Delicta Graviora -- The Grave Crime of Attempted Ordination of A Woman May 2010
/In 2010, the Vatican updated its norms concerning “delicta graviora” (grave offenses against church law). The update named “attempted sacred ordination of a woman” as a “grave crime” for the first time, and specified that women and priests involved in such attempted ordinations are automatically excommunicated. It also streamlined disciplinary procedures for priests accused of the sexual abuse of children, extended the statute of limitations for such abuse, and defined the possession of child pornography as a form of child sexual abuse.
Media headlines at the time give hints as to how the modifications were received — “Vatican: Ordaining Female Priests on Par With Pedophilia,” “Rome Fiddles We Burn.’ As it updated the list, Rome made clear that so grave was the crime of ordination of a woman, automatic excommunication was the penalty which can only be relieved by the Holy See.
In the case of priest pedophilia — sexual assault of a child by a priest — the noted sanction is something less than excommunication. Although Rome defends that the two offences are not similar in gravity, the legislated penalties tell a different story. Excommunication for a woman. Story still uncertain for offending priest.
Against the backdrop of Pope Benedict giving a post in Rome to Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law who shielded pedophile priests and Pope Benedict’s rejection of resignations tendered by two Irish Bishops named in the Murphy Report, the swift removal in 2011 of Australia’s Bishop Morris who in a pastoral letter merely indicates an openness to ordaining women and married men if church rules changed to allow such a possibility, it is evident that from the Vatican’s point of view, ordination of women is the more serious crime.
Bishop Morris’s removal happened in the context of Cardinal Bernard Law being given a post in Rome (and thereby escaping prosecution in the USA for protecting pedophile priests). Running parallel to this was the news of two bishops named in Ireland’s Murphy Commission whose resignations were rejected by the Vatican. The Murphy Commission found that despite sexual abuse being 'endemic' in boys' institutions, the church hierarchy protected perpetrators and allowed them to take up new positions teaching other children after their original victims had been sworn to secrecy.
The text of the Norms on delicta graviora currently in force [December 2019] is the text approved by Pope Benedict XVI on 21 May 2010. Here from the Vatican’s ‘A brief introduction to the modifications made in the Normae de gravioribus delictis, reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith See especially Articles 5 and 6.
Art. 1
§ 1. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to art. 52 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus[1], judges delicts against the faith, as well as the more grave delicts committed against morals and in the celebration of the sacraments and, whenever necessary, proceeds to declare or impose canonical sanctions according to the norm of both common and proper law, with due regard for the competence of the Apostolic Penitentiary[2] and in keeping with Agendi ratio in doctrinarum examine.[3]
§ 2. With regard to the delicts mentioned above in § 1, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by mandate of the Roman Pontiff, may judge Cardinals, Patriarchs, Legates of the Apostolic See, Bishops as well as other physical persons mentioned in can. 1405 § 3 of the Code of Canon Law[4], and in can. 1061 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.[5]
§ 3. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges the reserved delicts mentioned in § 1 according to the following norms.
Art. 2
§ 1. The delicts against the faith referred to in art. 1 are heresy, apostasy and schism according to the norm of can. 751 [6] and 1364 [7] of the Code of Canon Law, and can. 1436[8] and 1437[9] of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
§ 2. In the above mentioned cases referred to in § 1, it pertains to the Ordinary or Hierarch to remit, by norm of law, if it be the case, the latae sententiae excommunication and likewise to undertake a judicial trial in the first instance or issue an extrajudicial decree, with due regard for the right of appeal or of recourse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Art. 3
§ 1. The more grave delicts against the sanctity of the most Holy Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for judgment are:
1° the taking or retaining for a sacrilegious purpose or the throwing away of the consecrated species[10], as mentioned in can. 1367 of the Code of Canon Law[11], and in can. 1442 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[12];
2° attempting the liturgical action of the Eucharistic Sacrifice spoken of in can. 1378 § 2, n. 1, of the Code of Canon Law[13];
3° the simulation of the same, spoken of in can. 1379 of the Code of Canon Law[14] and in can. 1443 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[15];
4° the concelebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice prohibited in can. 908 of the Code of Canon Law[16], and in can. 702 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[17], spoken of in can. 1365 of the Code of Canon Law[18], and in can. 1440 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[19], with ministers of ecclesial communities which do not have apostolic succession and do not acknowledge the sacramental dignity of priestly ordination.
§ 2. Also reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the delict which consists in the consecration for a sacrilegious purpose of one matter without the other or even of both, either within or outside of the eucharistic celebration[20]. One who has perpetrated this delict is to be punished according to the gravity of the crime, not excluding dismissal or deposition.
Art. 4
§ 1. The more grave delicts against the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are:
1° the absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, mentioned in can. 1378 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law[21], and in can. 1457 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[22];
2° attempted sacramental absolution or the prohibited hearing of confession, mentioned in can. 1378 § 2, 2° of the Code of Canon Law[23];
3° simulated sacramental absolution, mentioned in can. 1379 of the Code of Canon Law[24],and in can. 1443 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[25];
4° the solicitation to a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue in the act, on the occasion, or under the pretext of confession, as mentioned in can. 1387 of the Code of Canon Law[26], and in can. 1458 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[27], if it is directed to sinning with the confessor himself;
5° the direct and indirect violation of the sacramental seal, mentioned in can. 1388 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law[28],and in can. 1456 §1 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[29];
§ 2. With due regard for § 1, n. 5, also reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the more grave delict which consists in the recording, by whatever technical means, or in the malicious diffusion through communications media, of what is said in sacramental confession, whether true or false, by the confessor or the penitent. Anyone who commits such a delict is to punished according to the gravity of the crime, not excluding, if he be a cleric, dismissal or deposition[30].
Art. 5
The more grave delict of the attempted sacred ordination of a woman is also reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
1° With due regard for can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer sacred ordination on a woman, and she who attempts to receive sacred ordination, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
2° If the one attempting to confer sacred ordination, or the woman who attempts to receive sacred ordination, is a member of the Christian faithful subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, with due regard for can. 1443 of that Code, he or she is to be punished by major excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
3° If the guilty party is a cleric he may be punished by dismissal or deposition[31].
Art. 6
§ 1. The more grave delicts against morals which are reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are:
1° the delict against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue [you shall not commit adultery] committed by a cleric with a minor below the age of eighteen years; in this number, a person who habitually has the imperfect use of reason is to be considered equivalent to a minor.
2° the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology;
§ 2. A cleric who commits the delicts mentioned above in § 1 is to be punished according to the gravity of his crime, not excluding dismissal or deposition.
Art. 7
§ 1. A criminal action for delicts reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is extinguished by prescription after twenty years, with due regard to the right of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to derogate from prescription in individual cases.
§ 2. Prescription runs according to the norm of can. 1362 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law[32], and can. 1152 § 3 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[33]. However, in the delict mentioned in art. 6 §1 n. 1, prescription begins to run from the day on which a minor completes his eighteenth year of age.
