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Censures. Censures are ecclesiastical punishments inflicted on Catholics for obstinate faults. They consist in the privation of

certain spiritual rights until the guilty persons repent and are absolved (2241). They are inflicted only for grave, external, contumacious sins (2242), either by the law of the Church or by some person in authority, and may be reserved either to the Ordinary or to the Pope (2245), Those who have incurred censures can be absolved only by such persons as are authorized by law or by competent authority (2247). There are three censures: excommunication, interdict, and suspension (2255), each of which will be treated separately.

Excommunication. Excommunication is a censure which excludes a person from communion with the faithful (2257). An excommunicated person is either a toleratus or a vitandus. Only he who has been publicly declared a vitandus and denounced by name by the Holy See is considered a vitandus (2258). Every excommunicated person is deprived of the right to assist at divine offices (2259), is forbidden to receive the Sacraments (2260), and is deprived of the indulgences, suffrages, and public prayers of the Church (2262). The vitandus, besides, is deprived of ecclesiastical burial (2260), is not permitted private Mass for the repose of his soul (2262), and while living is deprived of every ecclesiastical appointment and must be avoided even in secular affairs (2267).

Interdict. An interdict is a censure by which the faithful, though remaining in communion with the Church, are forbidden most of her blessings. If it is personal it forbids the use of certain sacraments and sacramentals to a person. If it is local it forbids the administration and reception of certain sacraments and sacramentals in that place (2268). A special interdict is called the interdict from entering the church. It prohibits the celebration of divine services in Church, the assistance at them, and burial from the Church (2277).

Suspension. Suspension is a censure by which a cleric is deprived of the rights of his office, or of his benefice, or of both (2278). Suspension affects the offices and benefices which the person held in the jurisdiction of the one who suspended him (2281). It can be inflicted only for a grave contumacious crime (2242).

 (SOURCE: "A DICTIONARY OF CANON LAW", BY THE REV. P. TRUDEL, 1919, IMPRIMATUR)

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 *Crucial Information on How to Get Censures Lifted Now

Post on how to have *ipso facto penalties of censure (such as automatically incurred for participation in non-Catholic worship [N.O. sect & their sspx, sedevacantist] services) officially removed by the Holy See in exile -so one can share in the Church's treasure of heavenly graces.

*2647 Dz 1547
47. Likewise, the proposition which teaches that it is necessary, according to the natural and divine laws, for either excommunication or for suspension, that a personal examination should precede, and that, therefore, sentences called "ipso facto" have no other force than that of a serious threat without any actual effect, -- false, rash, pernicious, injurious to the power of the Church, erroneous.

 *"Encyclical on Crime of Non Papal Mandated Consecrations"

*"Epikeia is NOT to be identified with interpretation, dispensation, presumed permission, excusing cause, or popular acceptance of human law…Human invalidating laws sometimes cease to bind; but epikeia may not be applied to human invalidating laws… IN REGARD TO MATTERS WHICH TOUCH THE ESSENCE OF THE SACRAMENTS, THE USE OF EPIKEIA IS ALWAYS EXCLUDED."

(Source: "The History, Nature, and Use of Epikeia in Moral Theology", by Fr. Lawrence Joseph Riley, 1948 Imprimatur)

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