Chapter IX: Of Pastors

§ 1. A pastor is a priest or moral person to whom a parish has been conferred in title, with care of souls to be exercised under the authority of the local Ordinary.

§ 2. To pastors are equated, with all parochial rights and obligations, and they come in law under the name of pastors:

1° Quasi-pastors, who govern quasi-parishes, of which in can. 216, Sec. 3.

2° Parochial vicars, if they are endowed with full parochial power.

§ 3. Concerning military chaplains, whether major or minor, the peculiar prescriptions of the Holy See are to be followed.

§ 1. Without an indult of the Apostolic See, a parish cannot be united by full right to a moral person, in such a way namely that the moral person itself is the pastor, according to the norm of can. 1423, Sec. 2.

§ 2. A moral person to whom a parish has been united by full right can retain only the habitual care of souls, with the prescription of can. 471 observed as regards actual care.

§ 1. For anyone to be validly assumed as pastor, he must be constituted in the sacred order of the presbyterate.

§ 2. He is furthermore to be endowed with good morals, doctrine, zeal for souls, prudence, and the other virtues and qualities which are required by common and particular law for governing the vacant parish with praise.

§ 1. Those who are placed over the administration of a parish as its proper rectors must be stable in it; nevertheless this does not prevent all from being removable from it according to the norm of law.

§ 2. But not all pastors obtain the same stability; those who enjoy greater stability are usually called irremovable, those who enjoy lesser, removable.

§ 3. Irremovable parishes cannot be rendered removable without apostolic beneplacitum; removable ones can be declared irremovable by the Bishop, but not by the Capitular Vicar, with the counsel of the cathedral Chapter; new parishes which are erected are to be irremovable, unless the Bishop, in his prudent judgment, having considered the peculiar circumstances of places and persons and having heard the Chapter, shall have decreed that removability is more expedient.

§ 4. Quasi-parishes are all removable.

§ 5. Pastors belonging to a religious family are always, by reason of person, removable at the will both of the local Ordinary, the Superior having been advised, and of the Superior, the Ordinary having been advised, with equal right, the consent of the other not being required; neither is bound to open, much less prove, the cause of his judgment to the other, with recourse in devolutive effect to the Apostolic See preserved.

§ 1. The right of naming and instituting pastors belongs to the local Ordinary, excepting parishes reserved to the Holy See, contrary custom being reprobated; but with the privilege of election or presentation preserved if it legitimately belongs to anyone.

§ 2. When the see is vacant or impeded according to the norm of can. 429, it pertains to the Capitular Vicar or another who governs the diocese:

1° To constitute parochial vicars according to the norm of canons 472-476.

2° To confirm election or accept presentation to a vacant parish, and to grant institution to the one elected or presented.

3° To confer parishes of free collation, if the see has been vacant for at least a year.

§ 3. None of these things belongs to the Vicar General without a special mandate, with the prescription of the cited can. 429, Sec. 1 preserved.

For parishes entrusted to religious, the Superior to whom this belongs from the constitutions presents a priest of his religion to the local Ordinary; the Ordinary grants institution to the same, with the prescription of can. 459, Sec. 2 observed.

The proper local Ordinary names quasi-pastors from the secular clergy, having heard the Council of which in can. 302.

The local Ordinary is to take care to provide for a vacant parish according to the norm of can. 155, unless peculiar circumstances of places and persons, in the prudent judgment of the Ordinary, suggest that conferral of the parochial title is to be deferred.

§ 1. The local Ordinary, his conscience being gravely burdened, is held by the obligation of conferring the vacant parish on the one whom he shall have considered more suitable for governing it, without any acceptance of persons.

§ 2. In this judgment account must be taken not only of doctrine, but also of all those qualities which are required for duly governing the vacant parish.

§ 3. Therefore the local Ordinary:

1° Is not to omit taking from the Curia archive the documents, if there are any, which regard the cleric to be named, and prudently seeking information, even secret information if he has judged it opportune, also from places outside the diocese.

2° Is to keep before his eyes the prescription of can. 130, Sec. 2.

3° Is to subject the cleric to an examination concerning doctrine before himself and the synodal examiners; from this, with the consent of the same examiners, he can dispense if there is question of a priest commended by praise of theological doctrine.

§ 4. In regions in which provision of parishes is made by concursus, whether special according to the norm of the constitution of Benedict XIV Cum illud, 14 Dec. 1742, or general, this form is to be retained until the Apostolic See shall have decreed otherwise.

§ 1. A pastor, according to the norm of can. 156, is to have only one parish by title, unless there is question of parishes united equally principally.

§ 2. In the same parish there must be only one pastor who conducts the actual care of souls, contrary custom being reprobated and any contrary privilege revoked.

The pastor obtains care of souls from the moment possession has been taken according to the norm of canons 1443-1445; and before possession, or in the very act of taking possession, he must emit the profession of faith of which in can. 1406, Sec. 1, n. 7.

The functions reserved to the pastor are, unless something else is provided by law:

1° To confer baptism solemnly.

2° To carry the most holy Eucharist publicly to the sick in his own parish.

3° To carry the most holy Eucharist publicly or privately as Viaticum to the sick, and to strengthen those constituted in danger of death with extreme unction, with the prescription of can. 397, n. 3, 514, 848, Sec. 2, 938, Sec. 2 preserved.

