APOSTASY. — It is the total abandonment of the faith by one who has received Baptism, and it is distinguished from heresy, which consists in the conscious denial or positive doubt of one or more truths of the faith.
It is a grave sin that admits no parity of matter, being a direct offense against God.
From the earliest times of the Church, this form of desertion from the ranks of the Christian militia (often provoked by fierce persecutions) also constituted a most grave crime. Apostates, or *lapsi* (q.v.), were punished with deposition if clerics and with excommunication if lay; and if they manifested the intention of returning to the faith, they were required to undergo severe penance, without hope, in some Churches, of being absolved even at the point of death. To these sanctions were added those imposed by secular authority, ranging from confiscation of goods and incapacity to make a will, as provided in the Justinian Code (*de apostatis*, 1, 7), to exile and capital punishment, not infrequently applied during the Middle Ages. Later, as the primitive rigor abated, civil penalties disappeared, and apostasy retained exclusively the character of an ecclesiastical crime, regulated by numerous papal constitutions, among which are to be noted the *Bulla in coena Domini* of Clement VII (1524) and the *Apostolicae Sedis* of Pius IX (1869).
The current *Codex Iuris Canonici* defines apostasy in can. 1325, § 2, and lists it among the crimes against the faith in can. 2314. The specific object of penal protection is the interest of the Church, considered both in itself and in each of its members, to preserve intact its spiritual patrimony and, with it, the very cause of its existence. The active subject can be any person validly baptized. The material element is represented by the total abandonment of the Christian faith, externally manifested by words or unequivocal acts; it is not necessary, however, that the guilty party adhere to a religious confession different from the Catholic, since this circumstance is considered by the law as an aggravating factor, not as the essence of the crime. Therefore, pantheists, materialists, and so-called freethinkers are to be considered apostates; not so those who show practical indifference or who neglect religious duties out of habit. The crime is by its nature formal and does not admit of attempt, whether in the form of an incomplete act or a frustrated one. The psychological element consists in the perfect awareness and will to totally abandon the Christian faith; hence the hypothesis of culpable crime is impossible in this case. Criminal cooperation is chiefly configurated in moral complicity (can. 2209, § 3). No extenuating circumstances can be claimed, such as grave fear, state of necessity, or grave inconvenience, since, as is clear, this is an intrinsically evil action aimed at despising the faith (can. 2205, § 3).
Apostates incur *latae sententiae* excommunication, reserved in a special way to the Apostolic See. Those who persist in the crime after a canonical admonition are deprived of any benefit, dignity, pension, or ecclesiastical office, and are declared infamous; clerics, moreover, after a second admonition, must be deposed. Whoever has given his name or has publicly adhered to a non-Catholic sect becomes ipso facto infamous, and if he is a cleric, after a canonical admonition, he incurs the penalty of degradation. Other penal effects of the crime of public or notorious apostasy are: deprivation of ecclesiastical burial (can. 1240, § 1, n. 1); incapacity to acquire the right of personal patronage (can. 1453, § 1); presumption of renunciation of any office (can. 188, n. 4); 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 it can be granted, for the external forum, also by the local ordinary (excluding the vicar general without special mandate), provided that he has been invested with knowledge of the crime as judge, and the guilty party, sincerely repentant, has performed a regular act of abjuration before him or his delegate and two witnesses (can. 2314, § 2).
APOSTASY FROM RELIGION. — The apostasy from the faith (of which we have spoken thus far) must not be confused with apostasy from religion, that is, the act of one who, having professed perpetual vows, whether solemn or simple, illegitimately departs from the religious house with the intention not to return or, having legitimately departed, does not return, thereby intending to withdraw from the rule of obedience (can. 644, § 1). The apostate from religion incurs *latae sententiae* excommunication, reserved, according to the case, to the religious superior or the local ordinary; is excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts; loses the privileges proper to his religion and, if he returns, not only is deprived of active and passive voice, but must also be punished by the superiors in proportion to the gravity of the fault (can. 235).
APOSTASY FROM HOLY ORDERS. — Another matter is, finally, apostasy from holy orders, which occurs when a cleric who has received major orders (i.e., at least the subdiaconate) abandons the ecclesiastical habit and persists in such an attitude for a certain time after being admonished; the guilty party is punished with deposition (can. 2379).
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APOSTOLATE. — 1) In the proper and literal sense, it generally signifies the work of one who devotes himself entirely to the spread of religious, moral, and civil truths. But in a stricter and etymological sense, the apostolate is the religious and supernatural power that Our Lord Jesus Christ conferred upon twelve of His disciples, whom He Himself called “apostles,” that is, “sent,” because they were sent by Him to various parts of the earth to proclaim the Gospel law and the Christian faith. Among the Jews, the Greek term *apostolatos* was used to denote a commission, known as the “apostles of the Synagogue,” consisting of men authorized and sent by the high priest to the various provinces to collect money from their fellow countrymen of the Diaspora or to regulate discipline there (q.V. APOSTLES).
In ancient ecclesiastical practice, the apostolate was generally called all that pertains to the episcopate, since individual bishops are direct descendants and successors of the apostles in the ministry and evangelical magisterium.
2) The official apostolate in the Church includes within itself the faculty and also the obligation, for those invested with it: a) to instruct with supernatural authority in the truths of the faith; b) to administer the sacraments canonically to communicate to souls the grace of which Jesus Christ made them ministers; c) to govern their own flock, promoting and requiring from the faithful the observance of the divine law; d) to dictate norms and make positive laws according to the circumstances of times and places; e) to exorcise, when necessary, with superior authority, Satan and evil spirits, a faculty conferred upon the apostles by Jesus Christ to confirm the truths preached and taught.
The spirit of the apostolate in the faithful is the fruit of charity toward God; for it is not possible to love God sincerely and strongly without in some way striving to make Him better known and loved. In this sense, the apostolate is the flowering of the love of God, which demonstrates that every true Christian necessarily becomes an apostle of good.