URGENT CASE. - Under this name (as under that of extraordinary case, perplexed case) are understood in moral theology and in canon law the cases of grave and urgent necessity that can occur extra mortis periculum, in which it is not morally possible to omit or delay an action, which is opposed by a particular provision of law.
In these cases the ecclesiastical legislator is accustomed to broaden the faculties of dispensation of Ordinaries, parish priests or confessors, for the greater good of souls. Indeed in such circumstances human law often comes into collision with natural law, which therefore prevails.
The general principle is laid down in can. 81 of the CIC, by which it is established that Ordinaries have the faculty to dispense from pontifical laws (of common law or of particular law), when four conditions concur simultaneously, namely: a) it is a particular case, even if concerning an entire community or a certain place; b) there is the danger of grave harm, public or private, of a moral or material order, which can be remedied only by the immediate granting of the dispensation; c) recourse by ordinary means (that is, epistolary correspondence) to the Holy See itself, or to its delegates, is difficult; d) the dispensation is one of those customarily granted by the dicasteries of the Holy See, which can be known from the style and practice of the Roman Curia.
The urgent case can be occasioned only by a moral necessity of performing the action, and not, as some think, by the mere desire to perform the action, even if holy, for example, to celebrate, to receive Communion, to contract marriage as soon as possible (unless the desire is such that it itself creates the moral necessity of acting).
Regarding the nature of this power of Ordinaries, which extends to all ecclesiastical laws and is valid for the internal and external forum, authors do not agree, some - and with greater reason - considering it an ordinary power, by virtue of can. 197 § 1, others a power delegated by law.
In itself the norm concerns the case of a dispensation to be granted before the matter has been referred to the Holy See. Authors, however, and not without reason, extend the faculty also to the hypothesis that the danger of grave harm presents itself when the petition for dispensation has already been forwarded to the competent Roman Dicastery, on condition of informing the Holy See itself in accordance with can. 204 § 2. The general principle laid down in can. 81 has certain particular applications in the CIC itself, especially regarding dispensation from irregularities (can. 990 § 2) or from matrimonial impediments (can. 1045), absolution from sins and from censures (cann. 900, nn. 1-2 and 2254), dispensation or suspension from vindictive penalties (can. 2290 §§ 1-2); but it must not be restricted only to these applications, being extensible to all ecclesiastical laws and to all cases not expressly excepted.
On the other hand these particular hypotheses are not a useless repetition, because they extend the faculties, which can. 81 grants only to Ordinaries, according to the cases to parish priests and confessors or to the latter only, although with certain limitations and generally only for the internal forum.
1. Dispensation from irregularities in urgent case
Without prejudice to the extraordinary faculties of Ordinaries on the basis of can. 81, and to those ordinary ones laid down in can. 990 § 1, when even recourse to them is rendered morally impossible by circumstances and the other conditions of the urgent case are verified, confessors themselves can dispense from all irregularities arising ex delicto occulto, with the exception of those arising from homicide or voluntary abortion consummated or from a crime already referred to the judicial forum (at least by citation of the accused); the faculty of dispensation, however, exists only if the dispensation itself is necessary in order to make possible the exercise of the Orders already previously received (can. 990 § 2); indeed a case of urgent necessity is to be excluded when the dispensation is necessary for receiving Orders, even if recourse to the Ordinary is morally impossible, since the latter must administer the Order or give the opportune faculties with prudent moderation.
2. Dispensation from matrimonial impediments in urgent case
When everything has been arranged for the marriage to be celebrated immediately, and the conditions of the urgent case therefore usually occur, Ordinaries can, both for the purposes of celebration and of convalidation of the marriage, dispense in the internal and external forum from all impediments whether public or occult, even multiple, except the impediment of the order of the presbyterate, and the impediment of affinity in the direct line deriving from a consummated marriage (can. 1045).
It is to be noted that can. 1045 does not derogate from the general faculties belonging to Ordinaries in accordance with can. 81 (v. DISPENSA; and cf. the response of the Pontifical Commission for the authentic interpretation of the CIC, 27 July 1942); on the contrary it broadens such faculties relatively to matrimonial impediments, inasmuch as the dispensation is extendable also to impediments from which the Holy See is not accustomed to dispense, except the two expressly mentioned.
Moreover, whenever recourse to the Ordinary himself by common means is morally impossible, or, even excluding the difficulty of access, there is danger of violation of secrecy, the faculties granted to Ordinaries pass automatically in occult urgent cases to the parish priest, to the priest who assists at the marriage, and, limited to the sacramental internal forum, to the confessor (can. 1045 § 3). It does not seem, on the other hand, according to the more common doctrine, that can. 1045 gives the faculty of dispensation from the form of celebration of marriage, regarding which, moreover, it does not appear that any other case of grave and urgent necessity of dispensation can occur, outside the cases contemplated by the code and the danger of death (cann. 1043, 1098).
For the case of danger of death, v. PERICOLO DI MORTE.
3. Absolution from reserved cases in urgent case
4. Suspension and dispensation from vindictive penalties in urgent case
v. PENA VENDICATIVA; RISERVA.
5. Urgent case, and necessity as a cause excusing from the law
The code sometimes uses certain expressions that would seem to refer to the urgent case, such as urgente necessitate, si urgeat necessitas etc. (cann. 807, 851, 856 etc.). It is not properly a question of urgent case but of impossibility or grave inconvenience as a cause excusing from the law.
The urgent case does not create in the subject any right, but grants to the subordinate superior extraordinary faculties of dispensation. Moral impossibility, on the other hand, is a circumstance by virtue of which in the subject himself the duty of observing the law in force, to which he remains subject, ceases in a determined case. To judge of this cessation in the concrete case there is not necessary, as in the urgent case, the intervention of the superior or confessor, but it is enough that the subject himself establish a comparison between the law (and the obligation deriving from it) and the circumstance said to be excusing. The obligation ceases before morality in the impossibility of its execution, unless it is a question of an obligation of prohibitive natural law, because this forbids intrinsically evil acts.
In law, that is, in the external forum, it is necessary to take account of the particular provisions of law.
Bibliography7 works
Pietro Palazzini