Book Two: Of Persons

By baptism a human being is constituted a person in the Church of Christ, with all the rights and duties of Christians, unless, as regards rights, there stands in the way an obstacle impeding the bond of ecclesiastical communion, or a censure imposed by the Church.

§ 1. A person who has completed the twenty-first year of age is an adult; below this age, a minor.

§ 2. A minor, if male, is considered pubescent from the completed fourteenth year; if female, from the completed twelfth year.

§ 3. An impubescent person, before the full seventh year, is called an infant, or child, or little one, and is considered not self-governing; but after the seventh year has been completed, is presumed to have the use of reason. To an infant are assimilated all who habitually lack the use of reason.

An adult person has the full exercise of his rights; a minor, in the exercise of his rights, remains subject to the power of parents or guardians, except in those matters in which the law holds minors exempt from paternal power.

§ 1. The place of origin of a child, even of a neophyte, is that place in which, when the child was born, the father had domicile, or, in default of domicile, quasi-domicile; or, if the child is illegitimate or posthumous, the mother.

§ 2. If there is question of a child of wanderers, the place of origin is the very place of birth; if of an exposed child, it is the place in which he was found.

A person is called: an inhabitant, in the place where he has domicile; a newcomer, in the place where he has quasi-domicile; a traveler, if he is staying outside the domicile and quasi-domicile which he still retains; a wanderer, if he has neither domicile nor quasi-domicile anywhere.

§ 1. Domicile is acquired by residence in some parish or quasi-parish, or at least in a diocese, apostolic vicariate, or apostolic prefecture; this residence must either be joined with the intention of remaining there permanently, if nothing calls the person away from it, or must have been prolonged for a completed ten years.

§ 2. Quasi-domicile is acquired by residence as above, which either is joined with the intention of remaining there at least for the greater part of a year, if nothing calls the person away from it, or has in fact been prolonged for the greater part of a year.

§ 3. Domicile or quasi-domicile in a parish or quasi-parish is called parochial; in a diocese, vicariate, or prefecture, but not in a parish or quasi-parish, diocesan.

§ 1. A wife, not legitimately separated from her husband, necessarily retains the domicile of her husband; an insane person, the domicile of the curator; a minor, the domicile of the one to whose power he is subject.

§ 2. A minor who has passed beyond infancy can obtain a proper quasi-domicile; likewise a wife not legitimately separated from her husband can obtain one, and, if legitimately separated, also a domicile.

§ 1. Through his domicile or quasi-domicile each person obtains his pastor and Ordinary.

§ 2. The proper pastor or Ordinary of a wanderer is the pastor or Ordinary of the place in which the wanderer is actually residing.

§ 3. Also of those who have only a diocesan domicile or quasi-domicile, the proper pastor is the pastor of the place in which they are actually residing.

Domicile and quasi-domicile are lost by departure from the place with the intention of not returning, without prejudice to the prescription of can. 93.

§ 1. Consanguinity is computed by lines and degrees.

§ 2. In the direct line there are as many degrees as generations, or as persons, the stock being removed.

§ 3. In the oblique line, if each branch is equal, there are as many degrees as generations in one branch of the line; if the two branches are unequal, there are as many degrees as generations in the longer branch.

§ 1. Affinity arises from a valid marriage, whether merely ratified or ratified and consummated.

§ 2. It exists only between the man and the blood-relatives of the woman, and likewise between the woman and the blood-relatives of the man.

§ 3. It is computed so that those who are blood-relatives of the man are, in the same line and degree, affines of the woman, and conversely.

§ 1. Among the various Catholic rites a person belongs to that rite by whose ceremonies he was baptized, unless perhaps baptism was conferred by a minister of another rite by fraud, or because of grave necessity when a priest of the proper rite could not be present, or by apostolic dispensation when the faculty was given that a person be baptized in a certain rite without, however, remaining enrolled in it.

§ 2. Clerics are in no way to presume to induce Latins to assume an Eastern rite, or Easterners to assume the Latin rite.

§ 3. It is lawful for no one, without permission of the Apostolic See, to transfer to another rite, or, after a legitimate transfer, to return to the former one.

§ 4. It is open to a woman of a different rite to transfer to the rite of her husband when entering marriage or while it lasts; but when the marriage is dissolved, she has free power of resuming her own rite, unless something else has been provided by particular law.

§ 5. The custom, even a long-standing one, of receiving the sacred Synaxis in a foreign rite does not carry with it a change of rite.

In the Church, besides physical persons, there are also moral persons, constituted by public authority; these are distinguished into collegial and non-collegial moral persons, such as churches, seminaries, benefices, and so forth.

