SACRILEGIO. — It is the irreverent treatment or profanation of a sacred thing.
I. NOTIONS
Already among the pagans and primitive peoples there existed a sufficiently precise notion of sacrilege; for example, they recognized a genuine sacrilege at least in the theft of sacred things. In the broad sense, any sin against religion is today called sacrilege; in the strict sense, the term refers exclusively to every irreverence toward the particular holiness of a thing destined for divine worship or consecrated to God.In the definition given, “sacred thing” means not only whatever material object is brought into relation with God, such as objects and places, but also persons consecrated to God. Consecration to divine worship, which is indispensable for speaking of sacrilege, must be public—that is, it must proceed from a public authority legitimately exercised by the competent ministers according to the norms promulgated by the Church—or it must come directly from God. It is well known, in fact, that Jesus Christ himself made certain things sacred, such as the Sacraments and the ministers of the altar; others, on the other hand, were made sacred by the Church. It is evident that the sacred character is more intrinsic in the former than in the latter. It is essential, however, that the consecration take place, as has been said, through public authority; for a person, thing, or place is not called sacred merely because one or more of the faithful, on their own initiative and without observing the relevant norms, have reserved it for the Lord or for his worship. The typical example of the absence of holiness capable of giving rise to sacrilege is the making of private vows by a person in honor of God, or the private designation of a particular place as an oratory. Therefore, sacred things, which are the material object of sacrilege, are those consecrated to divine worship either by divine law itself or by the will of the Church, through genuine constitutive consecration or blessing, as occurs, for example, in the consecration or blessing of churches, public and semipublic oratories, cemeteries, chalices, and vessels intended for worship; or they are those lawfully designated for worship by the Church’s express determination, even without any rite, as occurs, for example, with ecclesiastical movable and immovable property strictly so called and with the relics of saints. Finally, for sacrilege to exist, profanation is required, understood not only according to the irreverence that the objective nature of the act entails in itself—for example, the killing of a sacred person or the profanation of the sacred Eucharistic Species—but also according to what the Church determines in cases that constitute profanation as she understands II.
Sacrilege is, by its nature, a grave sin. It has a distinctive and intrinsic malice, separate from the malice of every other sin; therefore, for example, one who steals sacred objects commits a double sin, namely theft and sacrilege; likewise, one who kills a consecrated person commits both homicide and sacrilege. Sacrilege itself, however, admits of three specifically distinct forms according to the different object toward which the profanation is directed: personal sacrilege, local sacrilege, and real sacrilege.
II. PERSONAL SACRILEGE
It consists in the profanation or unworthy treatment of a sacred person. This may occur: a) through violation of chastity on the part of persons bound by an ecclesiastical obligation, that is, clerics ordained in sacred orders in the Latin Church (subdeacons, deacons, priests, bishops), in accordance with the express provision of can. 132 § 1 of the CIC; and in religious of either sex after profession has been made, even if it is simple and temporary (cann. 592 and 132 § 1). Personal sacrilege against chastity is committed not only by those bound by this obligation, but also by their accomplices; b) through actual injury against a cleric, even if a minor cleric (cann. 119 and 108 § 1); or against a male or female religious, even if a layperson or novice (cann. 614 and 119); or against members, including lay members, of societies lawfully erected by the Church, provided that they are not religious societies but have a common life (cann. 673 § 1; 680 and 119). Actual injury is to be understood exclusively as injury that has direct effects upon the body of the sacred person, or in fact limits his or her freedom, or degrades his or her dignity (maltreatment, spitting, tearing of garments, imprisonment, and the like); c) through violation of ecclesiastical immunity (some isolated writers do not regard this violation as genuine sacrilege), namely: a) by bringing a cleric as a defendant before a non-ecclesiastical tribunal, even in purely contentious cases, without the required license (can. 120); b) by obliging clerics to perform military service or compelling them to accept public duties or offices incompatible with the clerical state (can. 121).III. LOCAL SACRILEGE
This consists in the profanation of sacred places in the strict sense, namely churches, public oratories, solemnly blessed semi-public oratories, and cemeteries. There is no sacrilege if the profanation occurs in adjoining premises, even when they are immediately connected with the foregoing (such as sacristies, porticoes, and narthexes). Local sacrilege likewise occurs in various ways: a) through the violation of sacred places in the forms exhaustively set forth in the CIC, can. 1172 § 1. The acts entailing such violation (provided that they are certain, notorious, and perpetrated in the sacred place, semi-public oratories being excluded from the latter category) are the following: a) murder, that is, the deliberate and unjust killing, and suicide; b) the unjust and grave shedding of blood caused by a wound; c) designation for impious or sordid uses, such as, for example, as a theater, dance hall, or cinema, or for meetings of sects condemned by the Church; d) the burial of an infidel or of one excommunicated by a condemnatory or declaratory sentence; e) acts by which the safety or dignity of a sacred building is violently impaired, such as the burning of an altar, the forcible breaking down of a church door, or the destruction, even partial, of a sacred place; f) any act by which the immunity of a church or other sacred place is violated; g) violation of the right of asylum, that is, the forcible removal of one who took refuge there after having committed a specific crime, except in urgent cases or where the legitimate permission of the Ordinary or the rector of the church exists.IV. REAL SACRILEGE
This consists in the profanation of sacred things other than persons and places. The seriousness of the various forms of real sacrilege varies considerably: the grave profanation of the Eucharist is one thing; reducing a blessed vestment, for example, a maniple, to profane use for a short time is another. The principal ways in which real sacrilege is committed are the unworthy administration of the Sacraments, unworthily approaching them, the profanation of relics or images of saints, the unworthy treatment of sacred vessels or instruments, the theft or damaging of things destined for worship or belonging to the Church, the profanation of the texts of Sacred Scripture, and negligence in preserving and maintaining the decorum of sacred furnishings.V. PENE CONTRO I SACRILEGHI
Very grave are the penalties imposed in the CIC upon those who commit sacrilege. The excommunication specially reserved to the Holy See is incurred by anyone who profanes the sacred Species (can. 2320); who strikes the Supreme Pontiff (can. 2343 § 1, n. 1); who illicitly absolves or pretends to absolve, even in danger of death, an accomplice in an obscene sin (can. 2367 § 1–2); or who directly violates the sacramental seal (can. 2369 § 1). Excommunication specially reserved is established in cann. 2322 n. 1, 2341, 2343 § 2 n. 1 and § 3, 2345; that simply reserved, in cann. 2341, 2346, 2388 § 2; while that which is not reserved is imposed in cann. 2339, 2347 n. 3. The penalty of degradation is established in the cases mentioned in cann. 2343 § 1 n. 3, 2368 § 1, 2388 § 1. That of deposition in cann. 2320, 2322 n. 1. In addition, various penalties of suspension are inflicted in cann. 2366, 2368, 2341, 2347 n. 2; infamy by law is established in cann. 2343 § 1 n. 2, and § 2 n. 2; the interdict in can. 2329. Finally, the CIC recalls that it is the right and duty of the Ordinary to punish sacrilegious persons proportionately beyond what the same Code determines (can. 2325).linaris, 4 (1931), pp. 307–10; N. Jung, Sacrilege, in DThC, XIV, coll. 693–703. V. also CELIBATO: CHIESA: LUOGHI SANTI: PRIVILEGI DEI CHIERICI. Lorenzo Simeone