Chapter VII: Of Plenary and Provincial Councils

The Ordinaries of several ecclesiastical provinces can come together in a plenary Council, yet permission having been sought from the Roman Pontiff, who designates his Legate to convoke the Council and preside over it.

§ 1. Besides the Apostolic Legate, Metropolitans, residential Bishops who can send in their place a Coadjutor or Auxiliary, Apostolic Administrators of dioceses, Abbots or Prelates nullius, Apostolic Vicars, Apostolic Prefects, and Capitular Vicars must assist at a plenary Council with deliberative vote.

§ 2. Titular Bishops also, living in the territory, if they are called to the Council by the Pontifical Legate according to received instructions, must be present and have deliberative suffrage, unless something else is expressly provided in the convocation.

§ 3. Other men from either clergy, perhaps invited to the Council, enjoy no vote except consultative.

In individual ecclesiastical provinces a provincial Council is to be celebrated at least every twentieth year.

The Metropolitan, and when he is legitimately impeded or the archiepiscopal see is vacant, the Suffragan older by promotion to the suffragan church:

1° Chooses the place for celebrating the Council within the territory of the province, after hearing all who must assist with deliberative vote; nevertheless, when just impediments cease, the metropolitan church is not to be neglected.

2° Convokes the Council and presides over it.

Bishops who are subject to no Metropolitan, Abbots or Prelates nullius, and Archbishops lacking Suffragans are to choose some nearer Metropolitan, unless perhaps they have already chosen one, once for all, with the previous approval of the Apostolic See; they are to be present with others at his provincial Council, and they are to observe and see observed those things which will have been ordained there.

§ 1. Besides Bishops, Abbots or Prelates nullius, and Archbishops mentioned in can. 285, all Suffragans and the others mentioned in can. 282, Sec. 1, must be called to the provincial Council and must come together with deliberative vote.

§ 2. Titular Bishops who live in the province can be convoked by the president, with the consent of the greater part of those who are present with deliberative vote; and if they are convoked, they have deliberative vote, unless something else is provided in the convocation.

§ 3. Cathedral Chapters or diocesan consultors of any diocese whose Ordinary must be called according to the norm of Sec. 1 are to be invited to the Council, and, once invited, are to send two from the capitulars or consultors collegially designated, who nevertheless obtain only consultative vote.

§ 4. Major Superiors also of exempt clerical religions and of monastic Congregations who reside in the province are to be invited, and when invited must be present or make known to the Council the impediment by which they are detained; but to these, just as to other men from either clergy perhaps called to the Council, the vote is only consultative.

§ 1. Those who must be present at a plenary or provincial Council with deliberative vote, if they are detained by a just impediment, are to send a procurator and prove the impediment.

§ 2. The procurator, if he has been one of the Fathers who has deliberative vote, does not enjoy a double vote; if he has not been, he has only consultative vote.

In a Council, whether plenary or provincial, the president, having obtained the consent of the Fathers if it is a provincial Council, determines the order to be observed in examining questions, and opens, transfers, prorogues, and concludes the Council itself.

Once a plenary or provincial Council has been begun, it is lawful for none of those who must be present to depart, unless for a just cause approved by the Pontifical Legate or by the Fathers of the provincial Council.

The Fathers gathered in a plenary or provincial Council are diligently to inquire and decree what things may seem opportune for each one's territory for the increase of faith, for moderating morals, for correcting abuses, for composing controversies, and for preserving or introducing one and the same discipline.

§ 1. When a plenary or provincial Council has been completed, the president is to transmit all acts and decrees to the Holy See, and they are not to be promulgated before they have been weighed and reviewed by the Sacred Congregation of the Council; the Fathers of the Council themselves are to designate both the manner of promulgating the decrees and the time at which the promulgated decrees begin to oblige.

§ 2. Promulgated decrees of a plenary and provincial Council oblige in the whole territory of each, nor can local Ordinaries dispense from them except in particular cases and for a just cause.

§ 1. Unless provision has been made otherwise by the Apostolic See for particular places, the Metropolitan, and in his absence the older of the Suffragans according to the norm of can. 284, is to take care that local Ordinaries, at least every fifth year, come together at a fixed time at the place of the Metropolitan or another Bishop of the same province, so that, counsels having been compared, they may see what things must be done in the dioceses so that the good of religion may be promoted, and may prepare those things concerning which action will have to be taken in a future provincial Council.

§ 2. The Bishops also and others mentioned in can. 285 must be convoked and come together with the other Ordinaries.

§ 3. The same Ordinaries gathered together are to designate the seat of the next meeting.