ACCEPTANCE OF PERSON. – An expression proper to ecclesiastical language, more or less synonymous with partiality. It is used, in fact, to designate a judgment (favorable or unfavorable) founded on purely subjective and self-interested reasons, as, for example, in the case of someone who, having to distribute work or goods pertaining to the public, failed to take account of the dignity and circumstances of persons and allowed himself to be guided by motives not corresponding to the moral order. It is therefore defined as: «Iniustitia qua praefertur persona personae propter causam indebitam» (Van Espen, Ius ecclesiasticum, p. 11, th. 31, c. 1, n. 1). The origin of the expression is biblical (Rom. 2, 11; Col. 3, 25). The Septuagint, translating the Hebrew ndia «intueri faciem», renders it with the Greek term προσωποληψία, «acceptio personae».
Acceptance of person is a sin on account of the voluntary disorder that it introduces into the formation of judgments and practical decisions to the detriment of others, thereby violating distributive justice (cf. Sum. Theol., 2a-2ac, q. 63, a. 1).
For there to be sin, two conditions must be present: 1° that the goods to be distributed be in some way common in relation to those who aspire to them (e.g., a prize to be distributed among the winners of a competition; it would be culpable and unjust for someone to distribute or award it to a nonwinner out of friendship or for some other personal reason); 2° that, in awarding or distributing, attention be paid to some special condition of the person instead of to the proper execution of the act, so that someone less worthy is preferred to someone more worthy. The most common cases in which acceptance of person may occur are four: a) in the conferral of benefices or offices; b) in election or presentation to them, in both the civil and ecclesiastical spheres; c) in the distribution of burdens; d) in the public expression of the honor and reverence due to a person.
The sin will be more or less grave according to the importance of the interests compromised by this violation of distributive justice.
ACCETTO – Pulpit by the sculptor A. (mid-11th century) – Canosa, Cathedral
In the CIC, the acceptance of persons is condemned with severe words and penalties in the conferral of offices (can. 153) and in appointments to parishes (can. 459; cf. also cann. 232, 267).