The article deals with the penalty of a fine and its position in the criminal law of the Latin Catholic Church. It places the punishment in question in the system of canonical punishments and describes its legal and historical development, from medieval and modern uncodified church law, through the legal regulation of the codes of canon law from 1917 and 1983, to the current new version of canon criminal law, which was promulgated by the apostolic constitution Pascite gregem Dei in 2021.
On the basis of this comprehensive amendment of canon criminal law from 2021, the monetary penalty was returned to the system of ecclesiastical punishments. The author of the article evaluates its reintroduction very positively and reflects on the broad possibilities of its application.