Penance (Continued)
1. Contrition
1. Contrition as a part of penance is a supernatural sorrow for sins, stirred up in the heart by the will under grace, with a view to confessing the sins, and making satisfaction for them.
2. Contrition, in so far as it is in the will and not in the emotions merely, is an act of the virtue of penance.
3. Contrition is born of filial fear of God, and thus proceeds according to charity. Sorrow for sin which arises from servile fear of deserved punishment is a less perfect sorrow; it is called, not contrition, but attrition. Attrition cannot turn into contrition, for these two types of sorrow for sin are not only different in degree but different in kind. Attrition may give place to contrition, but cannot become contrition.
2. The Object of Contrition
1. Contrition is sorrow for sin. It is not grief by reason of punishment due to sin, but grief for the sin itself which deserves punishment.
2. Contrition is sorrow in the will for what the will has done amiss. Hence, contrition does not include in its scope the original sin which the sinner has not committed by bad use of will, but has inherited by infected nature.
3. Contrition is a word which means a crushing of what is hard and evil out of the will. Every actual sin is a kind of hardness in the will, and this must be crushed out. Hence, we have need of contrition for every actual sin.
4. Contrition as a part of the virtue of penance looks to the past. A person must have contrition for the sins he has already committed, for it is these that have caused the hardness in his will which contrition crushes out. Contrition as such does not refer to future sins, yet it disposes a person to watchfulness against them. Contrition belongs to the virtue of penance; caution with regard to future sins belongs to the virtue of prudence as conjoined with penance.
5. We cannot have contrition for the sins of others, but only for our own sins. We should, indeed, grieve for the sins of others, but this grief is not contrition.
6. A person must have contrition for each mortal sin he has committed; he must confess each one and therefore he must have contrition for each one.
3. Degrees of Contrition
1. Contrition is the greatest sorrow, for it is based on the greatest charity, that is, the soul's supernatural love and friendship with God. Sin is the greatest of evils; the sorrow which crushes it out of the soul is the greatest sorrow. Contrition is, indeed, not felt as the keenest sorrow in the sensitive part of a man, but as an act of the penitent's will it is the deepest sorrow of all.
2. In the sentient order, grief for sin may be excessive. It is not right or reasonable to become emotionally distrait, even over sin. True contrition is in the will; here, it cannot be too great. But its sentient reaction must be regulated by reason, so that the sinner retains calmness and patience.
3. Sins have degrees of evil in them; one is worse than another. Therefore sorrow for one sin may, and sometimes should, be greater than sorrow for another.
4. The Time or Season of Contrition
1. As long as a person is a wayfarer (that is, as long as he lives here on earth), he is to hate what hinders his progress to God and heaven. Hence, the whole of earthly life is the time or season for contrition.
2. Since contrition cannot be too great in the will or reason, though it may be excessive in the sentient part of man, it ought to be continuous through a person's life in so far as this is compatible with the duties of life. "Blessed are they that mourn" (Matt. 5:5).
3. The time or season of contrition ends with this life. The souls in heaven have no grief, but supreme joy. The souls in purgatory have grief, but no longer have need to crush out hardness from their will, for it is not there. Besides, the souls in purgatory have passed their time for meriting, and true supernatural contrition is always meritorious.
5. The Effect of Contrition
1. Contrition, when it is a perfect act of the supernatural virtue of penance, blots out sin. As part of the sacrament of penance, contrition operates instrumentally for the forgiveness of sin, which is effected by this sacrament.
2. Contrition or sorrow for sin may be so perfect as to take away all punishment due to sin as well as the guilt of the sin itself.
3. Sorrow which is true and perfect contrition blots out sin. The want of sensible sorrow (that is, the feeling or emotion of sorrow) is no hindrance to the perfection of contrition, for contrition belongs essentially to the will and not to the feelings.
6. Confession
1. Confession of sins is necessary for the normal reception of the sacrament of penance. As penance is necessary for the salvation of one who has committed mortal sin after baptism, so also confession of these sins is necessary.
2. Confession is not a requirement born of the natural law, but is requisite by the supernatural institution of Christ. Our Lord gave his priest the power to forgive sins, setting up the sacrament as a kind of judgment in which testimony (or confession) indicates whether sins are to be forgiven or retained.
3. All who are bound to contrition and satisfaction are bound to confession. And, since all who have sinned are bound to contrition and satisfaction, all who have sinned are required to confess. The Church, by her law, imposes on all her children the duty of confession.
