Title V: Of Privileges

§ 1. Privileges can be acquired not only by direct concession of competent authority and by communication, but also by legitimate custom or prescription.

§ 2. Centenary or immemorial possession induces the presumption of a granted privilege.

By communication of privileges, even in equally principal form, only those privileges are considered imparted which had been granted directly, perpetually, and without special relation to a certain place or thing or person to the first privileged party, account also being taken of the capacity of the subject to whom the communication is made.

When privileges are acquired by communication in accessory form, they are increased, diminished, or lost ipso facto if perhaps they are increased, diminished, or cease in the principal privileged party; otherwise if they are acquired by communication in equally principal form.

§ 1. Habitual faculties which are granted either in perpetuity, or for a predefined time, or for a certain number of cases, are counted among privileges outside the law.

§ 2. Unless in their concession the person has been chosen for personal qualifications or something else has expressly been provided, habitual faculties granted by the Apostolic See to a Bishop or to others of whom in can. 198, Sec. 1, do not vanish when the authority of the Ordinary to whom they were granted ceases, even if he himself had begun to execute them, but pass to the Ordinaries who succeed him in governance; likewise those granted to the Bishop also belong to the Vicar General.

§ 3. A granted faculty carries with it also other powers which are necessary for its use; therefore in the faculty of dispensing is included also the power of absolving from ecclesiastical penalties, if any perhaps stand in the way, but only for the effect of obtaining the dispensation.

A privilege is to be assessed from its own tenor, and it is not permitted to extend or restrict it.

In doubt privileges are to be interpreted according to the norm of can. 50; but that interpretation is always to be used by which those enriched by the privilege appear to have obtained some favor from the indulgence of the grantor.

No one is compelled to use a privilege granted solely in his own favor, unless an obligation arises from some other source.

A privilege, unless something else is established, is to be considered perpetual.

Privileges contained in this Code are revoked by a general law; as regards the rest, the prescription of can. 60 is to be observed.

§ 1. Privileges cease by renunciation accepted by a competent Superior.

§ 2. Any private person can renounce a privilege established only in his own favor.

§ 3. It is not permitted to private persons to renounce a privilege granted to some community, dignity, or place.

§ 4. Nor is the community or group itself free to renounce a privilege given to it in the manner of a law, or if the renunciation yields to the prejudice of the Church or of others.

When the authority of the grantor ceases, privileges are not extinguished, unless they were given with the clause at our good pleasure, or another equivalent clause.

A personal privilege follows the person and is extinguished with that person.

Real privileges cease by the absolute destruction of the thing or place; but local privileges revive if the place is restored within forty years.

By non-use or by contrary use, privileges not burdensome to others do not cease; but those which result in a burden to others are lost if legitimate prescription or tacit renunciation is added.

A privilege also ceases if, by the progress of time, circumstances are so changed, in the judgment of the Superior, that it has become harmful, or its use becomes illicit; likewise when the time has elapsed or the number of cases for which the privilege was granted has been completed, without prejudice to the prescription of can. 207, Sec. 2.

One who abuses a power permitted to him by privilege deserves to be deprived of the privilege itself; and the Ordinary should not omit to warn the Holy See if someone gravely abuses a privilege granted by it.

Although privileges obtained orally from the Holy See assist the petitioner himself in the forum of conscience, nevertheless no one can vindicate the use of any privilege against anyone in the external forum unless he legitimately proves that the privilege itself was granted to him.