Chapter — 1917 Code of Canon Law
Chapter I: Of the Actor and Postulator
Superseded as law in 1983 — read why this Code still matters. Each canon links to its 1983 counterpart.
§ 1. Any faithful person or legitimate group of the Christian faithful has the right of petitioning that a cause be instructed before the competent tribunal.
§ 2. If the petition has been admitted by the legitimate and competent authority of the Church, by that very fact the petitioner has the right of legitimately promoting the cause and bringing it to conclusion.
§ 3. The local Ordinary can instruct a cause of beatification either from office or at the instance of a party.
§ 1. Quivis fidelis vel legitimus Christifidelium coetus ius habet petendi ut causa apud tribunal competens instruatur.
§ 2. Si petitio a legitima et competenti Ecclesiae auctoritate admissa fuerit, eo ipso petenti ius est causam legitime promovendi et ad exitum perducendi.
§ 3. Loci Ordinarius potest sive ex officio sive ad instantiam causam beatificationis instruere.
§ 1. The actor can act either by himself or through a procurator legitimately constituted for this; women only through a procurator.
§ 2. He who treats the cause before the competent tribunal is called the postulator.
§ 3. The postulator, whether he acts in his own name or in another's name, must be a priest, either secular or religious, having a fixed seat in the City.
§ 1. Actor potest agere vel per se vel per procuratorem ad hoc legitime constitutum; mulieres nonnisi per procuratorem.
§ 2. Qui apud tribunal competens causam pertractat dicitur postulator.
§ 3. Postulator, sive proprio sive alieno nomine agat, debet esse sacerdos vel saecularis vel religiosus, in Urbe fixam habens sedem.
Individual postulators are admitted for individual causes; nor does the right belong to anyone other than the postulator of the cause of substituting for himself, by legitimate mandate, others who are called vice-postulators.
Singuli pro singulis causis postulatores admittuntur: nec alii quam causae postulatori competit ius substituendi sibi per legitimum mandatum alios qui vice-postulatores dicuntur.
§ 1. Both the postulator and the vice-postulators, if they conduct the cause by mandate of another, before they are admitted to exercising their office, must exhibit the mandate to the tribunal.
§ 2. The mandate of the postulator is to be drawn up according to the norm of can. 1659 and is not considered legitimate unless it has been admitted by the Sacred Congregation and inscribed in its acts; but the mandate of the vice-postulators must be recognized and admitted by the tribunal in which they exercise their office.
§ 1. Tum postulator tum vice-postulatores, si ex alius mandato causam agant, antequam ad munus suum exercendum admittantur, debent mandatum tribunali exhibere.
§ 2. Mandatum postulatoris exactum sit ad normam can. 1659 neque censeatur legitimum nisi cum fuerit a Sacra Congregatione admissum et in eiusdem actis inscriptum; mandatum vero vice-postulatorum debet recognosci et admitti a tribunali in quo munus suum exercent.
To the office of postulator it belongs:
1° To conduct the cause before competent judges.
2° To make necessary expenses; but money collected from the faithful for expenses of the cause must be administered according to the norm of the instructions of the Apostolic See.
3° To exhibit the names of witnesses and documents to the tribunal.
4° To prepare and exhibit to the promoter of the faith the articles concerning which witnesses must be interrogated in the processes.
Ad postulatoris officium pertinet:
1° Agere causam apud iudices competentes;
2° Necessarios sumptus facere; sed pecunia a fidelibus ad causae expensas collecta administrari debet ad normam instructionum Sedis Apostolicae;
3° Nomina testium et documenta tribunali exhibere;
4° Conficere et exhibere promotori fidei articulos, super quibus testes in processibus debeant interrogari.
The mandate of the postulator, if the postulator acts in the name of another, has an end for the same causes by which, according to the norm of law, the mandate of other procurators is extinguished.
Mandatum postulatoris, si postulator nomine alius agat, finem habet iisdem de causis quibus ad normam iuris mandatum aliorum procuratorum exstinguitur.