4. Confession is to be made in truth and sincerity. Hence, a man would do wrong, no matter what his motive, if he were to confess a sin he had not committed.
5. A person who has committed mortal sin should confess it as soon as he reasonably can do so. But we cannot say that he is strictly obliged to take the earliest opportunity of confessing.
6. Confession is required of all adult children of the Church. There is no such thing as dispensation from the duty of confessing.
7. The Nature of Confession
1. St. Augustine describes confession as an act which lays bare the hidden evil and disease with the hope of cure and pardon.
2. Since confession is a true manifestation of conscience in which the heart and the lips agree, it is an act of virtue.
3. The virtue exercised by confession is the virtue of penance.
8. The Minister of Confession
1. Confession is to be made to a duly ordained priest, for to no other is given the power to absolve from sins. St. James indicates this wondrous power which Christ gave to men, when he says (James 5:16): "Confess your sins, one to another." St. James knew and preached the divine institution of the sacrament of penance; here he directs the faithful to confess to their brethren who are priests.
2. Confession to a layman when no priest is available would indicate the strong desire of the penitent to receive the sacrament of penance; it would show his eagerness to do his part. Some have held that, in such a circumstance, Christ, the great High Priest, confers absolution. But this is not revealed, and the Church does not approve confession to one who cannot give absolution. Confession to a layman would generally be an imprudent act, and could be spiritually dangerous to both penitent and lay-confessor.
3. Some have held that it is expedient to confess venial sins to a layman if no priest is available. This is not an approved procedure, for it is not necessary to confess venial sins at all, though it is useful and pious to confess them in making regular confession to a priest, and therefore it is certainly not necessary to confess them to a layman. Venial sins can be remitted by contrite prayer, pious practices, and devout use of sacramentals.
4. The law of annual confession (which is a precept of the Church) once required each parishioner to confess to his own parish priest. But now a penitent may fulfill this duty by confessing to any approved priest.
5. A priest receives approval and jurisdiction for the hearing of confessions-in a definite place, or of definite persons-from his bishop or from his religious superior or from those who hold or share the ordinary jurisdiction in a diocese or religious community.
6. A penitent who is at death's door may be absolved, from sins and censures, by any priest whatever. The Church herself supplies jurisdiction to the confessor in such a case.
7. Before absolving a penitent, the confessor imposes upon him a work of satisfaction (some prayer or pious exercise), which the penitent accepts and agrees to perform. This imposed duty is commonly called "a penance," and the penitent in performing it says that he is "doing his penance." In imposing such a penance, the priest is guided by the gravity of the sins confessed, and by circumstances which indicate in each case what is prudent and salutary.
9. The Quality of Confession
1. Confession of sins is to be made with true supernatural sorrow and sincerity of heart. Otherwise, the absolution of the priest cannot be effective. Nor does the effect of absolution take place in a penitent who confesses without sorrow and afterwards repents.
2. Confession is to be entire; that is, all mortal sins in kind and number, according as they are remembered by the penitent, are to be confessed. Otherwise, the confession would savor of hypocrisy. And even one remembered mortal sin left unconfessed would keep the soul from union with God, and it would render the confession sacrilegious.
3. Confession is made by the penitent sinner in person, not by sending another as agent or proxy, or by mailing a letter. The penitent is to confess his own sins, manifesting them to the priest in some intelligible manner.
4. The requisite qualities of confession, therefore, are that it should be humble, sincere, and entire.
10. The Effect of Confession
1. Confession is a part of the sacrament of penance, and therefore shares the effect of the sacrament itself; it delivers the penitent from sin when it is made with perfect contrition and with the qualities mentioned above, that is, when it is humble, sincere, and entire. If confession is made with imperfect, but supernatural, contrition, it does not deliver the penitent from sin, but disposes him proximately for the absolution which removes his sins.
2. Confession with absolution takes away the guilt of mortal sins and the eternal punishment that is due to them; it also lessens, in greater or smaller degree, the temporal punishment owed to forgiven mortal sins and to venial sins.
3. The power of forgiving sins, imparted by Christ to his priests, is called "the power of the keys." For the sacrament of penance, rightly received, opens the gate of heaven to the forgiven sinner. Hence we rightly speak of penance as the key or keys to heaven, and of the power of conferring this sacrament as the power of the keys.
4. We hope for forgiveness through Christ. By confessing, we submit ourselves to the power of the keys which has its efficacy from the Passion of Christ. Hence, an effect of confession is the renewed hope of heaven.
