SUSPENSION. — It is a strictly ecclesiastical penalty by which clerics are deprived of the exercise of certain rights pertaining to their office or benefice, or to both.
excommunication (v.) interdict (v.), suspension is by its nature a penalty reserved solely for clerics, that is, for those who have validly tonsure (v.); the ordinary faithful, therefore, as well as all women religious and lay religious, are excluded from II.
I. DIVISIONS
Suspension may be imposed on clerics as a censure or as a vindictive penalty; it may be established by law or by a personal precept; it may be incurred immediately by the mere fact of violating the law or precept to which it is attached (latae sententiae), or the intervention of one who in fact and legitimately applies it may be necessary (ferendae sententiae); it may be imposed on a community or on individuals; for a determinate or indeterminate period, or perpetually (in which case it is a vindictive penalty), or until the subject, having repented of the offence that merited it, has been absolved from it (censure); it may be total or partial, both with respect to the kind of power involved (suspension from the power of order or from that of jurisdiction), and with respect to the extent of either power that is prohibited (e.g., from episcopal, priestly, or diaconal functions, all of which belong to the power of order). The latter are discussed in can. 2279 § 2, which recalls suspensions from office,from a benefice, from either together, from jurisdiction, from sacred Orders, from all Orders, from Pontificals, etc. All suspensions are then divided into reserved and non-reserved, according as absolution from them may be granted by all confessors without distinction (in foro interno) and by the superiors of the suspended person (in foro externo), or only by those specifically designated by law (v. BISERVA). The so-called suspension ex informata conscientia, although it may include any of the specifications in the preceding divisions, may nevertheless be imposed only according to the procedures established by the CIC in cases of occult but certain offences (that is, offences which for one reason or another cannot be demonstrated in foro externo); this form, however, may be used only by the Ordinaries of the place or by their vicars general. As for reserved suspensions, some are reserved directly to the Holy See, others to the Ordinary of the place, and others to additional Ordinaries and superiors specifically provided for by law.
II. EFFECTS
The effects of the various kinds of suspension are set forth in can. 2278 § 2, which warns that they may also be found separately in different subjects. The general rule, however, is that when suspension is imposed without express restrictions, it includes all the effects mentioned in cann. 2279–85, namely, both the effects proper to suspension from office and those of suspension from a benefice.According to what the CIC establishes, the specific effects of the individual suspensions are as follows: suspension from office prohibits every act of the power of order and of jurisdiction, as well as the administration of the office, with the sole exception of the administration of the goods of one’s own benefice (can. 2279 § 1); suspension from jurisdiction prohibits every act of jurisdiction, whether in the internal or external forum, whether ordinary or delegated (ibid., § 2, n. 1); suspension a divinis prohibits every act of the power of order, however obtained, that is, whether through sacred ordination (e.g., suspension from celebrating Mass) or through privilege (e.g., suspension from the faculty of conferring Confirmation imposed upon a priest who had obtained the apostolic privilege thereof: ibid., n. 3); suspension from orders prohibits every act of the power of order received through ordination, but not those possibly received through privilege (ibid., n. 3); suspension from Holy Orders prohibits every act of the power of order received through ordination in sacris (subdiaconate, diaconate, priesthood, episcopate), but not of the other orders (ibid., n. 4); suspension from the exercise of a particular order prohibits every act of the order expressly designated (in this case, moreover, the subject may not only not confer that order, although he possesses the power to do so, but may neither receive the higher order nor exercise it, if he received it during the period of suspension: ibid., n. 5). Suspension from conferring a certain and determinate order, on the other hand, entails only the prohibition of conferring it, without any limitation with regard to orders of a lower or higher degree (ibid., n. 6); suspension from pontifical order prohibits every act of the power of episcopal order (ibid., n. 8). Suspension from pontificals, however, prevents only the exercise of those acts requiring the pontifical insignia (miter and pastoral staff), but not other acts, even though proper to bishops (ibid., n. 9 and can. 337 § 2); finally, there are partial suspensions from particular ministries or offices, according to what is established on each occasion (can. 2279 § 2, n. 7).
