisions of canon 1364 do not apply to those obstinate denial or doubt of teachings in the second category.
There is also a third category of object of faith. Canon 752 affirms: “While the assent of faith is not required, a religious submission of intellect and will is to be given to any doctrine which either the Supreme Pontiff or the College of Bishops, exercising their authentic magisterium, declare upon a matter of faith or morals, even though they do not intend to proclaim that doctrine by definitive act. Christ’s faithful are therefore to ensure that they avoid whatever does not accord with that doctrine.”
Hence, there is also an offence when not submitting to doctrine. Canon 1365 states: “A person who, apart from the case mentioned in canon 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 canon 752 and, when warned by the Apostolic See or the Ordinary, does not retract, is to be punished with a censure and deprivation of office; to these sanctions others mentioned in can. 1336 §§2-4 may be added.”
Finally, a person who has committed the delict of apostasy, heresy, or schism is irregular for receiving Holy Orders (Can. 1041, 2°)
May God continue to help us🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
