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In the Catholic Church, the Precepts of the Church, sometimes called the Commandments of the Church, are certain laws considered binding on the faithful. As usually understood, they are moral and ecclesiastical, broad in character and limited in number. In modern times there are five.

Modern period[edit]

Catechism of the Catholic Church[edit]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgates the following:^[1]^[2]

You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

You shall confess your sins at least once a year.

You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.

You shall keep holy the holy days of obligation.

You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.

In addition, the faithful are obliged to provide for the material needs of the church according to their abilities to do so.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church[edit]

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, §. 432, enumerates the same five:^[3]

to attend Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation and to refrain from work and activities which could impede the sanctification of those days;

to confess one's sins, receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation at least once each year;

to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season;

to abstain from eating meat and to observe the days of fasting established by the Church.

to help to provide for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.

Previously there were six commandments. The sixth being: "Not to marry persons within the forbidden degrees of kindred or otherwise prohibited by the Church; nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times".^[4]

Nature of these commandments[edit]

The authority to enact laws obligatory on all the faithful belongs to the Catholic Church by the very nature of her constitution, says the Catholic Encyclopedia. The Catholic Church considers itself the appointed public organ and interpreter of God's revelation for all time. The Catholic Church also claims that for the effective discharge of its office, it must be empowered to give its laws the gravest sanction. These laws, when they bind universally, have for their object:^[5]

the definition or explanation of some doctrine, either by way of positive pronouncement or by the condemnation of opposing error;
the prescription of the time and manner in which a divine law, more or less general and indeterminate, is to be observed, e.g. the precept obliging the faithful to receive the Holy Eucharist during the paschal season and to confess their sins annually;
the defining of the sense of the moral law in its application to difficult cases of conscience, e.g. many of the decisions of the Roman Congregations;
some matter of mere discipline serving to safeguard the observance of the higher law, e.g. the Commandments to contribute to the support of one's pastors.

All these laws when binding on the faithful universally are truly commandments of the Catholic Church. In the technical sense, however, the table of these Commandments does not contain doctrinal pronouncements. Such an inclusion would render it too complex. The Commandments of the Church (in this restricted sense) are moral and ecclesiastical, and as a particular code of precepts are necessarily broad in character and limited in number.^[5]

History[edit]

As early as the time of Constantine I, especial insistence was put upon the obligation to hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, to receive the sacraments and to abstain from contracting marriage at certain seasons. In the seventh-century Penitentiary of Theodore of Canterbury we find penalties imposed on those who contemn the Sunday.^[5]

According to a work written by Regino, the abbot of Prüm (d. 915), entitled Libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplinis, the bishop should ask in his visitation:^[5]

"if anyone has not kept the fast of Lent, or of the ember-days, or of the rogations, or that which may have been appointed by the bishop for the staying of any plague; if there be any one who has not gone to Holy Communion three time in the year, that is at Easter, Pentecost and Christmas; if there be any one who has withheld tithes from God and His saints; if there be anyone so perverse and so alienated from God as not to come to Church at least on Sundays; if there be anyone who has not gone to confession once in the year, that is at the beginning of Lent, and has not done penance for his sins."

The precepts here implied came to be regarded as special Commandments of the Church. Thus in a book of tracts of the thirteenth century attributed to Pope Celestine V (though the authenticity of this work has been denied) a separate tractate is given to the precepts of the Church and is divided into four chapters, the first of which treats of fasting, the second of confession and paschal Communion, the third of interdicts on marriage, and the fourth of tithes.^[5]

In the fourteenth century Ernest von Parduvitz, Archbishop of Prague, instructed his priests to explain in popular sermons the principal points of the catechism, the Our Father, the Creed, the Commandments of God and of the Church (Hafner, loc. cit., 115). A century later (1470) the catechism of Dietrick Coelde, the first, it is said, to be written in German, explicitly set forth that there were five Commandments of the Church.^[5]

In his Summa Theologica (part I, tit. xvii, p. 12) Antoninus of Florence (1439) enumerates ten precepts of the Church universally binding on the faithful. These are:^[5]

to observe certain feasts
to keep the prescribed fasts
to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days
to confess once a year
to receive Holy Communion during paschal time
to pay tithes
to abstain from any act upon which an interdict has been placed entailing excommunication
to refrain also from any act interdicted under pain of excommunication latæ sententiæ
to avoid association with the excommunicated
finally, not to attend Mass or other religious functions celebrated by a priest living in open concubinage.

In the sixteenth century Martin Aspilcueta (1586), gives a list of four principal precepts of obligation:^[5]

to fast at certain prescribed times
to pay tithes
to go to confession once a year
and to receive Holy Communion at Easter.