With regard to the effects of suspension from a benefice, one must bear in mind what can. 2280 establishes: although suspension deprives a person of the revenues deriving from the benefice, it does not remove the right to reside in the house belonging to the benefice, nor the right to administer the benefice’s own goods, unless expressly provided otherwise; revenues that may be assigned contrary to the aforementioned rule do not become the property of the beneficiary and must be restored (ibid., § 2). Likewise, with regard to the offices or benefices from which the subject is suspended, it is understood that the suspension applies exclusively to those which the cleric holds in the diocese of the person who suspends him (can. 2281), unless it is a suspension imposed by the CIC or otherwise by norms of common law, in which case it operates by law everywhere (can. 2282). Suspension from one or more orders, however, binds the cleric everywhere, even outside the territory of the superior who imposed II.
A suspended cleric, according to can. 2265, may not elect, present, or nominate persons to ecclesiastical offices or benefices; he may not obtain any dignity, office, benefice, ecclesiastical pension, or other charge in the Church; nor may he be promoted to Orders. Promotion to Orders, however, is valid in every case, whereas the other penal effects, if the suspension was imposed by sentence, entail invalidity (can. 2283). Likewise, a cleric affected by a suspension prohibiting the administration of the Sacraments and Sacramentals may nevertheless licitly confer them if, for any reasonable reason (which he is not obliged to investigate), the faithful request them; this does not apply, however, in the case of a suspension incurred by a specific sentence, unless the faithful making the request are in danger of death. In the latter case, in fact, the suspended cleric may absolve from sins and also, in the absence of other ministers, administer the other Sacraments and Sacramentals (cann. 2284 and 2263). It must also be carefully remembered that suspension imposed by sentence of the competent superior and entailing prohibition of the exercise of jurisdiction (both in the internal and external forum) renders the prohibited acts themselves invalid (thus, for example, sacramental absolutions in confession); before the sentence, it renders them merely illicit, subject to what has been said concerning cases in which the faithful directly request them within or outside the danger of death, but not invalid.
With regard to the effects of suspension imposed upon a community or college of clerics, it should be noted that, according to can. 2285 § 1, they affect either the clerics who committed the offense, or the community as such, or both clerics and community cumulatively. Suspension imposed in these cases upon individual clerics entails the effects already enumerated, according to the circumstances (can. 2285 § 2); suspension imposed upon the community as such entails prohibition of the exercise of each and all of the spiritual rights belonging to it as an entity or moral body (ibid. § 2); suspension imposed, where applicable, upon both the clerics and the community combines all these effects (ibid. § 4).
Suspension is a penalty that does not prohibit the reception of the Sacraments. This explains why clerics and priests who may have been suspended, for example, from celebrating Mass may, if they wish, receive Holy Communion; it is nevertheless evident that in such cases they must first have confessed the offenses committed (can. 2250).
