INTERDICT. – It is the canonical penalty that deprives the faithful of the sacred rites and renders them incapable of exercising certain spiritual rights, without, however, excluding them
from communion with the Church. The i. is predominantly medicinal in character and in the CIC is listed among the censures (can. 2268), but it may also be a vindictive penalty (v. CENSURA, III, c. penale medicinale): in case of doubt it is presumed to be a medicinal penalty (cann. 2255 § 2, 2291, nn. 1–2). It differs from excommunication and suspension in that it may affect not only physical persons but also collectivities and moral bodies as such.
The i. is distinguished as personal or local, according as it refers directly to persons or corporations, or to places or territories. The personal i. partakes of the nature and effects of excommunication, has the character of a personal law, and follows the person everywhere; the local i., on the other hand, has only territorial effect and, within the limits of the territory, affects all those present, including foreigners and the exempt (can. 2269 § 2).
The local i. is in turn distinguished as general or particular, according as it affects an entire territorial circumscription (parish, diocese, nation) or only a specific place (church, oratory, altar, chapel, cemetery, etc.). The personal i. is likewise distinguished as general or special, according as it is imposed against a collectivity of persons (cathedral chapter, Religious Order, pious association, etc.) or against a single person.
The imposition of the general local i. against dioceses, ecclesiastical provinces, nations, and other circumscriptions extending beyond the territory of the diocese, as well as of the general personal i. against moral bodies and collectivities falling outside the ordinary diocesan authority (monastic provinces, religious communities of pontifical right), is reserved exclusively to the Holy See. For lesser circumscriptions existing within the boundaries of the diocese (parishes), as well as for diocesan collectivities that are not exempt (chapters, religious communities of diocesan right), the bishop also has competence (can. 2269 § 1).
The local i., whether general or particular, in principle prohibits every divine office and every sacred rite, including the administration and reception of the Sacraments (can. 2270 § 1). This principle, however, is subject to various exceptions and mitigations. Thus, the local i., whether general or particular, does not prohibit the administration of the Sacraments and Sacramentals to the dying (the Viaticum, however, may be administered only privately), and it suspends its effects on the major solemnities of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and the Assumption, with the exception of the conferral of Holy Orders and the solemn nuptial blessing. Likewise, the general local i. permits clerics to celebrate the divine offices behind closed doors, without singing and without the ringing of bells, and, in cathedral and parish churches or in the only church of the place, does not prohibit the celebration of a single Mass each day, the reception and administration of the sacraments of Baptism, the Eucharist, and Matrimony (excluding the nuptial blessing), nor the celebration of funeral rites for the dead, the blessing of the baptismal font and the sacred Oils, and the preaching of the word of God, provided that all pomp and solemnity, sacred singing, and the playing of instruments and ringing of bells are excluded (cann. 2270–71).
In the case of a particular local i. affecting a church, these latter two exceptions, mentioned in can. 2271, apply exclusively in favor of collegiate and parish churches, and only on the condition that, for the purposes of worship, other churches or oratories have not previously been designated in their place. With regard to other churches and other places (altars, chapels, etc.), the principle remains that a particular local i. entails an absolute prohibition against celebrating in them any divine office or sacred rite. The interdiction of a cemetery, however, does not prohibit the burial of the dead, but merely forbids its being carried out with the prescribed ecclesiastical rite (can. 2272).
The general personal i., that is, one inflicted on a community or college as such, entails inhibition from the exercise of every spiritual right and function belonging to them as moral bodies (e.g., the right of election, presentation, etc.).
The special personal i. is always a censure and places the person affected by it in a situation analogous to that of one who has been excommunicated: it prohibits the celebration of and assistance at the divine offices, except assistance at sacred preaching; it prohibits every administration, conferral, and reception of the Sacraments and Sacramentals; it entails suspension from the exercise of the right of election, presentation, and nomination to sacred offices, incapacity for Orders, and inability to obtain dignities, offices, benefices, pensions, and positions of any kind, and excludes the person from ecclesiastical burial. When the special personal i. is joined to the general personal i., so that the community is affected both in itself and in its individual members, the respective effects of the one and the other are cumulative (cann. 2274, 2275, 2265, 2291, nn. 1, 2).
The i. ab ingressu ecclesiae is a special, somewhat mitigated form of the special personal i., and entails for the person affected exclusion from the church with regard to the celebration of the divine offices, assistance at them, and reception of ecclesiastical burial (can. 2277).
All those who were the cause of a local i. or of the personal i. of a community incur ipso vere the special personal i. Whoever, on the other hand, while belonging to a territory or community affected by an i., was not the cause of it, is admitted to receive the Sacraments, without prejudice to the state of interdiction (cann. 2338 § 4, 2276).
The earliest traces of the local i. date back to the sixth century. Rarely used before the tenth century, it did not acquire its own form and a precise designation before the end of that century. It was widely used throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages, which constituted its classical period; famous examples are the general i. imposed by Alexander III against Scotland (1180), and by Innocent III against France (1200) and against England (1208).
The personal i. appears even earlier, in the fourth century, in the form of a mitigated excommunication. A special, exclusively medieval form of the i. was the so-called ambulatory or mixed i., by virtue of which the places in which an interdicted person happened to be present were themselves interdicted.
After the Middle Ages, the use of the i. gradually declined, and its application, once very rigorous, was likewise progressively mitigated through the introduction of various exceptions, privileges, and exemptions. The Apostolic Constitution Apostolicae Sedis (1869) retained in force only five personal i. Even in the current CIC, as penalties incurred ipso facto, only personal i. are provided for: three special personal i. (cann. 2328, 2338 § 4, 2356), three ab ingressu ecclesiae (cann. 2329, 2338 § 3, 2339), and only one general personal i. (can. 2332).