CRIMEN SOLICITATIONIS

( CRIME OF SOLICITATION )

FROM THE SUPREME AND HOLY CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY OFFICE

FOR ALL PATRIARCHS, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS AND OTHER DIOCESAN ORDINARIES 
 “EVEN OF THE ORIENTAL RITE”
ON THE MANNER OF PROCEEDING IN CASES OF SOLICITATION
The Vatican Press, 1962
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    59.   The appeal having been made, the judge must transmit an authentic copy of the original itself of all the Act of the case to the holy office, as quickly as it can be done, adding information as necessary or as he has judged to be opportune (Canon 1890).
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    60.   As for the complaint, then, of nullity, as sometimes might occur, let those details prescribed by Canons 1892-97  be observed to the last detail.  However, what pertains to the execution of the decision, those prescriptions should also, be observed, according to the nature of these cases, as is found in Canons 1920-24 .
 
 

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TITLE NUMBER THREE

PENALTIES

    61.   “He who has committed the crime of solicitation…, should be suspended from the celebration of mass, and from the hearing of sacramental confession or even, according to the gravity of the delict, should be declared incapable of accepting them.  He should be deprived of all benefices and dignities, of his active and passive voice, and be declared incapable if all these [honours and capacities], and in the more grievous cases also be subjected to reduction [to the lay state]. Thus states the Code in 
Canon 2368, $ 1.

    62.   For a correct and practical application of this cannon, in penalties decreed against priest convicted of the crime of solicitation with an equal regard for the mind of Canon 2218, $ 1, these matters, especially for estimating the gravity of the crime, should be kept before ones eyes, namely: the  number of persons solicited and their condition, as, for example, if they are minors in age or especially consecrated through religious vows to god; the form of solicitation, if perhaps, especially, it is joined with false teaching or false mysticism; the turpitude of the acts not only formal but also material and especially the connection of solicitation with other delicts; the length of the obscene conversation [between the parties]; the repetition of the crime, the recidivism after his admonition, and the obstinate malice of the solicitor. 

    63.   To the greatest penalty of degradation, there can be added for a religious who is accused the reduction to the status of lay-brother. This is only then imposed when, having weighed everything, it evidently appears that the accused, immersed in the depths of malice in the abuse of his sacred ministry, combined with the grave scandal that is harmful to the faithful and their souls, exists to such a degree of foolhardiness and habit, so that there is no hope, humanely speaking, or almost no hope, of this amendment that is evident any more. 

    64.   On top of the penalties properly imposed, in order to obtain the effect of these penalties more fully and securely, there will be supplementary sanctions in cases of this type, namely:

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    a)   Upon all accused persons judicially convicted there should be interposed congruous, to the degree of the faults, and salutary penances, not in substitution for the penalties properly speaking in the sense of Canon 2312, $ 1, but as a compliment [to them], and among these (cfr. Canon2313 especially spiritual exercises for some days in some religious house to e performed with suspension, during these times, from the celebration of mass.
 
 

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