It is now three years of consistent existential theologising every Monday morning. I thank Chi di ebere for the wisdom and strength. May his name be praised both now and forever. Amen.
Last week’s post examined schism and, using the case of Archbishop Carlo Viganò, who has now been officially excommunicated, emphasised the Church’s interest in safeguarding the rights to fair hearing and self-defence. Today’s post focuses on apostasy, the third delict against the faith.
Canon 751 defines apostasy as “the total repudiation of the Christian faith.” Two adjectives are essential to ascertain apostasy: total and Christian. First, ‘total’ means that the rejection of the Christian faith received at baptism must be complete. One recalls that heresy is the obstinate denial or doubt of the faith. Therefore, if the rejection of the faith is partial, it could constitute heresy but not apostasy. In other words, the distance between apostasy and heresy is signified in the adjective ‘total’.
The adjective ‘Christian’ attached to the faith is essential to evaluate dispositions that constitute apostasy. The refusal of the Catholic to continue believing that God, the Father, is the creator of the world, the Son, is the saviour of the world, and the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, is the highest expression of transgression against God.
Bruno Pighin identifies four modes of apostasy. The first is the total rejection of the Christian faith externalised through a public declaration of apostasy or a cultic manifestation of unequivocal significance, such as sacrificing to a pagan god. The second form of apostasy is the conscious adoption of a religion incompatible with that revealed by Christ, such as Islam, Buddhism or religious movements such as Jehovah’s Witness. Joining the Jehovah’s Witness constitutes apostasy because the sect does not believe that Christ is God and, therefore, they are not Christians.
The third is the convinced assent externally manifested and perceived by others of philosophical doctrine or ideologies that profess atheism, agnosticism, or any other line of thought that undermines the root of the divine and catholic truth. In Nigeria, there is a growing trend of people declaring publicly that they no longer believe in religion or the Christian God and have reverted to African Traditional Religion or any syncretic and ritualistic sect. Such acts fall under apostasy. The fourth is the defect from the faith by a formal act, different from a notorious or public departure from the faith. Although Pope Benedict, in Omnium in mentem, of 2009, suppressed the reference of defection by a formal act in the code, the penal relevance remains.[1]
The penalty for apostasy is latae sententiae excommunication, and other penalties could be added (Can. 1364). A person who has committed the delict of apostasy is also irregular for receiving Holy Orders (Can. 1041, 2°). Of course, ascertaining that apostasy has occurred is necessary before penalties are imposed. Since the rejection of the Christian must be total, mere failure to practice one’s faith or disinterest in the Christian faith would not constitute apostasy. A Catholic who defects to another Christian denomination, even by a formal act, does not commit apostasy as long as the denomination upholds the fundamental teaching about God as the Creator, Saviour, and Sanctifier. However, the person may be guilty of heresy.
Second, Nigeria operates three legal systems simultaneously – customary, statutory, and Islamic. While statutory law has the constitution and statutes and the government as the authority, customary law has customs, with traditional rulers serving as the legitimate and competent authority within the customary legal system. Therefore, at the instruction of the traditional ruler, the community could require one to appear at an ATR shrine. Of course, as Christians, we are not obliged to obey injunctions that contradict our faith. Nevertheless, one could be physically dragged to the shrine. One could also be psychologically tortured with threats of ostracism from the community or the weight of proving one’s innocence alongside its implications for the wellbeing of the person and family, so much so that it becomes impossible to resist going.
The trend of young Catholic boys and girls going for ritual sacrifices for money poses another threat. One can quickly argue that apostasy has been committed because of the total rejection of the Christian God as the source of all providence. However, do all these young people really reject the Christian God? It is important to note that some never stopped participating in Catholic liturgical activities. There are instances where the ritualists told some to go before the Blessed Sacrament or grotto of Our Lady to pray, even as they concoct their rituals. There are also instances of such people coming to the Church for Thanksgiving after making money through money rituals.
Interestingly, when a 15-year-old Catholic participates in such sacrifices for money, the 15-year-old is not subject to canonical penalty for apostasy because canon 1323 1° provides that those who have not completed the sixteenth year of age are not liable to canonical penalty, even though the delict has been completed. Since the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s Body – heresy, apostasy, and schism – do not occur without human sin” (CCC, 817), the 15-year-old is bound to go to confession for the act, even if not bound by canonical penalty. Therefore, the sins against faith are among those acts that are simultaneously a sin (moral) and a delict (legal). Not all sins are delicts, and not all delicts are necessarily sins.
May God continue to help us🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
[1] Bruno Pighin, Il Nuovo Sistema Penale della Chiesa, Venezia: Marcianum Press, 2021, 296-297.