ACCEPTANCE OF PERSON. — An expression proper to ecclesiastical language, roughly synonymous with partiality. It is used to designate a judgment (favorable or unfavorable) based on purely subjective and self-interested grounds, such as when someone distributing work or goods belonging to the public does not consider the dignity and condition of the persons involved and allows himself to be guided by motives inconsistent with moral order. It is therefore defined as: “Iniustitia qua praefertur persona personae propter causam indebitam” (Van Espen, Ius ecclesiae, 3, 11, 13, c. 1, n. 1). The origin of the expression is biblical (Rom. 2:11; Col. 3:25). The Septuagint, translating the Hebrew nāša’ “to regard the face,” rendered it by the Greek προσωποληψία, “acceptance of person.”
The acceptance of person is a sin because of the voluntary disorder it introduces into judgments and practical decisions that harm others, thus violating distributive justice (cf. Sum. Theol., II-II, q. 63, a. 1).
For there to be sin, two conditions must be met: 1° that the goods to be distributed are in some way common to those who aspire to them (e.g., a prize to be awarded to the winners of a contest; it would be culpable and unjust to award it to a non-winner out of friendship or some other personal motive); 2° that in the act of awarding or distributing, some special condition of the person is considered rather than the proper execution of the act, so that a less worthy person is preferred to a more worthy one. The most common cases in which acceptance of person may occur are four: a) in the conferral of benefices or offices; b) in elections or presentations to the same, whether in the civil or ecclesiastical sphere; c) in the distribution of burdens; d) in the public manifestation of honor and esteem due to a person.
The gravity of the sin will vary according to the importance of the interests compromised by this violation of distributive justice.
Already in the Old Testament, acceptance of person is condemned several times (Deut. 16:19; Prov. 24:23), and in the New Testament it is said that God abhors undue preferences (Luke 20:21; Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; Gal. 2:6), and in this the Apostles wished to condemn both the claim to privileges on the part of the Jews and the inequality that the pagans sought to maintain between free persons and slaves.
Accetto—Pulpit by the sculptor A. (mid-12th century) — Canossa, Cathedral
In the Code of Canon Law, acceptance of person is condemned with severe words and penalties in the conferral of offices (can. 153) and in the appointment to parishes (can. 459; cf. also can. 232, 267).