5. A man must confess all mortal sins that he remembers committing. If there be other mortal sins not remembered, they should be included in a general way in the confession, by use of some such phrase as, "For these sins that I have confessed, and for any others that I may have committed, I am sorry, and seek absolution from them all."
11. The Seal of Confession
1. The priest who hears confessions is most strictly bound to hold in perfect secrecy all sins confessed to him. This obligation incumbent on the confessor is called the "seal of confession."
2. The seal extends to everything connected with the sins confessed. That is, it obliges the confessor to complete silence about any circumstance that might reveal, or cause to be suspected, the identity of the sinner who has confessed to him.
3. The priest hearing a confession, and he alone, is bound by the seal of confession. One who overhears a penitent accusing himself, is seriously bound to secrecy, but is not, strictly speaking, under the seal of confession.
4. If the penitent, for good and serious reason, voluntarily asks the priest to reveal to another what he confesses, the priest is freed from the seal in the precise matter indicated by the request. Yet the priest will not, except under most pressing need, accede to such a request on the part of the penitent. The priest will rather require the penitent to tell him again, apart from the sacrament of penance, what he wishes to be revealed. And thus there will be no danger of scandal, no suspicion that the priest has broken the sacred seal.
5. What a priest knows from a source other than confession does not come under the seal. Thus, if a priest saw a man commit a robbery, he could testify to the fact, even though the robber had, in the meantime, confessed the sin to him. For while the sin as confessed is under the seal, the sin as observed apart from confession is not under the seal.
12. Satisfaction
1. Satisfaction is something done to make up for the evil of an offence, even when the offence is already forgiven. It is an act of the virtue of penance.
2. Satisfaction is also an act of the virtue of justice, for justice demands an equality in things, an order and balance; such order and balance, satisfaction seeks to restore.
3. St. Augustine says (De Eccl. Dogm. 54) that satisfaction is to root out the causes of sin and to give no opportunity for its recurrence.
13. Possibility of Satisfaction
1. Absolutely speaking, man cannot make to God satisfaction for sin. Sin offends an infinite God, and has, therefore, something of infinity about itself. Man is finite; he can in no wise, of himself, render infinite satisfaction. Still, man should do what he can in the way of satisfaction for sin; justice and penance (the virtue) demand as much. If a man cannot make equivalent satisfaction, he may be able to make sufficient satisfaction.
2. One man can make satisfaction for another, as is manifest from the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. But in so far as satisfaction is remedial, and is meant for the cure of the person performing it, it cannot be rendered by anyone but that person. Similarly, a man fined by a judge may have his fine paid by a friend. But if the judge imposes a personal penalty to teach the offender a lesson, no friend can step up and pay this penalty. One person cannot discharge the obligation of penance imposed on another by a confessor, unless the confessor says so.
14. The Quality of Satisfaction
1. A man in mortal sin cannot render satisfaction for his other sins; for he cannot hold on to one or to some mortal sins while effectively satisfying for others. Yet a man who has the duty of performing a penance imposed in confession is not freed from this obligation by reason of a mortal sin committed before the imposed penance is fully performed.
2. St. Paul (I Cor. 13:3) says: "If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, if profiteth me nothing." Charity is impossible to hold without the grace of God, and a man in mortal sin has forfeited that grace. He is without charity. Hence, his works have no value as satisfaction, even if offered as satisfaction for old and forgiven sins from which he was absolved before his lapse into the present mortal sin that stains his soul.
3. Nor do works of satisfaction which are ineffective or dead because their author is in the state of mortal sin, come to fife and exist as true works of satisfaction when he is restored to grace. Dead works lack the power of satisfaction when performed and ever afterwards. Yet the performing of good works is valuable to a man in sin; not, indeed, as satisfaction, but as disposing him to repentance, and as setting up a congruous claim for the grace of contrition.
4. Works done without charity (which is love and friendship existing by grace between God and the soul) are not only without satisfactory power, but they are without meritorious value. Such works cannot merit condignly either eternal life or temporal good. Yet, as has been said, they may make fitting or congruous the extending of God's mercy to raise their author from sin.
5. Good works done in the state of mortal sin may be said to diminish the pains of hell in the sense that they indicate something of good disposition in the sinner; such works at least keep their author from doing what would settle him more deeply in hell than he now deserves to be settled.
