DENUNCIATION. - In legal language it indicates various acts, which generally consist in reporting some fact to an authority.
Used without further qualification (in which case one also speaks of criminal d.), it indicates the act by which a crime is brought to the knowledge of the authority.
According to the CIC, as indeed according to the laws of states, anyone has the faculty to denounce a crime (even a religious can present a denunciation against his superior: can. 1652, n. 3), whatever purpose may move him in making the d.; can. 1935 § 1 indicates what the lawful purposes are; that is, to obtain due satisfaction or compensation for damage, or out of a spirit of justice so that some scandal or some other evil may be repaired. The d. must be made to the Ordinary or to the chancellor of the diocesan curia, or to the vicar foraneous, or to the parish priest, who moreover must transmit it to the Ordinary (can. 1936).
No account is taken of d.'s made by one who is manifestly an enemy of the denounced person, or by one who is absolutely unworthy; and likewise of anonymous d.'s that do not contain sufficient elements to make the accusation appear probable (can. 1942 § 2).
There are then cases in which there is an obligation to denounce a crime: this occurs in canon law when a legal norm or a particular precept imposes it (thus it is, for example, in the case that a cleric or religious is enrolled in Freemasonry or another similar sect [v. MASSONERIA], and in the case that a confessor renders himself guilty of solicitation [v.]: cann. 2336 § 2, 904, 2368 § 2), and furthermore whenever the d. is necessary to prevent some danger to the faith or to religion, or other imminent public harm (can. 1935 § 2; for Italian law, cf. arts. 361-65 of the penal code).
The one who denounces must also provide all the elements of proof of which he is aware (can. 1937); and, once the d. has been presented, unless it appears evidently unfounded, investigations are begun directed to seeing whether or not there are sufficient elements to begin the criminal process (cann. 1939 § 1, 1942 § 1, 1946 § 2). And yet it must be borne in mind that the d. as a rule is not necessary for these investigations to be begun and for the guilty party of a crime to be punished: only when the crime to be punished is insult or defamation (v. INGIURIA E DIFFAMAZIONE), in certain cases proceedings are not taken if the person insulted or defamed does not present the d., which in that case is more properly called a complaint (v.).
Norms identical (save for some slight diversity of form) to those established in the CIC for the Latin Church were issued for the Eastern Churches by the motu proprio Sollicitudinem nostram of 6 Feb. 1950, in force from 6 Feb. 1951 (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 1-120): cf. cann. 508-11, 516, 520 of the motu proprio.
If the d. is calumnious, its author can be punished, if in bad faith, as a calumniator or defamer (v. INGIURIA E DIFFAMAZIONE); and very grave penalties are provided if by the denunciation a priest has been falsely accused of solicitation.
The term d. is also used in the sense of notification (v.) of an act, judicial or not; in the sense of reporting to the ecclesiastical authority books that are held worthy of being prohibited (v. CENSURA DEI LIBRI; INDICE DEI LIBRI PROIBITI); in the sense of publication (v.) for marriage or for ordination.
Pio Ciprotti