Church CANON Laws

CANON 1389: Para. 2. A person who, through culpable negligence, unlawfully and with harm to
another, performs or omits an act of ecclesiastical power or ministry or office, is to be punished
with a just penalty.

CANON 1395: Apart from the case mentioned in can. 1394, a cleric living in concubinage, and a
cleric who continues in some other external sin against the Sixth Commandment of the
Decalogue, which causes scandal, is to be punished with suspension. To this, other penalties
can progressively be added if after a warning he persists in the offence, until eventually, he can be
dismissed from the clerical state.

2. A cleric who has offended in other ways against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if
the crime was committed by force, or by threats, or in public, or with a minor under the age of
sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical
state if the case so warrants.

CANON 1369: A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who… gravely harms the public
morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church.

CANON 1373: A person who publicly incites his or her subjects to hatred or animosity against the
Apostolic See or the Ordinary because of some act of ecclesiastical authority or ministry, or who
provokes the subjects to disobedience against them, is to be punished by interdict or other just
penalties.

From: The Code of Canon Law, In English Translation. Prepared by The Canon Law Society of
Great Britain and Ireland. Collins, William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Company 1983

CANON 1369: A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who… gravely harms the public
morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church.