Chapter — Konings, Theologia Moralis
APPENDIX II: ON THE VICAR GENERAL
- Notion of the Vicar General. - The Vicar General is he who is legitimately deputed to exercise generally episcopal jurisdiction in place of the Bishop, so that his acts are judged to be done by the Bishop.
It is said: 1° to exercise jurisdiction; for it does not belong essentially to the Vicar General that he be able to act in place of the Bishop in exercising the power of Episcopal order, although he may be distinguished with it.
It is said: 2° To exercise generally. But it suffices that his jurisdiction be morally universal; for several things either by law or by man, that is, by the Bishop, are excepted, or can be excepted. I said several, not all; for although a resident Bishop more probably is not held to constitute any Vicar, yet if he constitutes someone, he must constitute him not without any jurisdiction or with excessively restricted jurisdiction.3
It is said: 3° In place of the Bishop, so that, etc. Hence 1) from a sentence of the Vicar General appeal is not given to the Bishop (since the tribunal of each is one and the same), but to the Metropolitan; 4 2) when the Bishop has died, or his jurisdiction has otherwise ceased, the jurisdiction of the Vicar likewise ceases.
- Power of the Vicar General. - I. The limits of his power. He can do the same as the Bishop, unless law expressly establishes otherwise, or the Bishop has reserved something to himself.
I say: unless law expressly establishes otherwise. But those things which the law did not wish to be exercised by the Vicar without the special mandate of the Bishop, according to Benedict XIV,5 are approximately these.
To grant dimissorial letters for Orders outside the case in which the Bishop is staying in remote regions.
To confer benefices. "Yet he can," unless the Bishop has reserved this to himself, "give faculties to priests with care of souls," unless this is beneficial.
To take cognizance of greater criminal causes, and therefore to depose someone from Order or office,2 or, according to Fagnanus,3 to grant excorporation, or an exit, to a cleric. 4) To convoke a synod.4 5) To visit the diocese. 6) To absolve from episcopal cases, or from papal cases from which the Bishop absolves by ordinary right, not his own, but delegated, such as those which are enumerated in Trent, Sess. 24, c. 6, Ref.5 Yet they can absolve from the papal cases concerning which n. 1733-1735, and from a light striking of a cleric; for these are reserved to Bishops or Ordinaries [de Priv. n. 46. 47]. 7) To remove irregularities from occult delict.6 8) To dispense in oaths, vows, diocesan statutes, the Breviary.
Those things which the Bishop can do only as Apostolic delegate, as, for example, to correct excesses of exempt Religious living outside cloisters.
To bring a sentence of excommunication, suspension, or interdict as a penalty of delict.6 Yet he can bring it so that subjects obey him, for example to command under penalty of excommunication, suspension, or interdict, that the accused or a witness appear.7
To substitute for himself a delegate for the universality of causes; but indeed he can for one or several causes.1
II. How the jurisdiction of the Vicar General expires. - 1° By his own express renunciation, or at least tacit, as if the Vicar goes out of the diocese with the intention of not returning anymore.
2° By removal or revocation of him made by the Bishop; but it must be notified to the Vicar, for his acts performed before notification are valid.
3° By the natural death of the Bishop: but this as to causes which were delegated to him by the Bishop or by the Apostolic See only under the name of Vicar General; otherwise, if the delegation was made with his proper name.
4° By translation of the Bishop to another Episcopate.
5° By deposition or relegation (Smith, below under 8°) of the Bishop.
6° By renunciation of the Episcopate made by the Bishop and admitted by the Pope.
7° By legitimate entrance of the Bishop into some Religion.
8° By captivity of the Bishop. In what sense, see Smith, Elem. of Eccl. Law, n. 634.
9° The jurisdiction of the Vicar General expires when the jurisdiction of the Bishop is suspended through excommunication, suspension, or interdict.
The revocation of the Vicar General is valid, even if it is made without any cause.
That it may be licit, regard must be had for his honor; whence it must be done with great circumspection and with a grave and just cause: otherwise he can be reinstated through the Sacred Congregation of Bishops. Thus the same Sacred Congregation declared in Spalato, July 3, 1601, and in Trogir, Sept. 7 and Oct. 1649.2
ON THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE DIOCESE WHILE THE SEE IS VACANT.
It belongs to the Administrator of the diocese, while the See is vacant, to govern the diocese. What chiefly he must beware in fulfilling his office, you have in the Plenary Council of Baltimore II, a. 99. But by whom he must be designated, and with what faculties, granted by the Holy See to our Bishops, he is endowed, whether in all Provinces of the United States, or in the Province of Baltimore (now of Baltimore and Philadelphia), Smith explains very well, Elem. of Eccl. Law, n. 638. His jurisdiction seems to expire at that very instant in which the Brief by which the new Bishop is constituted is shown to him, since this one, once it has been shown, can exercise the jurisdiction annexed to his dignity. Craisson, Man. n. 885.