At this time there began to appear many popular works in defence of the authority of the Church and setting forth her precepts. Such among others were the Summa Doctrinæ Christianæ (1555) of Peter Canisius, and the Doctrina Christiana of Bellarmine (1589).^[5]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

^ Catechism of the Catholic Church. II. The Precepts of the Church. www.vatican.va. in PART III: Life in Christ; Chapter Three – God's Salvation: Law and Grace; Article 3: The Church, Mother and Teacher.
^ Catechism of the Catholic Church. II. The Precepts of the Church. www.scborromeo.org. in PART III: Life in Christ; Chapter Three – God's Salvation: Law and Grace; Article 3: The Church, Mother and Teacher.
^ "Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
^ Deharbe, Joseph (1912). "Chap. III. The Six Commandments of the Church" . A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion. Translated by Rev. John Fander. Schwartz, Kirwin & Fauss.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Commandments of the Church". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2023-08-21.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|Laws considered binding on the Catholic faithful}}
 {{canon law}}
-In the [[Catholic Church]], the '''Precepts of the Church''', sometimes called the ''' Commandments of the Church''', are certain laws considered binding on the faithful. As usually understood, they are moral and ecclesiastical, broad in character and limited in number. In modern times there are five. These specifically Catholic commandments flow from and lead to the ''[[Ten Commandments]]'' which are common to all the [[Abrahamic religions]] (except [[Islam]]).
+In the [[Catholic Church]], the '''Precepts of the Church''', sometimes called the ''' Commandments of the Church''', are certain laws considered binding on the faithful. As usually understood, they are moral and ecclesiastical, broad in character and limited in number. In modern times there are five.
-==Modern period==
+== Modern period ==
-===''Catechism of the Catholic Church''===
+=== ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ===
-The [[Catechism of the Catholic Church|''Catechism of the Catholic Church'']] promulgates the following:<ref>{{cite book |author=Catechism of the Catholic Church |title=II. The Precepts of the Church |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P75.HTM |publisher=www.vatican.va |id=in PART III: Life in Christ; Chapter Three - God's Salvation: Law and Grace; Article 3: The Church, Mother and Teacher}}</ref>
+The ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'' promulgates the following:<ref>{{cite book |author=Catechism of the Catholic Church |title=II. The Precepts of the Church |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P75.HTM |publisher=www.vatican.va |id=in PART III: Life in Christ; Chapter Three – God's Salvation: Law and Grace; Article 3: The Church, Mother and Teacher}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Catechism of the Catholic Church |title=II. The Precepts of the Church |url=http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2043.htm |publisher=www.scborromeo.org |id=in PART III: Life in Christ; Chapter Three – God's Salvation: Law and Grace; Article 3: The Church, Mother and Teacher}}</ref>
 <blockquote>
-# You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
+# You shall attend [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] on Sundays and [[Holy day of obligation|holy days of obligation]].
 # You shall confess your sins at least once a year.
 # You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.
+# You shall keep holy the holy days of obligation.
 # You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.
-# You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.
+In addition, the faithful are obliged to provide for the material needs of the church according to their abilities to do so.
 </blockquote>
-===''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church''===
+=== ''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ===
-{{see also|Holy day of obligation|Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church}}
+{{See also|Holy day of obligation|Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church}}
-The [[Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church|''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church'']] enumerates the same five:<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html Vatican.Va: Compendium of the Catechism Q. 432]</ref>
+The ''[[Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'', §.&nbsp;432, enumerates the same five:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref>
 <blockquote>
-# to attend Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation and to refrain from work and activities which could impede the sanctification of those days;
+# to attend Mass on Sundays and other [[Holy day of obligation|holy days of obligation]] and to refrain from work and activities which could impede the sanctification of those days;
 # to confess one's sins, receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation at least once each year;
 # to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season;
 # to abstain from eating meat and to observe the days of fasting established by the Church.
 # to help to provide for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.
 </blockquote>
+Previously there were six commandments. The sixth being: "Not to marry persons within the [[Affinity (Catholic canon law)|forbidden degrees of kindred]] or otherwise prohibited by the Church; nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times".<ref>{{cite book|chapter=[[s:A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion/Chap. III. The Six Commandments of the Church|Chap. III. The Six Commandments of the Church]]|title=A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion|year=1912|publisher=Schwartz, Kirwin & Fauss|first= Joseph|last=Deharbe|translator=Rev. John Fander}}</ref>
