Chapter II: Of Coadjutors and Auxiliaries of Bishops

§ 1. It belongs to the Roman Pontiff alone to constitute a Coadjutor for a Bishop.

§ 2. A Coadjutor is usually given to the person of the Bishop with the right of succession; but sometimes he is also given to the see.

§ 3. A Coadjutor given to the person of the Bishop without the right of succession is called by the special name Auxiliary.

§ 1. The rights of a Coadjutor given to the person of the Bishop are to be taken from the apostolic letters by which he is constituted.

§ 2. Unless something else is provided in these letters, a Coadjutor who is given to a Bishop wholly incapable has all episcopal rights and duties; the others can do only as much as the Bishop has committed to them.

§ 3. Those things which the Coadjutor can and wishes to exercise, the Bishop is not habitually to delegate to another.

§ 4. A Coadjutor, not held by a just impediment, must, as often as he has been requested by the assisted Bishop, perform pontifical functions and other functions to which the Bishop himself would be bound.

A Coadjutor given to the see can exercise in the territory those things which are of the episcopal order, except sacred ordination; in other matters he can do only as much as has been committed to him by the Holy See or by the Bishop.

§ 1. For any Coadjutor to take canonical possession of his office, it is necessary that he show the apostolic letters to the Bishop.

§ 2. A Coadjutor with future succession and a Coadjutor given to the see must also show the same letters to the Chapter according to the norm of can. 334, Sec. 3.

§ 3. If the Bishop has fallen into such a state that he is incapable of eliciting a human act, the prescription of Sec. 1 being passed over, only the prescription of Sec. 2 is to be observed by all Coadjutors.

Any Coadjutor is bound by the obligation, as is the Bishop, of residing in the diocese, from which, outside vacation time, according to the norm of can. 338, it is not lawful for him to depart except for a brief time, with the assisted Bishop permitting.

§ 1. A Coadjutor with the right of succession, when the episcopal see is vacant, immediately becomes the Ordinary of the diocese for which he had been constituted, provided he had legitimately taken possession according to the norm of can. 353.

§ 2. With the expiration of the Bishop's office, the office of Auxiliary expires, unless something else is provided in the apostolic letters.

§ 3. If a Coadjutor has been given to the see, his office continues even when the see is vacant.