4° To announce sacred ordinations and marriages to be entered; to assist at marriages; to impart the nuptial blessing.

5° To discharge due funeral rites according to the norm of can. 1216.

6° To bless homes according to the norm of the liturgical books on Holy Saturday or on another day according to the custom of places.

7° To bless the baptismal font on Holy Saturday, to lead a public procession outside the church, to impart blessings outside the church with pomp and solemnity, unless there is question of a capitular church and the Chapter performs these functions.

§ 1. The pastor has the right to the offerings which approved custom or legitimate assessment according to the norm of can. 1507, Sec. 1, assigns to him.

§ 2. If he demands greater ones, he is held to restitution.

§ 3. Although some parochial office has been fulfilled by another, the offerings nevertheless fall to the pastor, unless the contrary will of those offering is certainly established concerning the sum which exceeds the assessment.

§ 4. The pastor is not to deny gratuitous ministry to those who are not able to pay.

§ 1. The pastor by office is held to exercise the care of souls toward all his parishioners who are not legitimately exempt.

§ 2. The Bishop can, for a just and grave cause, withdraw from the pastor's care religious families and pious houses which are in the territory of the parish and are not exempt by law.

§ 1. The pastor is held by the obligation of residing in the parochial house near his church; nevertheless the local Ordinary can for a just cause permit him to dwell elsewhere, provided the house is not so distant from the parochial church that the performance of parochial duties suffers some detriment from it.

§ 2. It is permitted to the same to be absent for at most two months within the year, whether continuous or interrupted, unless a grave cause, in the judgment of the Ordinary himself, either requires a longer absence or permits only a shorter one.

§ 3. The days on which the pastor is occupied with pious exercises according to the norm of can. 126 are not counted, once in the year, in the two months of vacations of which in Sec. 2.

§ 4. Whether the vacation time is continuous or interrupted, when absence will last beyond a week, the pastor, besides a legitimate cause, must have written permission of the Ordinary and leave in his place a substitute vicar to be approved by the same Ordinary; but if the pastor is religious, he furthermore needs the consent of the Superior and the substitute must be approved both by the Ordinary and by the Superior.

§ 5. If the pastor, from a sudden and grave cause, is compelled to depart and be absent beyond a week, as soon as possible he is to notify the Ordinary by letter, indicating to him the cause of departure and the supplying priest, and he is to stand by his mandates.

§ 6. Even for the time of a shorter absence, the pastor must provide for the necessities of the faithful, especially if peculiar circumstances of things demand it.

§ 1. The pastor is held by the obligation of applying Mass for the people according to the norm of can. 339, the quasi-pastor according to the norm of can. 306.

§ 2. A pastor who perhaps governs several parishes united equally principally, or besides his own parish has another or others in administration, must apply only one Mass for the peoples committed to him on the prescribed days.

§ 3. The local Ordinary can for a just cause permit the pastor to apply Mass for the people on another day than that on which he is bound by law.

§ 4. The pastor is to celebrate the Mass to be applied for the people in the parochial church, unless circumstances require or suggest that the Mass be celebrated elsewhere.

§ 5. A legitimately absent pastor can apply Mass for the people either himself personally in the place in which he is staying, or through the priest who takes his place in the parish.

§ 1. The pastor must celebrate the divine offices, administer the Sacraments to the faithful as often as they legitimately ask, know his sheep and prudently correct the erring, embrace the poor and wretched with paternal charity, and apply the greatest care in the Catholic instruction of children.

§ 2. The faithful are to be admonished that frequently, where this can conveniently be done, they should go to their parochial churches and there attend the divine offices and hear the word of God.

§ 1. With sedulous care and overflowing charity the pastor must assist the sick in his parish, especially those near death, carefully refreshing them with the Sacraments and commending their souls to God.

§ 2. The pastor or another priest who assists the sick has the faculty of granting them the apostolic blessing with plenary indulgence at the moment of death, according to the form handed down by approved liturgical books; he is not to omit imparting this blessing.

The pastor is diligently to watch lest anything contrary to faith and morals be handed down in his parish, especially in public and private schools, and he is to foster or institute works of charity, faith, and piety.

§ 1. The pastor is to have parochial books, that is, the book of the baptized, of the confirmed, of marriages, of the dead; he is also to take care, according to his powers, to prepare accurately a book concerning the state of souls; and all these books, according to the use approved by the Church or prescribed by his own Ordinary, he is to write and diligently preserve.

§ 2. In the book of the baptized there is also to be noted whether the baptized person has received confirmation, has contracted marriage, with the prescription of can. 1107 preserved, has received the sacred order of subdiaconate, or has emitted solemn profession; and these annotations are always to be referred into documents of received baptism.

§ 3. At the end of any year the pastor is to transmit to the episcopal Curia an authentic copy of the parochial books, except the book concerning the state of souls.

§ 4. He is to use a parochial seal and have a record-office, or archive, in which the aforesaid books are to be kept together with letters of Bishops and other documents to be preserved by reason of necessity or usefulness; all these things, to be inspected by the Ordinary or his delegate at the time of visitation or at another opportune time, he is religiously to beware lest they come into the hands of outsiders.