15. Means of Making Satisfaction
1. Since hardship or punishment is the remedy for sins, it is the means for making satisfaction for sins. For satisfaction looks to the future as well as to the past; it seeks to remedy harm done and to prevent it from being done anew. For both purposes, penal works, works involving some sort of pain, are to be used.
2. Submitting with patience to the trials and hardships of life that come upon us in the way of Providence, is a good and profitable way of making satisfaction for sins.
3. Satisfaction should take something away from us (goods, comfort, convenience, etc.) for the honor of God. By giving alms, we take material things from ourselves to honor God in our fellowmen. By praying we submit all we are and all we have to God. By fasting we deprive the body of its comfort and convenience. Here, then, are suitable means of making satisfaction: almsgiving, prayer, fasting.
16. Those Who Have the Virtue of Penance
1. As a man is curable by reason of his sound health, even though he never had a disease, so a man may have the virtue of penance, even though he has never sinned actually. The virtue of penance is infused by God with the other supernatural virtues.
2. The virtue of penance is a part of justice, and justice will remain in the soul in heaven. Hence the virtue of penance also will remain in the soul. But in heaven the act of the virtue of penance will not be grief for sin, but joyous thanksgiving to God for his mercy in pardoning sin.
3. There can be no virtue of penance in the angels, for the good angels have not committed sin, nor are they capable now of committing it. And the evil angels are fixed and determined in their sinful will, and cannot be repentant.
17. The Power of the Keys
1. The gate of heaven, always open to mankind since the day of Ascension, is closed upon that individual man who is burdened by the guilt of mortal sin and the debt of eternal punishment due to it. Whatever takes away these two things from that man's soul, opens the gate of heaven to him. Now, what opens a gate is fittingly called a key. The power to remove sin, both as to guilt and debt of eternal punishment, is bestowed by Christ on his Church and on the priest of his Church; this power, especially exercised in the sacrament of penance, is figuratively called "the power of the keys."
2. The "keys" are the power of binding and loosing given to the Church by our Lord; more specifically, the "keys" are the power given to priests to forgive sins.
3. Now, there are two keys, and they are distinguished from each other by their respective acts: the one is the key of judging whether sins are to be forgiven or retained; the other is the key of absolving from sin. When these two keys are used (when the penitent is judged worthy and is absolved from his sins) the gate of heaven is opened to the penitent.
18. The Effect of the Keys
1. The power of the keys remits the guilt of sins, for grace is given by the sacrament of penance, and grace removes guilt.
2. The power of the keys, through the priest's absolution, takes away the eternal punishment owed to sin in strict justice; the power of the keys also takes away at least part of the temporal punishment due to sins.
3. The priest exercises the binding power of the keys (the power that keeps the gate locked), when he judges that absolution must not be given to the confessing sinner, and therefore refuses to give it. The binding power of the keys is also exercised in the imposing of "a penance" on the forgiven sinner; for here, while the keys open heaven to the forgiven sinner, they lock him into the obligation of performing a work of satisfaction.
4. The priest in confession does not exercise the power of the keys as he chooses, or according to his personal likes, dislikes, or prejudices. The priest exercises the power of the keys in his office as God's minister, wielding in the sacrament of penance God's own authority and power, and hence he acts with care, discretion, and reverence, prudently consulting the sacredness of the sacrament on the one hand, and, on the other, the disposition and the needs of the confessing sinner.
19. The Minister of the Keys
1. The priesthood of the Old Law was not dowered with the power of the keys. But the priest of the Old Law had powers which foreshadowed and prefigured the power of the keys.
2. Before all others, our Lord himself has most excellently the power of the keys. He owns this power as God; he merits it as man. And this wondrous power he conferred on the priests of his Church.
3. The power of the keys pertains to holy order, and exclusively to priests. {-Sometimes the phrase "the power of the keys" is used, by extension of meaning, for the power of jurisdiction in Church or diocese; that is, the power and right to rule, to authorize, to excommunicate. But this use of the phrase is not common.-}
4. No matter how holy a layman may be, he has not the power of the keys, nor can he, as a layman, acquire it.
5. The power of the keys belongs to the priesthood as such. It does not depend for its effect on the state of soul (grace or sin) of the priest who exercises it.
6. Schismatical, heretical, and excommunicated priests retain the essence of the power of the keys, but they lack the right to use it, that is, they lack jurisdiction. The Church, by withdrawing jurisdiction from priests who are outside her pale, removes all true penitents from such confessors. No penitent could sincerely present himself to such confessors; if he did so knowingly he would sin, and no man can obtain absolution from sin by sinning.
