Chapter III: Of the Obligations and Privileges of a Religious Promoted to Ecclesiastical Dignity or Governing a Parish

§ 1. A religious cannot, without the authority of the Apostolic See, be promoted to dignities, offices, or benefices which cannot be reconciled with the religious state.

§ 2. Having been legitimately elected by some college, he cannot assent to the election without permission of the Superior.

§ 3. If he is bound by a vow of not accepting dignities, a special dispensation of the Roman Pontiff is necessary.

§ 1. A religious, named Cardinal or Bishop, whether residential or titular, remains a religious, a participant in the privileges of his religion, bound by the vows and other obligations of his profession, excepting those which he himself prudently judges cannot be reconciled with his dignity, with the prescription of can. 628 preserved.

§ 2. Nevertheless he is exempted from the power of Superiors and, by force of the vow of obedience, remains subject to the Roman Pontiff alone.

A religious elevated to episcopal dignity or to another dignity outside his own religion:

1° If through profession he has lost ownership of goods, he has the use, usufruct, and administration of the goods which come to him; but a residential Bishop, Vicar Apostolic, or Prefect Apostolic acquires ownership for the diocese, vicariate, or prefecture; the others, for the regular Order, according to the norm of can. 582, with the prescription of can. 239, Sec. 1, n. 19 preserved.

2° If through profession he has not lost ownership of goods, he recovers the use, usufruct, and administration of the goods which he had; those which later come to him, he fully acquires for himself.

3° In either case, however, concerning goods which come to him not in view of the person, he must dispose according to the will of those offering them.

§ 1. Having laid aside the cardinalate or episcopate, or having completed a function outside the religion committed to him by the Apostolic See, a religious is held to return to the religion.

§ 2. Nevertheless a Cardinal and Bishop who is a religious can choose any house of his religion in which he may live; but he lacks active and passive voice.

§ 1. A religious who governs a parish, whether by title of pastor or by title of vicar, remains bound to the observance of vows and constitutions, insofar as this observance can stand together with the offices of his function.

§ 2. Therefore, in those things which pertain to religious discipline, he is subject to the Superior; hence it belongs to that Superior, and indeed exclusively in relation to the local Ordinary, to inquire into his manner of acting concerning all these things and, if the case calls for it, to correct him.

§ 3. Goods which come to him in view of the parish over which he is placed, he acquires for the parish itself; the rest he acquires after the manner of other religious.

§ 4. Notwithstanding the vow of poverty, it is lawful for him to accept or collect alms offered in any way for the good of parishioners, or for Catholic schools or pious places joined to the parish, and to administer those accepted or collected, and likewise, with the will of those offering preserved, to distribute them according to his prudent judgment, with the vigilance of his Superior always preserved; but to accept, retain with himself, collect, or administer alms for building, preserving, restoring, or adorning the parochial church belongs to the Superiors, if the church is of the religious community; otherwise, to the local Ordinary.

§ 1. The same religious pastor or vicar, although he exercises ministry in a house or place where the major religious Superiors have their ordinary seat, is immediately subject to the full jurisdiction, visitation, and correction of the local Ordinary, no otherwise than secular pastors, religious observance alone excepted.

§ 2. The local Ordinary, when he has found that he has failed in his function, can establish opportune decrees and impose merited penalties upon him; in this, nevertheless, the faculties of the Ordinary are by no means privative, but the Superior has cumulative right with him, yet in such a way that, if one thing happens to be decreed by the Superior and another by the Ordinary, the decree of the Ordinary must prevail.

§ 3. As regards the removal of a religious pastor or vicar from a parish, the prescription of can. 454, Sec. 5 is to be observed; and as regards temporal goods, the prescription of can. 533, Sec. 1, n. 4, and can. 535, Sec. 3, n. 2.