Section II: Of Clerics in Particular

§ 1. It belongs to the one supreme ecclesiastical power to erect, otherwise circumscribe, divide, unite, and suppress ecclesiastical provinces, dioceses, abbeys or prelatures nullius, apostolic vicariates, and apostolic prefectures.

§ 2. In law, under the name of diocese also comes an abbey or prelature nullius; and under the name of Bishop, an Abbot or Prelate nullius, unless something else is established from the nature of the matter or the context of the language.

§ 1. The territory of each diocese is to be divided into distinct territorial parts; moreover to each part its own particular church with a determined people is to be assigned, and its own particular rector, as the proper pastor of the same people, is to be placed over it for the necessary care of souls.

§ 2. In the same way, an apostolic vicariate and apostolic prefecture, where this can conveniently be done, are to be divided.

§ 3. The parts of a diocese mentioned in Sec. 1 are parishes; the parts of an apostolic vicariate and apostolic prefecture, if a particular rector has been assigned to them, are called quasi-parishes.

§ 4. Parishes cannot be constituted for diversity of language or nation of the faithful living in the same city or territory, nor merely familial or personal parishes, without a special apostolic indult; as regards those already constituted, nothing is to be changed without consulting the Apostolic See.

§ 1. A Bishop is to distribute his territory into regions or districts consisting of several parishes, which come under the name of forane vicariates, deaneries, archpresbyterates, and so forth.

§ 2. If this distribution, by reason of circumstances, seems impossible or inopportune, the Bishop is to consult the Holy See, unless provision has already been made by it.