III. SUSPENSIONS IN THE CIC
The following suspensions are reserved to the Holy See and, since they are latae sententiae, are incurred automatically by the mere violation of the canonical norm to which they are attached: 1) general suspension for the consecrating bishops and for the co-consecrating bishops (or priests) who have consecrated a priest bishop without an apostolic mandate; likewise for the newly consecrated bishop (can. 2370); 2) general suspension for clerics, though not if they are bishops, who have promoted others to Orders or allowed themselves to be promoted to them in a simoniacal manner, or who have thus administered or received other Sacraments (can. 2371); 3) suspension a divinis for those who have allowed themselves to be ordained by an excommunicated, suspended, or interdicted person by sentence, or by a notorious apostate, heretic, or schismatic (can. 2372); 4) suspension from conferring Orders for one year for anyone who has ordained another’s subject without the dimissorial letters of the respective Ordinary; for anyone who has ordained his own subject who has resided in another territory for a period presumably sufficient, according to can. 993, n. 4 and 994, to contract an impediment, if the norms proper to these cases have not been observed; for anyone who has promoted a person to major Orders without the canonical title required by can. 974 § 1, n. 7; and finally for anyone who has ordained another’s subject even with the permission of his superior, unless the circumstances of can. 966 are present (can. 2373); 5) general suspension at the pleasure of the Holy See for religious clerics ordained in sacris if their profession has been declared invalid because of deceit in making it (can. 2387); 6) general suspension for religious clerics if they have been legitimately dismissed from the religious institute for offenses that do not entail infamy of law, deposition, or degradation, and in any case for offenses less serious than those contemplated in can. 646 (apostasy from the Catholic faith, attempted civil marriage, flight with a woman or, respectively, with a man; can. 671, n. 1); 7) partial suspension against Chapters and other communities according to can. 2394.The suspension from office is reserved to the local Ordinary; it is incurred by the cleric who has brought before a lay judge a person enjoying the privilege of the forum, provided that person is inferior in rank to cardinals, Legates of the Holy See, the senior Officials of the Roman Curia in matters pertaining to their offices, one’s own Ordinary, a bishop, an abbot or prelate nullus, and the supreme superiors of religious institutes of pontifical right (can. 2341). The general suspension incurred by a religious ordained in sacris who has fled from the religious institute is reserved to the Major Superior (can. 2386).
The non-reserved suspensions contemplated in the CIC are the following: 1) suspension for one month from the celebration of Mass for religious superiors who have ordered their subjects to be ordained by a bishop other than their own (can. 2410); this suspension, which is imposed as a vindictive penalty, must be observed for the entire month unless an appeal is favorably accepted by the Holy See; 2) suspension a divinis for the priest who has heard sacramental confessions without jurisdiction (can. 2366); 3) suspension from hearing confessions for anyone who has absolved from reserved sins without the requisite power (can. 2366); 4) suspension from the Order received without, or with false, testimonial letters, or before completing the canonical age, or by omitting preceding Orders (can. 2374); 5) suspension a divinis for the cleric who has resigned and handed over to secular persons the ecclesiastical office, benefice, or dignity with which he is endowed (can. 2400); 6) suspension from jurisdiction for an abbot and prelate nullus who does not receive, within three months of his appointment, the blessing (in cases in which it is required) from a bishop (can. 2402); 7) suspension a divinis for the capitular vicar who, contrary to the canonical prescriptions of can. 958 § 1 n. 3, has issued dimissorial letters for ordinations (can. 2409).
IV. CESSATION OF THE S
The s. imposed in the form of a censure ceases only through absolution granted by the competent authority after the suspended person has repented of the offense for which it was incurred (can. 2248 § 1); absolution from the s. in the form of a censure may not be denied to one who, having repented, requests it, although he may instead be punished with an s. having the force of a vindictive penalty (can. 2248 § 2); once the s. in the form of a censure has been absolved, it does not revive unless what was prescribed by the superior under the precise threat of its recurrence is not observed (can. 2248 § 3). Absolution from the s. incurred as a censure may be granted in the external forum (and then is also valid in the internal forum), or solely in the internal forum, whether sacramental or extrasacramental (can. 2251). Nevertheless, one who is subject to several s. may be absolved from one or more of them without necessarily being absolved from all of them (can. 2249 § 1). The s. imposed as a vindictive penalty ceases through its expiation, that is, when the period for which it was imposed has ended, or, if it was imposed indefinitely or in perpetuity, through dispensation by the competent ecclesiastical authority (cann. 2236 §§ 1-2 and 2289).It should be carefully noted that anyone suspended from the exercise of a sacred Order (from the subdiaconate upward) who nevertheless exercises its power, even only once, whether by an s. imposed as a censure or by an s. imposed as a vindictive penalty, thereby becomes irregular for an offense, with all the consequences (can. 985 n. 7).