Title IX: Of the Erection and Suppression of a Religion, Province, House

§ 1. Bishops, but not the Capitular Vicar or Vicar General, can found religious Congregations; but they are not to found them or allow them to be founded without the Apostolic See having been consulted; but if there is question of tertiaries living in common, it is required besides that they be aggregated to their religion by the supreme Moderator of the first Order.

§ 2. A Congregation of diocesan right, although in the course of time it has been spread into several dioceses, nevertheless remains diocesan so long as it has lacked the testimony of pontifical approval or praise, plainly subject to the jurisdiction of Ordinaries according to the norm of law.

§ 3. Neither the name nor the habit of a religion already constituted can be assumed by those who do not legitimately belong to it or by a new religion.

Any religion, even one only of diocesan right, once legitimately founded, even if it consists of a single house, cannot be suppressed except by the Holy See, to which also it is reserved to determine concerning goods in the case, always however with the will of those offering preserved.

§ 1. To divide a religion of pontifical right into provinces, to join already constituted provinces or otherwise circumscribe them, to found new ones or suppress founded ones, to separate monasteries sui iuris from a monastic Congregation and unite them to another, pertains to the Apostolic See alone.

§ 2. When a province has become extinct, to determine concerning its goods, with the laws of justice and the will of founders preserved, belongs, unless the constitutions provide otherwise, to the general Chapter or, outside the time of Chapter, to the general Moderator with his Council.

§ 1. A religious Congregation of diocesan right cannot establish houses in another diocese unless both Ordinaries consent, both of the place where the principal house is and of the place to which it wishes to migrate; but the Ordinary of the place from which it departs is not to deny consent without a grave cause.

§ 2. If it happens to be propagated into other dioceses, it is not lawful for anything concerning its laws to be changed except by consent of the individual Ordinaries in whose dioceses it has houses, with those things preserved which, according to the norm of can. 492, Sec. 1, were subjected to the Apostolic See.

No religious house is to be erected unless it can prudently be judged that, either from its own revenues or from customary alms or in another way, provision will be made suitably for the dwelling and support of the members.

§ 1. For erecting an exempt religious house, whether formed or not formed, or a monastery of nuns, or any religious house in places subject to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, there is required the beneplacitum of the Apostolic See and the consent of the local Ordinary given in writing; otherwise, the permission of the Ordinary is sufficient.

§ 2. Permission for constituting a new house carries with it, for clerical religions, the faculty of having a church or public oratory attached to the house, with the prescription of can. 1162, Sec. 4 preserved, and of performing sacred ministries, with those things to be observed by law observed; for all religions, of exercising pious works proper to the religion, with the conditions placed in the permission itself preserved.

§ 3. In order that a school, hospice, or building of similar character separated from the house, even an exempt one, be built and opened, the special written license of the Ordinary is necessary and sufficient.

§ 4. In order that an established house be converted to other uses, the same solemnities are required concerning which in Sec. 1, unless there is question of a conversion which, with the laws of foundation preserved, refers only to internal governance and religious discipline.

A religious house, whether formed or not formed, if it pertains to an exempt religion, cannot be suppressed without apostolic beneplacitum; if it pertains to a non-exempt Congregation of pontifical right, it can be suppressed by the supreme Moderator, with the local Ordinary consenting; if it pertains to a Congregation of diocesan right, by the authority of the local Ordinary alone, after the Moderator of the Congregation has been heard, with the prescription of can. 493 preserved if there is question of a single house, and with the right of recourse in suspensive effect to the Apostolic See preserved.