20. Use of the Power of the Keys
1. A priest may exercise the power of the keys according to the jurisdiction imparted to him by his authentic ecclesiastical superiors, whether the jurisdiction extends to certain places or certain persons or both. Usually a priest is appointed by his bishop to hear the confessions of the faithful in any place in the diocese. Lawfully to exercise this power in another diocese than his own, a priest requires the approval of the authorities in that diocese.
2. By the power received in his ordination, a priest can absolve from any sin. But the power of jurisdiction, that is the right to use the power of the keys, is limited by the terms of the priest's assignment to duty. The bishop or acting ordinary (that is, the authentic ruling head of diocese, vicariate, or other ecclesiastical district) may reserve to himself the right to absolve from certain sins, as, for example, those to which excommunication is attached, or certain heinous evils.
3. All who have the use of reason in the Church, clergy and laity from highest to lowest, need the grace of the sacrament of penance. All must go to confession and seek absolution. And, since no one can absolve himself, ecclesiastical superiors, including the sovereign pontiff, seek absolution at the hands of their priest-subjects. The highest prelate may be absolved by any priest, even the youngest, who is qualified by jurisdiction to hear confessions.
21. Excommunication
1. Excommunication means: (a) separation from the family of the faithful; (b) loss of the right to share in the prayers and general good works of the Church; (c) loss of the right to receive the sacraments.
2. The Church imposes this stern penalty of excommunication only when the reasons demanding it are most grave. And the Church always hopes that her stern action will humble the pride of the person excommunicated, and so bring him to repentance and amendment, and thus win him back to his place among her children. The Church hopes also, by imposing the censure of excommunication, to prevent or lessen the bad effect exercised on others by the excommunicated person's evil example.
3. The reason for excommunication is always a grave sin, in which the sinner is obstinate. Sometimes even temporal things can enter into grave and stubbornly persistent sin; bodily integrity, for instance, or liberty, or valuable property. And so it is possible that a person may incur excommunication for inflicting even temporal harm.
4. Excommunication is effective; that is, it produces the sad effects mentioned in the first paragraph above. However, it is not actually effective if it should be imposed by mistake or error.
22. Persons Concerned in Excommunication
1. The right of excommunicating is lawfully exercised only by those who hold the greater and more general judicial power in the Church, that is, bishops and major prelates.
2. It can happen that the major jurisdiction required for excommunicating should exist in one who is not a bishop, or even a priest, as, for example, in a papal legate who is a layman, or in a designated bishop-elect who has not yet been ordained to the priesthood.
3. A person who is himself excommunicated, or one who is a cleric suspended from ecclesiastical office, cannot excommunicate. Such persons, being deprived of jurisdiction by the penalty imposed on themselves, cannot exercise that jurisdiction over others.
4. Excommunication is a penalty imposed by a superior. Therefore, a person cannot excommunicate himself, his equal, or his superior.
5. Excommunication is never imposed on a group as such, although each member of a group may be excommunicated individually at the same time.
6. A person may labor under multiple excommunication, for this penalty may be imposed as often as serious reasons demand it. The effect of a second, third, and fourth excommunication is to remove the excommunicated person further and further from the spiritual helps which the Church gives her children in her general prayers and good works.
23. Dealing With Excommunicated Persons
1. If a person labors under full excommunication, having been officially declared by name as one to be shunned, the faithful can have no dealings with him whatever. In other cases, it is not forbidden to deal with excommunicated persons in temporal matters, such as business transactions or casual social encounters.
2. It may happen, according to the canonical terms of the penalty of excommunication as imposed, that one who deliberately and perversely disobeys the law by dealing with "an excommunicated person named as one to be shunned," is himself subject to excommunication.
3. It is a sin to disobey the command of the Church by dealing in matters not permissible with an excommunicated person. This offence is a mortal sin: (a) if it involves a sharing of the cause for which the penalty and censure of excommunication was imposed; or (b) if it deals with religion; or (c) if it implies contempt for the Church.
