Chapter V: Of the Rights and Obligations of Beneficiaries

Any beneficiary, after he has legitimately taken possession of the benefice, enjoys all rights, both temporal and spiritual, which are attached to the benefice.

Although the beneficiary has other non-beneficial goods, he can freely use and enjoy the beneficial fruits which are necessary for his decent support; but he is held by the obligation of expending the surplus for the poor or for pious causes, with the prescription of can. 239, Sec. 1, n. 19 preserved.

If the reception of some order is required for obtaining a benefice, the beneficiary must already have received such order before the collation of the benefice.

§ 1. The beneficiary is held faithfully to fulfill the particular burdens attached to the benefice and, in addition, to recite the canonical hours daily.

§ 2. If, detained by no legitimate impediment, he has not satisfied the obligation of reciting the canonical hours, he does not make the fruits his own in proportion to the omission, and he is to hand them over to the fabric of the church or to the diocesan Seminary, or distribute them to the poor.

§ 1. The beneficiary must administer the goods pertaining to his benefice as curator of the benefice, according to the norm of law.

§ 2. If he has been negligent or in fault in another way, he must make reparation to the benefice for the damages, and is to be compelled by the local Ordinary to compensate them; and, if he is a pastor, he can be removed from the parish according to the norm of can. 2147 and following.

§ 1. Expenses connected in the ordinary way with the administration of beneficial goods and the perception of fruits are to be borne by the beneficiary.

§ 2. Expenses for extraordinary repairs of the beneficial house are to be borne by those upon whom the burden of repairing the beneficial church falls, unless the documents of foundation or legitimate agreements and customs provide otherwise.

§ 3. Minor repairs which fall upon him, the beneficiary is to complete as soon as possible, lest the necessity of greater repairs arise.

The local Ordinary is held by the obligation of watching, also through vicars forane, that beneficial goods are preserved and rightly administered.

In leasing beneficial goods, payments anticipated beyond six months are prohibited without the permission of the local Ordinary, who in extraordinary cases is to take care by suitable prescriptions lest such leasing turn to the harm of the pious place or of successors in the benefice.

The annual revenues of a benefice are to be distributed between the successor and the predecessor or his heirs, in case of death, according to the proportion of the time in which each served the benefice, all proceeds and burdens of the current year having been computed, unless legitimate custom or particular statutes duly approved have introduced another manner of just composition.

Expenses of whatever kind having been deducted and with the prescription of can. 472, n. 1 preserved, the fruits of a vacant benefice accrue for one half to the endowment of the benefice or to the common fund, and for the other half yield to the fabric of the church or to the sacristy, with legitimate custom preserved by which all the fruits are expended for the common good of the diocese.

As regards the half-annate, as it is called, where it is in force, let it be retained, and let the particular statutes and laudable customs in force concerning it in each region be observed.

§ 1. The goods of the episcopal mensa are to be diligently administered by the Bishop.

§ 2. The episcopal house is to be kept in good repair and, if there is need, restored and repaired at the expense of the same mensa, whenever burdens of this kind do not fall upon others from a particular title.

§ 3. Bishops are also to take care that, after an accurate inventory has been made, all utensils or movable goods perhaps assigned to the episcopal house and constituted in the ownership of the mensa are transmitted to the successor wholly and securely.