Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern AuthoritiesCallan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Religion
Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities
Callan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Christian ethics -- Catholic authors
(a) By Baptism one becomes a member of the Church, and hence it is
the baptized who are subject to ecclesiastical laws; (b) by her laws,
the Church commands only human and deliberate acts or omissions, and
hence it is only those who can reason that are subject to those laws.
(c) Moreover, unless the law expressly rules otherwise, those who,
although they have attained the use of reason, have not yet completed
their seventh year are not bound by purely ecclesiastical law. Specific
exceptions are stated in the law. Thus: (1) Canons 854, Sec.2, and
940, Sec.1, regarding the reception of the sacraments in danger of
death, Canon 859, Sec.1, stating the precepts of Easter Communion,
and Canon 906, containing the precepts of annual confession, declare
that the law in these matters is binding on persons having the use of
reason, regardless of the actual completion of the seventh year, The
law of fasting in Canon 1254, Sec.2 binds after the completion of the
twenty-first year. (2) Canon 1099 explicitly exempts non-Catholics, in
their own marriages, from the ecclesiastical form of marriage; also
Canon 1070 exempts them from the impediment of disparity of cult. (3)
The habitually insane are considered as infants under seven (Canon 88,
Sec.3). Accordingly, although they are bound by the Divine Law during
lucid moments, they are not usually bound by purely ecclesiastical laws
during this period.
428. By the unbaptized are here understood, not only those who have
never received Baptism (such as infidels, pagans, Mohammedans, Jews,
catechumens), but also those who were baptized invalidly. The divine
law of receiving Baptism and entering the Church applies to these
persons, but, as long as they are unbaptized, they are not subjects of
the Church. Thus: (a) directly they are not obliged by any
ecclesiastical law, and hence it is not sinful in itself to ask them to
do what is forbidden by such laws (e.g., work on a holyday); (b)
indirectly they become subject to ecclesiastical law when they enter
into law-governed relations with the baptized who are subject to church
law. Example: An unbaptized person who marries a Catholic is married
invalidly, unless the law on dispensation has been observed.
429. Baptized non-Catholics include heretics and schismatics. Thus: (a)
objectively, these persons are obliged by ecclesiastical laws, unless
they are excepted by the law itself, and hence it is not lawful
directly to induce them to transgress a Church law (e.g., to eat meat
on Friday); (b) subjectively, they are generally excused from formal
sin in the non-observance of Church laws, and it is not a sin to
co-operate materially in such non-observance (e.g., by giving meat on
Friday to a Protestant in good faith who requests it or wishes it).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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