24. Absolution From Excommunication
1. The absolution we speak of here is not the absolution which is a part of the sacrament of penance. That absolution is the removing of sins from the soul of the penitent; the absolution of which we now speak is the release of an excommunicated person from his censure. Absolution from sin is, indeed, usually required for the rehabilitation of an excommunicated person, for the reason for his expulsion from the community of the faithful is grave sin, and he must be rid of that sin to be properly returned to the soul and body of the Church. But the specific release of an excommunicated person from the ecclesiastical ban, censure, and penalty of excommunication, is the absolution of which we now speak. Excommunication is imposed by ecclesiastical authority; therefore, only competent ecclesiastical authority can remove it; only an ecclesiastic with jurisdiction can absolve from it. In some cases of excommunication, a priest cannot absolve without obtaining jurisdiction from his bishop. In a few cases, in which excommunication has been imposed for most serious offences, the excommunicated person cannot be absolved from his censure by any priest except one who has received delegation of jurisdiction from the pope.
2. Excommunication can be absolved, even when the excommunicated person does not seek absolution, or is opposed to it. For excommunication is imposed as a penalty for fault, but not as a fault itself. Now, while no fault can be forgiven without the contrite will of the offender, penalty can be removed at the will of the one who imposed it, regardless of the will of him on whom it was imposed.
3. Just as it is possible for a person to have excommunication added to excommunication, so also it is possible for such a person to have one excommunication absolved while others remain.
25. Indulgences
1. An indulgence is the remission, in whole or in part, of the temporal punishment due to sin. The Church draws from her spiritual treasury (which consists of the inexhaustible meriting of Christ and the superabundant merits which the saints gained through Christ) to pay the temporal debt of sin, which, otherwise, the sinner would have to pay by trials and sufferings in this life or in purgatory. For the performing of certain designated good works, or the reciting of assigned prayers, the Church, in her power of loosing and binding, releases the well-disposed person from the temporal punishment due to his sins-and this, completely or partially. This is called "granting an indulgence."
2. The Church has at her disposal the limitless spiritual treasure of Christ's merits, to which are added the superabundant merits of Mary and the saints, and therefore she has unlimited means for cancelling the debt of temporal punishment due to human sins. If the indulgence be authoritatively proclaimed, and if the person seeking to obtain it is in the state of grace and has true piety as his motive, the indulgence can be perfectly gained.
3. Indulgences are sometimes attached by the Church to the reciting of certain prayers, sometimes to the performing of good deeds, such as almsgiving, or the making of pious pilgrimages.
26. The Granting of Indulgences
1. Indulgences are granted by the pope, and by the bishop for his subjects, and by the official who exercises the bishop's jurisdiction in a diocese. Indulgences cannot be granted by others, such as abbots, or parish priests.
2. Sometimes a person who is not in holy orders can grant an indulgence; for example, a layman who has been designated bishop, has not yet been ordained or consecrated, but who has taken over the rule of his diocese. The power of granting indulgences does not belong to the sacrament of holy orders, but to jurisdiction or authoritative rule in the Church.
3. The fullness of power to grant indulgences resides in him who has the fullness of jurisdiction in the Church, that is, the pope. This power is shared, in the measure of the pope's wishes, to the bishops of the Church.
4. A man in mortal sin cannot gain an indulgence. But a man with jurisdiction, who is himself in mortal sin, can grant an indulgence to be gained by those disposed to gain it. For this remission of temporal punishment due to sin is not accomplished through the holiness of the person who grants an indulgence, but by the objective application of merits drawn from the spiritual treasury of the Church.
27. The Gaining of Indulgences
1. A person in the state of mortal sin deserves, in strict justice, the eternal pains of hell. To relieve such a man of temporal punishment would be meaningless. Hence, to gain an indulgence, a person must be in the state of sanctifying grace.
2. Any person in the state of grace (layman, cleric, or religious) can gain an indulgence if he meets the conditions prescribed by the Church for gaining it, and if he has the right disposition, that is, if he has piety as his motive.
3. An indulgence is not gained except upon due fulfillment of all conditions set for its gaining by the prelate who grants it.
4. Anyone who meets all requirements can gain an indulgence, even the prelate who grants it. But such a prelate cannot grant an indulgence for his own private benefit.
28. Public Penance
1. For some very grave sins which are committed, so to speak, in the eye of the public, and are therefore likely to cause great spiritual harm because of the bad example they set to the faithful (that is, because of the scandal they cause), the Church imposes public and solemn penance.
2. Such public penance is very rarely imposed. And it seems that it should not be imposed more than once on any individual, even if the individual sins publicly again.
3. Public penance "not imposed in the solemn form" may be repeated. It may be imposed on laymen or clerics. Public and solemn penance, which can be imposed but once, is never imposed on clerics because of the scandal that would be involved in the very performing of the penance by such a person. Public and solemn penance may be imposed by a bishop, but not by a parish priest.