Article I: Of Instructing the Apostolic Process

§ 1. Once the decree concerning non-cult has been issued, remissorial letters, as they call them, are to be obtained from the Supreme Pontiff and dispatched by the Cardinal Prefect for instructing the apostolic process both concerning the fame of sanctity, miracles, or martyrdom, and concerning virtues and miracles in species, or concerning martyrdom and its cause.

§ 2. These two processes are to be made distinctly; but the first can be omitted if it seems neither necessary nor opportune to the Cardinal Prefect and the Promoter General of the Faith to inquire again concerning the continuation of the fame.

§ 3. Once the commission has been signed and the decree concerning non-cult has not yet been issued, if there is danger that certain eyewitnesses meanwhile may fail, remissorial letters are to be granted at once for instructing the apostolic process concerning virtues and miracles in species or concerning martyrdom and its cause, lest the proofs perish.

§ 1. Remissorial letters are to be given to at least five judges constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, if this can be done.

§ 2. If the Ordinary has been chosen among the judges, he himself acts as president; otherwise the president is designated by the Sacred Congregation itself; but it is expedient that at least the president not be the same one who presided in the informative process.

§ 3. If there is question of a process concerning miracles, at least one expert is moreover to be named, who is to be present at the sessions of the tribunal and can ask the judge that he propose necessary interrogations to the witnesses for attaining greater clarity of words and things.

To the remissorial letters are to be added particular letters of the Promoter General of the Faith, by which he designates two sub-promoters who are to be present at the process in his name.

The interrogatories are to be prepared by the Promoter General of the Faith concerning the objections argued in the introduction of the cause and concerning the testimonies received in the informative process according to the norm of can. 2050, and likewise concerning extrajudicial informations which he has judged must be sought out, with the work of an expert also employed, if there is question of miracles.

§ 1. The remissorial letters are to be handed to the postulator of the cause, who is to take care that they are transmitted to the delegated president of the tribunal.

§ 2. At the same time, to one of the sub-promoters are to be sent the interrogatories, closed and not to be opened except in the act of examination, concerning which the witnesses who will be introduced are to be interrogated.

The delegated judges, before they make a beginning of discharging the office, are to show the letters of delegation to the Ordinary, who must furnish to the same the help of his authority.

§ 1. Once the remissorial letters have been received, the president of the tribunal is to take care to convoke the tribunal as quickly as possible and never delay this convocation beyond three months, unless a just impediment intervenes, concerning which nevertheless he is not to omit warning the Sacred Congregation within the same time.

§ 2. The tribunal in the first session itself is to choose a notary, his adjunct, an expert if the case requires, and a courier; and the notary of the Curia is to make attestation concerning an election of this kind.

Although all to whom the remissorial letters were given can be present at individual sessions of the apostolic process, nevertheless for validity it suffices that there be present the president with two judges or, with him consenting and absent, three other judges, and likewise one of the sub-promoters of the faith, the notary or adjunct.

The process must be completed at least within two years, to be computed from the day of the opening of the letters; this two-year period having elapsed, since the process cannot be continued without permission of the Apostolic See, the Sacred Congregation is to be warned concerning the impediments on account of which the apostolic mandate was not brought to conclusion.

Before the apostolic process concerning virtues in species is completed, a juridical recognition of the remains of the Servant of God is to be made by the tribunal according to the prescriptions of the remissorial letters.

§ 1. In the transcription, collation, and transmission to Rome of the copy of the original acts, those things are to be observed which above in can. 2054-2056, 2063 are prescribed for the informative process.

§ 2. The process is to be exhibited, opened, and transcribed before the Sacred Congregation according to the norm of can. 2073-2075.