Monitum
| Controlling authority | The issuing ecclesiastical authority, its competence, and the warning's operative terms |
|---|---|
| Juridical character | Warning form with variable doctrinal or disciplinary effect; not a fixed magisterial grade |
Monitum is a formal ecclesiastical warning that calls attention to a doctrinal, disciplinary, procedural, or pastoral danger and states the caution or obligation that competent authority judges necessary.
Overview
A monitum is a warning issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to an errant cleric, who is in danger of receiving an additional penalty.
Meaning and range
The Latin Monitum means a warning or admonition. Holy See and conciliar records use the heading for notices to bishops, cautions about writings or teachings, procedural reminders, and disciplinary directions. The common feature is warning, not one uniform subject or sanction.[1]
A monitum can be brief because it presupposes existing law or doctrine. Brevity does not make it casual, but neither does the Latin heading prove that a new law or doctrinal definition has been issued. The competent author and exact imperative must be identified.[2]
Doctrinal and disciplinary warnings
A doctrinal monitum can warn the faithful that writings contain grave ambiguities or errors; a disciplinary monitum can remind ordinaries of a concrete legal duty. The 1975 Acta example concerning Italian marriage procedure illustrates a practical warning. These uses should not be collapsed into a single censorship category.[3]
Authority and consequences
Authority follows office and content. A curial monitum issued within competence can bind administrators or demand serious ecclesial attention. Its restatement of doctrine receives the relevant Authority Level, while its prudential warning or procedural direction remains disciplinary. Monitum itself is not equivalent to Dogma, excommunication, or a penal decree.[4]
Failure to heed a warning can matter in later canonical proceedings when law makes prior admonition relevant, but the monitum and any eventual penalty are separate acts.
Relation to notification
A Doctrinal Notification often gives a developed public judgment after examination; a monitum emphasizes warning. Practice has varied historically, and one title can perform functions associated with the other. The printed act, procedural context, and operative words remain more reliable than a rigid modern taxonomy imposed backward.
Historical method
Claims that a monitum was secretly lifted or eternally binding require authoritative evidence.
Monitum belongs in the encyclopedia as a distinct term because English summaries often translate it inconsistently as warning, caution, notice, or admonition. The Latin classification and its limits remain distinct despite the variant English translations.
Notable cases
Teilhard de Chardin
The writings, not named but described as "gaining a good deal of success", including some published posthumously, of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin were the subject of a monitum by the Holy Office in June 1962, seven years after Teilhard's death.[5]
The Danube Seven
The Danube Seven – seven women on whom Rómulo Antonio Braschi, the founder of a schismatic community, attempted to confer priestly ordination on June 29, 2002 – were the target of a monitum dated 10 July 2002.[6] The women were: Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, Adelinde Theresia Roitinger, Gisela Forster, Iris Müller, Ida Raming, Pia Brunner, and Angela White (pseudonym of Dagmar Braun Celeste).[7][8]
Hans Küng
In 1975, the CDF issued a monitum against certain of Hans Küng's writings.[9]
Form criticism
In 1961, the Holy Office issued a monitum against the use of form criticism in Catholic scriptural interpretation.[10]
Vernacular publications of the Bible
In 1856, a monitum was published under Pope Pius IX which re-iterated the ban on publishing vernacular editions of the Bible which had not been approved by the Pope or the competent church authority.[11]
See also
References
- Back to citation Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith profile and functions — The Holy See's official description of the Dicastery's responsibility to assist the Roman Pontiff and bishops by promoting and safeguarding Catholic doctrine on faith and morals.
- Back to citation Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, complete list of documents — The Holy See's official documentary register showing the Dicastery's actual use of declarations, doctrinal notes, notifications, responsa, decrees, letters, instructions, and related interventions.
- Back to citation Monitum for the Ordinaries of Italy — An official Acta Apostolicae Sedis example of a curial monitum warning ordinaries of a concrete disciplinary requirement, illustrating that the title is broader than doctrinal censure alone.
- Back to citation Code of Canon Law, canons 747–755 — Binding Latin law on the Church's teaching office, definitive and non-definitive teaching, religious submission, the authority of bishops, and ecumenical responsibility.
- Back to citation O'Connell, Gerard (21 November 2017). "Will Pope Francis remove the Vatican's 'warning' from Teilhard de Chardin's writings?". America. Archived from the original on 22 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
- Back to citation Mroz, Kate (2019). "Is it Necessary to Break the Rules? A Comparative Look at Amina Wadud and the Roman Catholic Womenpriests Movement". In Shafiq, Muhammad; Donlin-Smith, Thomas (eds.). Making Gender in the Intersection of the Human and the Divine. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-5275-2794-2.
- Back to citation Monitum regarding the attempted priestly ordination of some Catholic women
- Back to citation Vries, Lloyd (17 October 2002). "Former Ohio First Lady Reveals A Secret". CBS News. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- Back to citation Cracking Down on the Big Ones
- Back to citation The Bible: The Catholic Scholars
- Back to citation Correspondence on the Hereford Discussion