-The fourth Church Commandment is commonly remembered as abstinence from meat (but not fish) on Fridays (except [[solemnity|solemnities]]), and abstinence-plus restriction to one meal only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The details are quite various, including some countries to allow for a different way of penance on at least ordinary Fridays. The whole of Lent is of penitential character,<ref>[[Paul VI]], ''[[Paenitemini]]'' II 1</ref> though no specified practice is required.
+== Nature of these commandments ==
+The authority to enact laws obligatory on all the faithful belongs to the Catholic Church by the very nature of her constitution, says the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]''. The Catholic Church considers itself the appointed public organ and interpreter of [[God in Christianity|God]]'s [[revelation]] for all time. The Catholic Church also claims that for the effective discharge of its office, it must be empowered to give its laws the gravest sanction. These laws, when they bind universally, have for their object:<ref name=":0" />
+* the definition or explanation of some doctrine, either by way of positive pronouncement or by the condemnation of opposing error;
-Previously there were six commandments. The sixth being, "Not to marry persons within the forbidden degrees of kindred or otherwise prohibited by the Church; nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times."<ref>{{cite book|chapter=[[s:A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion/Chap. III. The Six Commandments of the Church|Chap. III. The Six Commandments of the Church]]|title=A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion|year=1912|publisher=Schwartz, Kirwin & Fauss|first= Joseph|last=Deharbe|translator=Rev. John Fander}}</ref>
+* the prescription of the time and manner in which a [[divine law]], more or less general and indeterminate, is to be observed, e.g. the precept obliging the faithful to receive the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Holy Eucharist]] during the [[Paschal Triduum|paschal]] season and to [[Confession in the Catholic Church|confess their sins]] annually;
+* the defining of the sense of the moral law in its application to difficult cases of conscience, e.g. many of the decisions of the [[Roman Congregations]];
+* some matter of mere discipline serving to safeguard the observance of the higher law, e.g. the Commandments to contribute to the support of one's [[Pastor|pastors]].
+All these laws when binding on the faithful universally are truly commandments of the Catholic Church. In the technical sense, however, the table of these Commandments does not contain doctrinal pronouncements. Such an inclusion would render it too complex. The Commandments of the Church (in this restricted sense) are moral and ecclesiastical, and as a particular code of precepts are necessarily broad in character and limited in number.<ref name=":0" />
-==Reasons==
-The first reason for the Church commandments is Christ's ability to liberate through his prescriptions for humanity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=John Paul II |title=Encyclical Letter: Fides et Ratio |date=14 September 1998 |publisher=Vatican |location=Rome |trans-title=Faith and Reason |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html |access-date=28 September 2021 |language=en |id=Jn 14:15; 10:10}}</ref> Secondly, Church authority, which has a right to be [[Vow of obedience|obeyed]] as delegated by Jesus,{{efn|"Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matt 16:19b RSV; "He that heareth you, heareth me." Lk 10:16}} which common tradition subsumes under the [[Catholic doctrine regarding the Ten Commandments|Fourth Commandment]]. The first Church Commandment is obviously an explanation of the minimum requirements for hallowing the Lord's Day, with the specification that it is Mass, and not anything else, that needs to be heard, that the Lord's Day has been shifted from Saturday to Sunday, and that some other feasts are assigned by Church authority in remembrance of Our Lord, of His blessed Mother and of the Saints. The third Church Commandment is a specification to Our Lord's directive to eat His Flesh,<ref>John 5:53</ref> reducible to the Third Commandment as well since it is an act of devotion. The second Church Commandment prescribes a preparation for fulfilling the third Church Commandment and was promulgated at the [[Fourth Council of the Lateran]].{{efn|Technically, one is not bound to confess who has not sinned mortally. Can 989. Previously, theologians have opined that their duty to confess “their sins” is indeed restricted to mortal sins, but if they have none, they are bound to declare just that in the confessional.}} What concerns the fourth Church Commandment, the Church believes that penance<ref>''Paenitemini'' I 1</ref> is of divine law, and the notion is general that fasting, as a penitential practice, is quite useful,<ref>St. Thomas, II/II 147 I and III</ref> citing such Scripture as "Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting".<ref>Joel 2:12, Douay-Rheims Bible</ref> Thus again, the commanding act of the Church rather consists in the [[Precising definition|precisation]]. The necessity of providing for the needs of the Church results from the faithful belonging to one [[Body of Christ|Mystical Body]] and is regulated in canons 1260 and 1262.{{efn|According to Can. 1263, a compulsory [[church tax]] may be imposed to natural persons only in extraordinary circumstances, except in countries where this is particular custom.}}
-==History==
