APOSTASIA. — It is the complete abandonment of the faith by one who has received Baptism, and it is distinguished from heresy, which consists in the conscious denial of, or positive doubt concerning, one or more truths of the faith.
It is a grave sin that admits of no lightness of matter, since it is a direct offence against God.
From the earliest times of the Church, this form of desertion from the ranks of the Christian militia (often provoked by the fierce persecutions) also constituted a most serious crime. Apostates, or lapsi (v.), were punished by deposition if they were clerics and by excommunication if they were laymen; and, if they manifested the intention of returning to the faith, they had to submit to severe penance, without hope, in some Churches, of being absolved even at the point of death. To these sanctions were then added those imposed by the secular authority, ranging from confiscation of property and incapacity to make a will, provided for in the Justinian Code (de apostatis, 1, 7), to exile and the ultimate punishment, which were not infrequently applied during the Middle Ages. Later, as the primitive severity diminished, the civil penalties disappeared, and a. retained exclusively the character of an ecclesiastical offence, regulated by numerous pontifical constitutions, among which should be recalled Clement VII’s «Bulla in coena Domini» (1524) and Pius IX’s Apostolicae Sedis (1869).
The current CIC defines a. in can. 1325, § 2, and lists it among offences against the faith in can. 2314. The specific object of penal protection is the interest of the Church, considered in itself and in each of its members, in preserving intact its spiritual patrimony and, with it, the very cause of its existence. The active subject may be any validly baptized person. The material element is represented by the total abandonment of the Christian faith, externally manifested through words or unequivocal acts; it is not necessary, moreover, that the guilty party adhere to a religious confession other than the Catholic one, since this circumstance is considered by the law an aggravating factor, not an element of the offence. Pantheists, materialists, and so-called free thinkers are therefore also to be regarded as apostates; not so those who show themselves practically indifferent or who habitually neglect their religious duties. The offence is by its nature formal and does not admit of an attempt, either in the form of conato or in that of frustrato. The psychological element consists in the perfect awareness and will to abandon the Christian faith completely; hence, in this case, the possibility of culpable offence appears impossible. Criminal cooperation is conceivable above all in the form of moral complicity (can. 2209, § 3). Grave fear, a state of necessity, and serious hardship can have no discriminating effect, since, as is clear, this is an intrinsically evil action directed toward despising the faith (can. 2205, § 3).
Apostates incur latae sententiae excommunication, specially reserved to the Apostolic See. Those who persist in the offence after a canonical warning are deprived of every benefice, dignity, pension, and ecclesiastical office, and are declared infamous; clerics, moreover, after a second warning, must be deposed. Anyone who has given his name to, or has publicly adhered to, an acatholic sect becomes ipso facto infamous and, if he is a cleric, incurs, after a canonical warning, the penalty of degradation. Other penal effects of the offence of public or notorious a. are: deprivation of ecclesiastical burial (can. 1240, § 1, n. 1); incapacity to acquire the right of personal patronage (can. 1453, § 1); the presumption of renunciation of any office (can. 188, n. 4); and the ipso facto dismissal of a religious (can. 646, § 1, n. 1).
Absolution from excommunication is reserved, as we have said, to the Holy See; but, in the external forum, it may also be granted by the ordinary of the place (excluding the vicar general lacking a special mandate), provided that he has been invested with knowledge of the offence as judge, and that the sincerely repentant guilty party has made a proper act of abjuration before him or his delegate and two witnesses (can. 2314, § 2).
A. FROM RELIGION. — Apostasy from religion must not be confused with apostasy from the faith (discussed thus far), that is, the act of a professed member of perpetual vows, whether solemn or simple, who unlawfully leaves the religious house with the intention of not returning, or who, after having lawfully left it, does not return, intending thereby to evade the rule of obedience (can. 644, § 1). The apostate from religion incurs excommunication latae sententiae, reserved, according to the circumstances, to the religious superior or to the ordinary of the place; he is excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts; he loses the privileges proper to his religious institute and, if he returns, not only remains deprived of active and passive voice, but must also be punished by his superiors in proportion to the gravity of his offense (can. 2385).
A. FROM THE ORDER. — Finally, something else is apostasy from the order, which occurs when a cleric who has received major orders (that is, at least the subdiaconate) abandons the ecclesiastical habit and persists in this attitude for a certain period after having been admonished; the culprit is punished by deposition (can. 2379).