Hunting, Canons on
hunting, canons on
The Church does not absolutely forbid all hunting to clerics . The law distinguishes between ordinany hunting, described by the authors as that species in which a man goes out for game with one or two dogs and without much paraphernalia; and the chase (venatio clamorosa) again described as that which is attended by a large number with many dogs, horse men, and the like. The former is not to be habitual with clerics as we gather from the words “Ne indulgeant”; to do so occasionally would therefore be no fault against this law; the chase, however, they are never to follow.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Hunting, Canons on
From early times, hunting, in one form or another has been forbidden to clerics. Thus, in the “Corpus Juris Canonici” (C. ii, X, De cleric. venat.) we read: “We forbid to all servants of God hunting and expeditions through the woods with hounds; and we also forbid them to keep hawks or falcons.” The Fourth Council of the Lateran, held under Pope Innocent III, decrees (can. xv): “We interdict hunting or hawking to all clerics.” The decree of the Council of Trent is worded more mildly: “Let clerics abstain from illicit hunting and hawking” (Sess. XXIV, De reform., c. xii). The council seems to imply that not all hunting is illicit, and canonists generally make a distinction between noisy (clamorosa) and quiet (quieta) hunting, declaring the former to be unlawful but not the latter.
Ferraris (s.v. “Clericus”, art. 6) gives it as the general sense of canonists that hunting is allowed to clerics if it be indulged in rarely and for sufficient cause, as necessity, utility, or honest recreation, and with that moderation which is becoming to the ecclesiastical state. Ziegler, however (De episc., l. IV, c. xix), thinks that the interpretation of the canonists is not in accordance with the letter or spirit of the laws of the Church.
Nevertheless, although the distinction between lawful and unlawful hunting is undoubtedly permissible, it is certain that a bishop can absolutely prohibit all hunting to the clerics of his diocese. This has been done by synods at Milan, Avignon, Liège, Cologne, and elsewhere. Benedict XIV (De synodo diœces., l. II, c. x) declares that such synodal decrees are not too severe, as an absolute prohibition of hunting is more conformable to the ecclesiastical law. In practice, therefore, the synodal statutes of various localities must be consulted to discover whether they allow quiet hunting or prohibit it altogether.
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AICHNER, Compendium juris eccles. (Brixen, 1895); WERNZ, Jus Decretalium, II (Rome, 1899); LAURENTIUS, Institutiones juris eccles. (Freiburg, 1903).
WILLIAM H. W. FANNING. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York