+== History ==
-{{see also|Legal history of the Catholic Church}}
+{{See also|Legal history of the Catholic Church}}
-As early as the time of [[Constantine I]], especial insistence was put upon the obligation to hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, to receive the sacraments and to abstain from contracting marriage at certain seasons. In the seventh-century ''Penitentiary'' of [[Theodore of Canterbury]] we find penalties imposed on those who contemn the Sunday.
+As early as the time of [[Constantine I]], especial insistence was put upon the obligation to hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, to receive the sacraments and to abstain from contracting marriage at certain seasons. In the seventh-century ''Penitentiary'' of [[Theodore of Canterbury]] we find penalties imposed on those who [[Holy day of obligation|contemn the Sunday]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Commandments of the Church |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04154a.htm |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>
-According to a work written by [[Regino, Abbot of Prüm|Regino, the abbot of Prüm]] (d. 915), entitled ''Libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplinis'', the bishop should ask in his visitation:
+According to a work written by [[Regino, Abbot of Prüm|Regino, the abbot of Prüm]] (d. 915), entitled ''Libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplinis'', the bishop should ask in his visitation:<ref name=":0" />
 {{quote|"if anyone has not kept the fast of Lent, or of the ember-days, or of the rogations, or that which may have been appointed by the bishop for the staying of any plague; if there be any one who has not gone to Holy Communion three time in the year, that is at Easter, Pentecost and Christmas; if there be any one who has withheld tithes from God and His saints; if there be anyone so perverse and so alienated from God as not to come to Church at least on Sundays; if there be anyone who has not gone to confession once in the year, that is at the beginning of Lent, and has not done penance for his sins."}}
-The precepts here implied came to be regarded as special Commandments of the Church. Thus in a book of tracts of the thirteenth century attributed to [[Pope Celestine V]] (though the authenticity of this work has been denied) a separate tractate is given to the precepts of the Church and is divided into four chapters, the first of which treats of fasting, the second of confession and paschal Communion, the third of interdicts on marriage, and the fourth of tithes.
+The precepts here implied came to be regarded as special Commandments of the Church. Thus in a book of tracts of the thirteenth century attributed to [[Pope Celestine V]] (though the authenticity of this work has been denied) a separate tractate is given to the precepts of the Church and is divided into four chapters, the first of which treats of fasting, the second of confession and paschal Communion, the third of interdicts on marriage, and the fourth of tithes.<ref name=":0" />
-In the fourteenth century [[Ernest von Parduvitz]], [[Archbishop of Prague]], instructed his priests to explain in popular sermons the principal points of the catechism, the Our Father, the Creed, the Commandments of God and of the Church (Hafner, loc. cit., 115). A century later (1470) the catechism of [[Dietrick Coelde]], the first, it is said, to be written in German, explicitly set forth that there were five Commandments of the Church.
+In the fourteenth century [[Ernest von Parduvitz]], [[Archbishop of Prague]], instructed his priests to explain in popular sermons the principal points of the catechism, the Our Father, the Creed, the Commandments of God and of the Church (Hafner, loc. cit., 115). A century later (1470) the catechism of [[Dietrick Coelde]], the first, it is said, to be written in German, explicitly set forth that there were five Commandments of the Church.<ref name=":0" />
-In his ''Summa Theologica'' (part I, tit. xvii, p.&nbsp;12) [[Antoninus of Florence]] (1439) enumerates ten precepts of the Church universally binding on the faithful. These are:
+In his ''Summa Theologica'' (part I, tit. xvii, p.&nbsp;12) [[Antoninus of Florence]] (1439) enumerates ten precepts of the Church universally binding on the faithful. These are:<ref name=":0" />
 *to observe certain feasts
@@ Line 58: / Line 66: @@
 *finally, not to attend Mass or other religious functions celebrated by a priest living in open concubinage.
-In the sixteenth century [[Martin Aspilcueta]] (1586), gives a list of four principal precepts of obligation:
+In the sixteenth century [[Martin Aspilcueta]] (1586), gives a list of four principal precepts of obligation:<ref name=":0" />
 *to fast at certain prescribed times
@@ Line 65: / Line 73: @@
 *and to receive Holy Communion at Easter.
-At this time there began to appear many popular works in defence of the authority of the Church and setting forth her precepts. Such among others were the ''Summa Doctrinæ Christianæ'' (1555) of [[Peter Canisius]], and the ''[[Doctrina Christiana]]'' of [[Robert Bellarmine|Bellarmine]] (1589).
+At this time there began to appear many popular works in defence of the authority of the Church and setting forth her precepts. Such among others were the ''Summa Doctrinæ Christianæ'' (1555) of [[Peter Canisius]], and the ''[[Doctrina Christiana]]'' of [[Robert Bellarmine|Bellarmine]] (1589).<ref name=":0" />
 == See also ==
@@ Line 71: / Line 79: @@
 * [[Ten Commandments in Catholic theology]]
-==Notes==
+== Notes ==
 {{notelist}}
-==References==
+== References ==
-<references/>
+<references />
-* {{Catholic|wstitle=Commandments of the Church}}
 == Further reading ==

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Latest revision as of 09:21, 22 May 2024