URGENT CASE. — Under this name (as also under that of extraordinary case, perplexing case) moral theology and canon law understand cases of grave and urgent necessity that may arise extra mortis periculum, in which it is not morally possible to omit or delay an action prevented by a particular provision of law.
In such cases the ecclesiastical legislator ordinarily broadens the faculties of Ordinaries, parish priests, or confessors, for the greater good of souls. Indeed, in circumstances of this kind human law often comes into conflict with natural law, which consequently prevails.
The general principle is established in can. 81 of the CIC, by which it is laid down that Ordinaries have the faculty of dispensing from pontifical laws (whether of common or particular law) when four conditions concur simultaneously, namely: a) it must be a particular case, even if it concerns an entire community or a certain place; b) there must be a danger of grave harm, public or private, moral or material, which can be remedied only by the immediate granting of the dispensation; c) recourse by ordinary means (that is, written correspondence) to the Holy See itself or to its delegates must be difficult; d) the dispensation must be one of those ordinarily granted by the departments of the Holy See, which may be known from the style and practice of the Roman Curia.
An urgent case can be occasioned only by a moral necessity to perform the action, and not, as some think, by the mere desire to perform the action, however holy—for example, to celebrate Mass, to receive Communion, or to contract marriage as soon as possible (unless the desire is such that it itself creates a moral necessity to act).
As regards the nature of this power of the Ordinaries, which extends to all ecclesiastical laws and is valid in both the internal and external forum, the authors do not agree: some hold it—and with greater reason—to be ordinary power, by virtue of can. 197 § 1; others hold it to be delegated a iure.
Strictly speaking, the norm concerns the case of a dispensation to be granted before the matter has been referred to the Holy See. The authors, however, and not without reason, extend the faculty also to the situation in which the danger of grave harm arises when the petition for dispensation has already been submitted to the competent Roman Dicastery, provided that the Holy See itself is informed of this in accordance with can. 204 § 2. The general principle established in can. 81 has several particular applications in the CIC itself, especially concerning dispensation from irregularities (can. 990 § 2) or matrimonial impediments (can. 1045), absolution from sins and censures (cann. 900, nn. 1–2 and 2254), and dispensation from or suspension of vindicatory penalties (can. 2290 §§ 1–2); but it should not be restricted to these applications, since it extends 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 circumstances, to parish priests and confessors, or only to the latter, although with certain limitations and generally only for the internal forum.
1. Dispensation from irregularities in an urgent case. — Without prejudice to the extraordinary faculties of Ordinaries under can. 81, and to those ordinary faculties established in can. 990 § 1, when recourse to them is also rendered morally impossible by the circumstances and the other conditions of an urgent case are present, confessors themselves may dispense from all irregularities arising ex delicto occulto, with the exception of those arising from homicide or completed voluntary abortion, or from an offense already referred to the judicial forum (at least by means of the citation of the accused); the faculty of dispensation, however, exists only when the dispensation itself is necessary in order to make possible the exercise of Orders previously received (can. 990 § 2). A case of urgent necessity must in fact 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 grant the appropriate faculties with prudent moderation.
2. Dispensation from matrimonial impediments in an urgent case. — When everything has been arranged for a marriage to be celebrated immediately, so that the conditions of an urgent case ordinarily arise, Ordinaries may, both for the purpose of celebrating and for that of convalidating the marriage, dispense in the internal and external forum from all impediments, both public and occult, including multiple impediments, with the exceptions of the impediment of the presbyterate and the impediment of affinity in the direct line arising from a consummated marriage (can. 1045).
It should be noted that can. 1045 does not derogate from the general faculties belonging to Ordinaries under can. 81 (v. DISPENSA; and cf. the response of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the CIC, 27 July 1942); rather, it broadens those faculties with regard to matrimonial impediments, insofar as the dispensation may also extend to impediments from which the Holy See does not ordinarily dispense, with the exception of the two expressly mentioned.
Moreover, whenever recourse to the Ordinary himself by ordinary means is morally impossible, or, even when difficulty of access is absent, there is a danger of violating secrecy, the faculties granted to Ordinaries automatically pass, in occult urgent cases, to the parish priest, to the priest assisting at the marriage, and, limited to the sacramental internal forum, to the confessor (can. 1045 § 3). It does not seem, however, according to the more common teaching, that can. 1045 grants the faculty of dispensing from the form of celebration of marriage; moreover, outside the cases contemplated by the code and the danger of death (cann. 1043, 1098), there does not seem to be any other case of grave and urgent necessity for dispensation in this matter.
For the case of danger of death, V. PERICOLO DI MORTE.
3. Absolution from reserved cases in an urgent case. — For this V. CENSURA; RISERVA.
4. Suspension and dispensation from vindicatory penalties in an urgent case. — V. PENE VENDICATIVE; RISERVA.
5. An urgent case and necessity as an excusing cause from the law. — The code sometimes uses certain expressions that would seem to refer to an urgent case, such as urgente necessitate, si urgeat necessitas, etc. (cann. 807, 851, 856, etc.). This is not precisely an urgent case, but impossibility or grave inconvenience as an excusing cause from the law.
An urgent case creates no right in the subject, but grants 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 ceases in a particular case, while he remains subject to that law. To judge of this cessation in the concrete case, the intervention of a superior or confessor is not necessary, as it is in an urgent case; it is sufficient that the subject himself establish a comparison between the law (and the obligation arising from it) and the circumstance said to be excusing. The obligation ceases in the face of the moral impossibility of carrying it out, unless it concerns an obligation of natural law that prohibits something, because this law forbids intrinsically evil acts.
In law, that is, in the external forum, the particular provisions of the law must be taken into account.