Chapter VI: Of Patriarchs, Primates, and Metropolitans

The title of Patriarch or Primate, besides the prerogative of honor and the right of precedence according to the norm of can. 280, carries with it no special jurisdiction, unless by particular law something else is established concerning some matters.

Over an ecclesiastical province presides the Metropolitan or Archbishop; this dignity is joined with an episcopal see determined or approved by the Roman Pontiff.

Without prejudice to the prescription of canons 275-280, the Metropolitan in his own diocese has the same obligations and the same rights which a Bishop has in his own.

In suffragan dioceses, however, a Metropolitan can only:

1° Institute those presented by patrons to benefices, if the Suffragan, within the time established by law and not detained by a just impediment, has failed to do this.

2° Grant indulgences of one hundred days, just as in his own diocese.

3° Deputize a Capitular Vicar according to the norm of can. 432, Sec. 2.

4° Watch that faith and ecclesiastical discipline are accurately observed, and make the Roman Pontiff more certain concerning abuses.

5° Perform a canonical visitation, the cause having first been approved by the Apostolic See, if the Suffragan has neglected it; during the time of visitation he can preach, hear confessions even by absolving from cases reserved to the Bishop, inquire concerning the life and uprightness of clerics, denounce to their Ordinaries clerics marked by infamy so that they may punish them, and punish notorious crimes and manifest and notorious offenses perhaps inflicted both upon himself and upon his own with just penalties, censures not excluded.

6° In all churches, even exempt ones, after the local Ordinary has been forewarned if the church is cathedral, perform pontifical functions as a Bishop in his own territory, bless the people, and go forward with the cross carried before him, but not exercise other things which import jurisdiction.

7° Receive an appeal from definitive sentences or interlocutory sentences having the force of definitive ones, issued in suffragan Curias, according to the norm of can. 1594, Sec. 1.

8° Settle in first instance the controversies mentioned in can. 1572, Sec. 2.

The Metropolitan is bound by the obligation, within three months from consecration or, if he has already been consecrated, from canonical provision in Consistory, of seeking the pallium from the Roman Pontiff, personally or through a procurator; this signifies archiepiscopal power.

Therefore, before the imposition of the pallium, with a special apostolic indult excluded, he would illicitly place acts either of metropolitan jurisdiction or of episcopal order in which, according to the norm of liturgical laws, the use of the pallium is required.

The Metropolitan can use the pallium within any church, even an exempt one, of his province in the solemnities of Masses, on the days designated in the Roman Pontifical and on others perhaps granted to him; but in no way outside the province, even if the consent of the local Ordinary is added.

If the Metropolitan loses the pallium or is transferred to another archiepiscopal see, he needs a new pallium.

The pallium can neither be lent nor given, nor left to anyone at death; rather, all pallia which the Metropolitan has obtained must be buried with him.

A Patriarch precedes a Primate, a Primate an Archbishop, and the latter Bishops; without prejudice to the prescription of can. 347.