Title XXX: Of the Manner of Proceeding against Non-Resident Clerics

§ 1. The Ordinary is to warn a pastor, canon, or other cleric who neglects the law of residence by which he is bound by reason of a benefice, and meanwhile, if there is question of a pastor, at his expense he is to provide that the salvation of souls suffer no detriment.

§ 2. In the warning the Ordinary is to recall the penalties which non-resident clerics incur and likewise the prescription of can. 188, n. 8, and signify to the cleric that within a congruous time to be defined by the same Ordinary he restore residence.

If within the appointed term the cleric neither restores residence nor brings forward causes of absence, the Ordinary, with the prescription of can. 2149 observed, is to declare the parish or other benefice vacant.

If the cleric restores residence, the Ordinary not only must, if the absence was illegitimate, inflict on him privation of fruits for the time of absence of which in can. 2381, but can also, if the case bears, punish him suitably according to the gravity of the fault.

If the cleric does not restore residence but brings forward causes of absence, the Ordinary, two examiners having been called and opportune investigations having been instituted if there is need, must see whether the causes are legitimate.

If, after the examiners have been heard, the Ordinary thinks the causes adduced are not legitimate, again let him set for the cleric a term within which he must return, with privation of fruits for the time of absence always preserved.

If a removable pastor has not returned within the prescribed time, the Ordinary can immediately proceed to privation of the parish; if he has returned, let the Ordinary give him a precept not to depart again without his written permission under penalty of privation of the parish to be incurred by the fact itself.

§ 1. If a cleric who obtains an irremovable benefice does not restore residence but alleges new deductions, the Ordinary is to recall them to examination with the same examiners according to the norm of can. 2171.

§ 2. If not even these have been held legitimate, any other deductions being disregarded, the Ordinary is to command the cleric that within the prescribed or again-to-be-prescribed time he return under penalty of privation of the benefice to be incurred by the fact itself.

§ 3. If he does not return, the Ordinary is to declare him deprived of the benefice; if he returns, let the Ordinary give the same precept of which in can. 2173.

In neither case is the Ordinary to declare the benefice vacant unless, after weighing together with the examiners the reasons for departure which the cleric may perhaps have alleged, it has been established that the permission of the same Ordinary in writing could have been sought by the same cleric.