DEPOSITION. – It is one of the most serious ecclesiastical penalties that can be imposed on a cleric, though it is inferior to reduction to the lay state (v.) and to degradation (v.); it is classified among vindictive penalties (v.).
Examples of it are found from the earliest centuries, though often under the name of degradation (or, more rarely, under other designations); it could vary in degree, sometimes involving only deprivation of office, at other times deprivation of office and demotion to a lower order, or simply transfer to a less important office, or other less severe effects. But generally it was the most severe penalty that could be imposed on clerics, since it entailed the loss of all offices and all rights, even honorary ones, pertaining to the ecclesiastical state, and placed the cleric in the same juridical condition as lay persons, save that he retained the privilegium canonis and the privilegium fori (v. PRIVILEGES OF CLERICS).
In the 12th century (cf. in the CIC the decretals of Lucius II, Celestine III, and Innocent III: c. 8, X, II, 1; c. 9, X, V, 7; c. 10, X, II, 2; c. 7, X, V, 20), following the insistence of civil authorities that they be allowed to judge clerics guilty of the most serious crimes, a clear distinction was drawn between deposition and degradation: the former did not entail either reduction to the lay state or loss of privileges.
With few variations in detail, this distinction has persisted to the present day (in the Eastern Church, rather, a distinction is drawn between major and minor deposition, degradation being little used).
In the CIC, deposition entails for the cleric who is punished: a) suspension (v.) from office; b) incapacity for any office, benefice, dignity, pension, or ecclesiastical post, and loss of any such that he may already hold. The loss of office, benefice, etc., occurs even if it constitutes the so-called title of ordination (v.) for the cleric; but in that case, if the cleric has no means of decent livelihood, the Ordinary must endeavor to provide him with some means of support, so that the decorum of the ecclesiastical state may be preserved (can. 2303 §§ 1–2).
The deposed cleric retains all the obligations deriving from his ordination, and also retains his privileges (can. 2303 § 1). If he shows no signs of amendment, and especially if he persists in giving scandal and does not repent despite admonition, the Ordinary may deprive him permanently of the right to wear ecclesiastical dress (v. ECCLESIASTICAL DRESS); and by this measure the guilty party also loses his privileges, and the Ordinary is likewise released from the obligation to ensure that he lacks the means of support (can. 2304).
Deposition cannot be imposed except by means of a sentence, issued following a regular trial, by a panel of five judges (can. 1576 § 1, n. 2); nor can it be applied except for those delicts for which it is expressly provided (can. 2303 § 3), which at present are: 1) heresy, though only after a twofold admonition (can. 2314 § 1, n. 2); 2) offering sacrifice upon sacred species (can. 2320); 3) simulated celebration of Mass or confession by a cleric who is not a priest (can. 2322 n. 1); 4) violation of a corpse or a tomb (can. 2328); 5) abortion (can. 2350 § 1); 6) grave delicts against persons or property (can. 2354 § 2); 7) grave delicts of lust (can. 2359 § 2); 8) prolonged transgression of the obligation to wear ecclesiastical dress and to maintain the tonsure (can. 2379); 9) illegitimate retention of an ecclesiastical office (can. 2394, n. 2 and 2401).
For delicts that entail the penalty of deposition, neither judicial reproof (v.) nor conditional suspension of the penalty (can. 2288) is applicable.