Article I: Of the Vicar General

§ 1. Whenever the right governance of the diocese requires it, a Vicar General is to be constituted by the Bishop, who is to assist him with ordinary power in the whole territory.

§ 2. The Vicar General is freely designated by the Bishop, who can remove him at will.

§ 3. Only one is to be constituted, unless either diversity of rites or the size of the diocese requires otherwise; but, when the Vicar General is absent or impeded, the Bishop can constitute another who supplies his place.

§ 1. The Vicar General is to be a priest from the secular clergy, not less than thirty years of age, a doctor or licentiate in theology and canon law, or at least truly expert in those disciplines, commended by sound doctrine, probity, prudence, and experience in conducting affairs.

§ 2. If the diocese has been committed to some religion, the Vicar General can be a member of that same religion.

§ 3. The office of Vicar General is not to be committed to the penitentiary canon, or to blood-relatives of the Bishop, especially in the first degree or in the second mixed with the first, or, necessity being excluded, to a pastor and the others having care of souls; but the Bishop is not prohibited from assuming a Vicar from the diocese itself.

§ 1. To the Vicar General, by force of office, there belongs in the whole diocese that jurisdiction in spiritual and temporal matters which pertains to the Bishop by ordinary law, except those things which the Bishop has reserved to himself, or which by law require a special mandate of the Bishop.

§ 2. Unless something else has been expressly provided, the Vicar General can execute apostolic rescripts which have been sent to the Bishop or to the preceding ruler of the diocese, and generally habitual faculties granted by the Holy See to the local Ordinary also pertain to him, according to the norm of can. 66.

§ 1. The Vicar General is to refer the principal acts of the Curia to the Bishop, and is to make him more certain concerning those things which have been done or are to be done for safeguarding discipline in the clergy and people.

§ 2. He is to beware lest he use his powers against the mind and will of his Bishop, with the prescription of can. 44, Sec. 2 remaining firm.

§ 1. Even when the Bishop is present, the Vicar General publicly and privately has the right of precedence over all clerics of the diocese, not excluding dignities and canons of the cathedral church, even in choir and capitular acts, unless the cleric shines with episcopal character and the Vicar General lacks the same.

§ 2. If the Vicar General is a Bishop, he obtains all honorary privileges of titular Bishops; otherwise during the office he has only the privileges and insignia of a titular Protonotary Apostolic.

The jurisdiction of the Vicar General expires by his own resignation according to the norm of canons 183-191, or by revocation intimated to him by the Bishop, or by vacancy of the episcopal see; but it is suspended when episcopal jurisdiction is suspended.