In the midst of the 16th century, while consolidating the Tridentine reform and fixing the Roman Mass forever, Pope St. Pius V published a document that today would leave many contemporary prelates dumbfounded. It was titled Horrendum illud scelus —“That horrible crime”— and was promulgated on August 30, 1568, in the third year of his pontificate.
The Dominican Pope, canonized for his holiness and zeal in purifying the clergy, was not speaking in the abstract: he was denouncing the “nefarious crime,” sodomy, committed by both secular and regular clerics. And he did so with the clarity of one who understands that the priesthood is not a profession, but a visible sign of Christ.
The Zeal of a Reformer
Michele Ghislieri, an austere Dominican and confessor of St. Catherine of Ricci, ascended to the throne of Peter with the conviction that the moral corruption of the clergy was one of the causes of ecclesiastical decadence. He tolerated neither ambiguity nor relativism. During his years of pontificate, he purified customs, reformed the curia, and sanctioned abuses with a firm hand.
The Horrendum illud scelus must be read in that context: a holy Pope who saw in the impunity of the sin against nature not only a moral offense, but a profanation of the priesthood.
The Text and Its Severity
The document opens with a chilling biblical allusion:
That horrible crime, on account of which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by the fire of divine condemnation, causes us the most bitter pain and impels our mind to repress it with the greatest possible zeal.
Pius V recalls the canon of the Third Lateran Council that ordered the deposition or retirement to a monastery of clerics guilty of incontinence against nature. But he goes further: he decrees that any priest or religious found guilty be deprived of the clerical state and handed over to the secular arm, which would apply the penalty provided by the civil laws of the time.
The logic was theological: the priest, called to represent Christ, could not stain God’s altar with that sin. The Pope, zealous for the souls of the faithful and the honor of the priesthood, sought to uproot the scandal at its root.
Perennial Doctrine, Surpassed Discipline
Today, naturally, no one proposes restoring the penalties of the 16th century. But the text of Pius V remains a testimony to the objective gravity that the Church attributes to the sin of sodomy, especially when committed by a sacred minister.
The difference between doctrine and discipline is essential: moral doctrine remains —the act against nature is intrinsically disordered—, while canonical discipline varies. However, the clarity of the holy Pope (or are they going to revoke his canonization?) contrasts with the silence or confusion of so many bishops who, faced with active homosexual priests or clerical networks of power, prefer to look the other way, at best.
St. Pius V understood that clerical impurity destroys the faith of the people, perverts the liturgy, and profanes the altar. His example remains a warning: when sin is trivialized, Christ is profaned.
Full Text of the Apostolic Constitution Horrendum illud scelus (August 30, 1568)
That horrible crime, on account of which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by fire through divine condemnation, causes us the most bitter pain and impacts our mind, impelling us to repress that crime with the greatest possible zeal.
1. Very opportunely the Third Lateran Council decreed that any member of the clergy who is captured in that incontinence against nature, since the wrath of God falls upon the children of unbelief, be removed from the clerical order or forced to do penance in a monastery (Cf. Decretals of Gregory IX, Book V, Title XXXI, Chap. IV).
2. So that the contagion of such a grave offense may not advance with greater audacity by taking advantage of impunity, which is the greatest incitement to sin, and in order to punish more severely the clerics guilty of this nefarious crime who are not frightened by the death of their souls, We determine that they must be handed over to the severity of the secular authority, which imposes the civil law by the sword.
3. Therefore, in our desire to follow with greater rigor what We have decreed from the beginning of our pontificate (Cum Primum), We establish that any priest or member of the clergy, whether secular or regular, of any degree or dignity, who commits such an execrable crime, by the force of the present law be deprived of all clerical privilege, of all office, dignity, and ecclesiastical benefice, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, be immediately handed over to the secular authority to be led to execution, as provided by law as the appropriate punishment for laymen who are sunk in that abyss.
Let no one, therefore, presume to infringe or rashly oppose this page containing our removal, abolition, permission, revocation, order, precept, statute, indult, mandate, decree, relaxation, exhortation, prohibition, obligation, and will. If anyone should presume to attempt it, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
Given in Rome at St. Peter’s, in the year 1568 of the Incarnation of the Lord, on the 3rd day before the calends of September (August 30), third year of Our Pontificate.
POPE ST. PIUS V