§ 1. The Catholic Church and the Apostolic See have the character of a moral person by divine ordinance itself; the other inferior moral persons in the Church obtain it either from the prescription of the law itself or from a special concession of the competent ecclesiastical Superior, given by formal decree for a religious or charitable end.

§ 2. A collegial moral person cannot be constituted unless from at least three physical persons.

§ 3. Moral persons, whether collegial or non-collegial, are equated with minors.

§ 1. Concerning the acts of collegial moral persons:

1° Unless something else has been expressly established by common or particular law, that has the force of law which, after null votes have been removed, has pleased the absolutely greater part of those who cast a vote, or, after two ineffective ballots, the relatively greater part in the third ballot; but if the votes have been equal, after the third ballot the president is to break the equality by his vote, or, if there is question of elections and the president does not wish to break the equality by his vote, the one senior by order, or first profession, or age is to be held elected.

2° But what touches all as individuals must be approved by all.

§ 2. If there is question of the acts of non-collegial moral persons, the particular statutes and the norms of common law which regard those same persons are to be observed.

§ 1. A moral person, by its nature, is perpetual; nevertheless it is extinguished if it is suppressed by legitimate authority, or if it has ceased to exist for a space of one hundred years.

§ 2. If even one member of a collegial moral person survives, the right of all falls back upon that member.

§ 1. Acts which a person, whether physical or moral, places because of extrinsic force which cannot be resisted are held as not done.

§ 2. Acts placed because of grave fear unjustly inflicted, or because of fraud, are valid unless something else is provided by law; but they can be rescinded by a sentence of a judge according to the norm of canons 1684-1689, either at the petition of the injured party or ex officio.

Error renders an act invalid if it concerns that which constitutes the substance of the act or falls upon a condition without which not; otherwise the act is valid, unless something else is provided by law; but in contracts error can give place to a rescissory action according to the norm of law.

When the law establishes that a Superior, in order to act, needs the consent or counsel of certain persons:

1° If consent is required, the Superior acts invalidly against their vote; if counsel only, through words such as, for example, 'with the counsel of the consultors,' or 'after hearing the Chapter, the pastor,' and so forth, it is sufficient for valid action that the Superior hear those persons. Although he is held by no obligation to accede to their vote, even if concordant, nevertheless, if several persons must be heard, he should greatly defer to their concordant votes, and should not depart from them without a prevailing reason, to be assessed by his own judgment.

2° If the consent or counsel not of only one or another person, but of several together, is required, those persons are to be legitimately convoked, without prejudice to the prescription of can. 162, Sec. 4, and are to manifest their mind; moreover, according to his prudence and the gravity of the matters, the Superior can require them to take an oath of preserving secrecy.

3° All whose consent or counsel is required must disclose their opinion with due reverence, fidelity, and sincerity.

Concerning precedence among various persons, whether physical or moral, the norms which follow are to be observed, saving the special norms which are handed down in their own places:

1° One who bears the person of another obtains precedence from that person; but those who are present in Councils and other similar assemblies in the name of a proxy sit after those of the same grade who are present in their own name.

2° To the one who has authority over persons, whether physical or moral, belongs the right of precedence over them.

3° Among various ecclesiastical persons, none of whom has authority over the others: those who belong to a higher grade precede those who are of a lower grade; among persons of the same grade but not of the same order, the one who holds the higher order precedes those who are placed in the lower; if finally they belong to the same grade and have the same order, the one who was first promoted to the grade precedes; if they were promoted at the same time, the senior by ordination precedes, unless the younger was ordained by the Roman Pontiff; and if they received the order at the same time, the senior in age precedes.

4° In precedence, diversity of rite is not considered.

5° Among various moral persons of the same species and grade, that one precedes which is in peaceful quasi-possession of precedence and, if this is not established, that which was first established in the place where the question arises; but among members of some college, the right of precedence is to be determined from their own legitimate constitutions; otherwise from legitimate custom; and, if this is lacking, from the prescription of common law.

6° It belongs to the local Ordinary in his diocese to establish precedences among his subjects, taking account of the principles of common law, legitimate customs of the diocese, and the offices committed to them; and to settle all controversies about precedence, even among exempt persons, insofar as they proceed collegially with others, in more urgent cases, with every appeal in suspensive effect removed, but without prejudice to the right of each person.

7° Concerning persons who belong to the Pontifical Household, precedence is to be regulated according to the particular privileges, rules, and traditions of the same Pontifical Household.

By divine institution there are in the Church clerics distinct from lay persons, although not all clerics are of divine institution; each group, however, can be religious.