Title XXVII: Of Acquiring Ecclesiastical Goods

§ 1. The Church can acquire temporal goods by all just modes of natural or positive law by which this is permitted to others.

§ 2. The ownership of goods, under the supreme authority of the Apostolic See, belongs to that moral person which has legitimately acquired the same goods.

When the territory of an ecclesiastical moral person has been divided in such a way that either a part of it is united to another moral person, or a distinct moral person is erected for the dismembered part, even the common goods which had been destined for the advantage of the whole territory, and the debt which had been contracted for the whole territory, must be divided by the ecclesiastical authority to whom the division belongs, with due proportion according to what is good and equitable, with the wills of pious founders or donors, legitimately acquired rights, and particular laws by which the moral person is governed preserved.

When an ecclesiastical moral person has been extinguished, its goods become those of the immediately superior ecclesiastical moral person, always with the wills of founders or donors, legitimately acquired rights, and particular laws by which the extinct moral person was governed preserved.

As regards the payment of tithes and first fruits, particular statutes and laudable customs in each region are to be observed.

With the prescriptions of can. 621-624 preserved, private persons, clerics as well as lay persons, are forbidden, without the permission of the Apostolic See or of their own Ordinary and of the local Ordinary, given in writing, to collect alms for any pious or ecclesiastical institute or end.

All churches or benefices subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop, and likewise confraternities of lay persons, must each year, as a sign of subjection, pay to the Bishop the cathedraticum, or a moderate tax to be determined according to the norm of can. 1507, Sec. 1, unless it has already been determined by ancient custom.

The local Ordinary, besides the tax for the Seminary of which in can. 1355, 1356, or the beneficial pension of which in can. 1429, can, when a special necessity of the diocese impels, impose an extraordinary and moderate exaction on all beneficiaries, whether secular or religious.

Another tax for the good of the diocese or for a patron can be imposed on churches, benefices, and other ecclesiastical institutes, even though subject to him, by the Ordinary only in the act of foundation or consecration; but no tax can be imposed upon alms for Masses, whether manual or founded.

§ 1. With the prescription of can. 1056 and can. 1234 preserved, to determine beforehand the taxes to be paid in the whole ecclesiastical province for various acts of voluntary jurisdiction, or for the execution of rescripts of the Apostolic See, or on the occasion of the ministration of Sacraments or Sacramentals, belongs to the provincial Council or to the meeting of the Bishops of the province; but a determination of this kind has no force unless it has first been approved by the Apostolic See.

§ 2. As regards taxes for judicial acts, the prescription of can. 1909 is to be observed.

Prescription, as a mode of acquiring and of freeing oneself, as it exists in the civil legislation of the respective nation, the Church receives for ecclesiastical goods, with the prescription of the canons which follow preserved.

The following are not subject to prescription:

1° Things which are of divine law, whether natural or positive.

2° Things which can be obtained by apostolic privilege alone.

3° Spiritual rights of which lay persons are not capable, if there is question of prescription for the advantage of lay persons.

4° The certain and undoubted boundaries of ecclesiastical provinces, dioceses, parishes, apostolic vicariates, apostolic prefectures, abbeys, or prelatures nullius.

5° Alms and burdens of Masses.

6° An ecclesiastical benefice without title.

7° The right of visitation and obedience, so that subjects could be visited by no Prelate and would now be subject to no Prelate.

8° The payment of the cathedraticum.

§ 1. Sacred things which are in the ownership of private persons can be acquired by prescription by private persons, who nevertheless cannot employ them for profane uses; but if they have lost consecration or blessing, they can be freely acquired even for profane uses, but not sordid ones.

§ 2. Sacred things which are not in the ownership of private persons can be prescribed, not by a private person, but by an ecclesiastical moral person against another ecclesiastical moral person.

§ 1. Immovable things, precious movable things, rights, and actions, whether personal or real, which pertain to the Apostolic See, are prescribed by the space of one hundred years.

§ 2. Those which pertain to another ecclesiastical moral person, by the space of thirty years.

No prescription is valid unless it rests on good faith, not only at the beginning of possession, but throughout the whole time of possession required for prescription.

§ 1. He who by natural and ecclesiastical law can freely dispose of his goods can leave goods to pious causes, whether by an act among the living or by an act on account of death.

§ 2. In last wills for the good of the Church, the solemnities of civil law are to be observed, if this can be done; if these have been omitted, the heirs are to be admonished that they fulfill the will of the testator.

The wills of the faithful donating or leaving their faculties to pious causes, whether by an act among the living or by an act on account of death, are to be fulfilled most diligently also concerning the manner of administration and expenditure of the goods, with the prescription of can. 1515, Sec. 3 preserved.

§ 1. Ordinaries are the executors of all pious wills, both on account of death and among the living.

§ 2. By this right Ordinaries can and must watch, even through visitation, that pious wills are fulfilled; and other delegated executors, after they have discharged the office, must render an account to them.

§ 3. Clauses contrary to this right of Ordinaries, attached to last wills, are to be considered as not added.

§ 1. A cleric or religious who has fiduciary accepted goods for pious causes, whether by an act among the living or by testament, must make the Ordinary certain concerning his trust, and indicate to him all goods of this kind, whether movable or immovable, with the burdens attached; but if the donor has expressly and entirely forbidden this, he is not to accept the trust.

§ 2. The Ordinary must require that fiduciary goods be placed in safety and watch over the execution of the pious will according to the norm of can. 1515.

§ 3. For fiduciary goods committed to some religious, if indeed the goods have been assigned for helping churches, inhabitants, or pious causes of the place or diocese, the Ordinary of whom in Sec. 1, 2 is the local Ordinary; otherwise, he is the proper Ordinary of that religious.

§ 1. Reduction, moderation, and commutation of last wills, which must be done only from a just and necessary cause, are reserved to the Apostolic See, unless the founder has expressly granted this power also to the local Ordinary.

§ 2. But if the execution of imposed burdens, on account of diminished revenues or another cause, with no fault of the administrators, has become impossible, then the Ordinary also, after those whose interest it is have been heard, and with the will of the founder preserved in the better way in which this can be done, will be able equitably to diminish the same burdens, except the reduction of Masses, which always belongs uniquely to the Apostolic See.