PROFESSION OF FAITH. - In a broad sense it is any external act of Christian virtue that presupposes faith: in a proper and formal sense it is the explicit manifestation of one's own religious convictions in deference to the authority of God who reveals.
Besides the divine precept of professing the faith externally, recalled by the CIC at can. 1325 (v. FEDE, coll. 1087-88), there is also the ecclesiastical law that obliges certain persons to make, in determined cases, the p. of f. according to a determined formula, as a guarantee of obedience to the ecclesiastical magisterium.
In the first centuries the solemn p. of f. had to be made before receiving Baptism, just as even today the baptismal rite entails the recitation of the Creed; later it began to be imposed on Catholics suspected of heresy and on heretics returning to the Church, but especially on candidates for sacred Orders and for the episcopate. In the 7th century there are traces also of the oath attached to the p. of f., whose content the Council of Trent (sess. XXV, cap. 2, de reform.) then carefully determined. The formula still in force is that of Pius IV, modified by Pius IX, who in 1877 inserted into it the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and the definitions of the Vatican Council.
Pius X, with the motu proprio Sacrorum Antistitum of 1 Sept. 1910, prescribed that the p. of f. be not only read but also signed, and imposed the anti-modernist oath. At present the CIC (cann. 1406-1408) specifies the persons bound to the p. of f. and the manner of making it: a) the persons obliged are: 1) those who take part with a deliberative or consultative vote in an ecumenical or particular council, or in a diocesan synod. The president makes the profession before the assembly, the members before the president or a delegate of his; 2) those who are promoted to the cardinalitial dignity; they make the profession before the dean of the Sacred College, the first cardinals of the Orders of priests and deacons, and the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church; 3) before the delegate of the Apostolic See, those who are promoted to an episcopal see, even a non-residential one, to the government of an abbey or prelature nullius, or to an apostolic vicariate; 4) the capitular vicar before the cathedral Chapter; 5) before the local Ordinary or a delegate of his and the Chapter, those who are promoted to a dignity or a canonry; 6) before the local Ordinary or a delegate of his and before the other consultors, those who are appointed diocesan consultors; 7) before the local Ordinary or a delegate of his, the vicar general, the parish priests and all those who are provided with a benefice with the care of souls, even if removable; the rector, the professors of theology, of canon law and of philosophy in seminaries at the beginning of each school year or at least upon assuming office; all those who are ordained subdeacons; the censors of books; the priests designated for confessions and for preaching; 8) before the Ordinary or a delegate of his, the rector of a university or faculty canonically erected; before the rector and a delegate of his, the professors, at the beginning of each school year or at least upon assuming teaching duties; all those who, having passed the examinations, obtain academic degrees; 9) in clerical religious orders the superior makes the profession before the Chapter or the superior who appointed him or before a delegate of theirs. All these persons are bound to renew the p. of f. each time they pass from one office to another that likewise requires such a profession.
b) The obligation to make the p. of f. is personal, so that one made through a procurator is not valid. The p. of f. cannot be made before laypersons (can. 1407). The obligation of the p. of f. is grave, and whoever omits it commits an ecclesiastical crime liable to penalties according to can. 2403. When several persons make the p. of f., it is enough that one reads the formula and the others pronounce the final expression of promise and oath.
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Luigi Fini