The Vatican said bishops'
ordinations that are not authorized by the pope generally bring the
penalty of automatic excommunication, but there can be mitigating
circumstances -- including fear of reprisal, necessity or serious
inconvenience.
The clarification, issued by the Pontifical Council for Legislative
Texts, appeared to respond to the situation of recent ordinations of
bishops in China against the orders of Pope Benedict XVI. The text was
published June 10 by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
In China, the most recent ordinations have involved bishops loyal to the
Vatican, who were said to have been intimidated or forced to
participate as ordaining ministers.
The normal penalty for participation
in such an ordination is automatic excommunication.
The Vatican clarification said that while unauthorized ordination is
always a grave crime against church law, automatic excommunication would
not apply in certain circumstances, in particular if the participating
bishop acted "out of grave fear, even relatively grave, or out of
necessity or out of serious inconvenience."
Such circumstances need to be verified and evaluated for each
participant, it said, and in the end "each of them knows in their heart
the degree of their personal involvement" and therefore whether the
penalty of excommunication applies.
However, the Vatican added, the issue does not end there. Ordaining
bishops without a papal mandate is such a serious crime that the very
act provokes scandal and confusion among the faithful, and this scandal
must be repaired through acts of communion and penitence, it said.
It said the participating bishops also need to explain their actions,
and, in view of their explanations, the Vatican may find itself in the
position of having to censure them in some way.
If additional
information arrives demonstrating culpability, the Vatican could later
declare that a bishop had been excommunicated, or impose other
sanctions, if this was deemed necessary to "repair the scandal and
dissipate the confusion among the faithful."
The statement said the church considers excommunication a "medicinal"
punishment designed to motivate the guilty to repentance.
"Once he has
demonstrated that he is sincerely repentant, the person acquires the
right to be absolved of the excommunication," it said.