Chapter III: Of the Conferral of Benefices

The right of conferring benefices in the whole Church and of reserving their collation to himself belongs to the Roman Pontiff.

§ 1. For the collation of vacant benefices, a Cardinal in his own title or diaconia and the local Ordinary in his own territory have a claim founded in law.

§ 2. A Vicar General cannot confer benefices without a special mandate; but a Vicar Capitular cannot confer vacant parishes except according to the norm of can. 455, Sec. 2, n. 3, nor other perpetual benefices of free collation.

§ 3. If within six months from having certain notice of the vacancy the Ordinary has not conferred the benefice, its collation devolves to the Apostolic See, with the prescription of can. 458 preserved.

Coadjutors in benefices, with or without future succession, can be constituted by the Apostolic See alone, with the prescription of can. 475, 476 nevertheless preserved.

Benefices reserved to the Apostolic See are invalidly conferred by inferiors.

§ 1. Besides all consistorial benefices and all dignities of cathedral and collegiate churches according to the norm of can. 396, Sec. 1, only the benefices which are mentioned below are reserved to the Apostolic See, even when it is vacant:

1° All benefices, even curate ones, which have become vacant through the death, promotion, resignation, or transfer of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Legates of the Roman Pontiff, major officials of the Sacred Congregations, Tribunals, and Offices of the Roman Curia, and members of the Family, even only of honor, of the Supreme Pontiff, at the time of the vacancy of the benefice.

2° Those which, founded outside the Roman Curia, have become vacant through the death of the beneficiary in the City itself.

3° Those which have been conferred invalidly by reason of the vice of simony.

4° Finally, benefices to which the Roman Pontiff, by himself or through a delegate, has applied his hand in the following ways: if he has declared the election to the benefice invalid, or has forbidden the electors to proceed to an election; if he has admitted a resignation; if he has promoted, transferred, or deprived the beneficiary of the benefice; if he has given the benefice in commendam.

§ 2. But manual benefices or benefices of lay or mixed right of patronage are never reserved unless this is expressly said.

§ 3. As regards the collation of benefices which have been founded at Rome, the special laws in force concerning them are to be observed.

An ecclesiastical benefice cannot validly be conferred on a cleric against his will and not expressly accepting the provision.

No one can confer a benefice on himself.

All secular benefices must be conferred for the life of the beneficiary, unless the law of foundation, immemorial custom, or a peculiar indult provides otherwise.

§ 1. No cleric is capable of accepting and retaining, whether in title or in perpetual commendam, several incompatible benefices, according to the norm of can. 156.

§ 2. Incompatible are not only two benefices whose whole burdens the same beneficiary cannot fulfill at the same time by himself, but also two benefices of which either one suffices for his decent support.

Ecclesiastical benefices are to be conferred without diminution, with the prescription of can. 1429, Sec. 1, 2 preserved.

Deductions from fruits, compensations, and payments to be made by a cleric in the act of provision, which yield to the collator, patron, or others, are rejected as simoniacal.

Secular benefices are to be conferred only on clerics from the secular clergy; religious benefices on members of that religion to which the benefices pertain.

§ 1. No one is to take possession of a benefice conferred on him either by his own authority or without having emitted the profession of faith, if there is question of benefices for which this profession of faith has been prescribed.

§ 2. If there is question of non-consistorial benefices, mission into possession, or corporeal institution, belongs to the local Ordinary, who can delegate another ecclesiastical man for this.

§ 1. Mission into possession of a benefice is to be made according to the manner prescribed by particular law or received by legitimate custom, unless for a just cause the Ordinary has expressly dispensed in writing from that manner or rite; in which case this dispensation takes the place of possession taken.

§ 2. The local Ordinary is to determine beforehand the time within which possession of the benefice must be taken; when this has passed uselessly, unless a just impediment has obstructed, he is to declare the benefice vacant according to the norm of can. 188, n. 2.

Possession of a benefice can also be taken through a procurator having a special mandate.

If a cleric who possesses a benefice has proved that he was in peaceful possession of the same benefice in good faith for a whole three years, even perhaps with an invalid title, provided simony is absent, he obtains the benefice by legitimate prescription.

He who seeks a benefice peacefully possessed by another, which he contends to be vacant in a certain way, must express in the supplicatory libellus the name of the possessor, the time of possession, and the special cause from which it is established that no right in that benefice belongs to the possessor; moreover the benefice cannot be conferred on the petitioner unless first the cause in the petitory action has been decided according to the norm of law.