Jurisdiction

Power of Jurisdiction.—The power of jurisdiction is so necessary that without it absolution is null.

(a) Jurisdiction in general is treated in Canons 872 sqq. of the Code. Ordinary jurisdiction is had by the Pope for the whole Church, and by Ordinaries, parish-priests, exempt religious superiors, etc., for their own subjects. Delegated jurisdiction comes from the law itself in favor of penitents who are dying (Canon 882), or who are making a sea voyage (Canon 883), a privilege extended recently also to those who are making air journeys, or who are outside their domicile (Canon 881), etc.; while delegated jurisdiction from man is had by those priests who have obtained faculties orally or in writing from the competent superior (Canon 879).

(b) Jurisdiction in special cases is treated in Canons 874, 875, 876, 519 sqq. Religious women living in community should have for each house one ordinary confessor and one extraordinary confessor who comes four times a year. Further, the bishop should appoint supplementary confessors to whom the Religious may freely make their confessions, and special confessors for individual Sisters when spiritual progress is aided by such an arrangement.

When the Church Supplies Jurisdiction.—In certain cases the Church, for the good of souls, supplies jurisdiction for the time being to priests who lack it:

(a) in case of common error, that is, when all or many of the faithful in a place think that a priest has jurisdiction, as when he is seated in the confessional of a public church hearing or waiting to hear those who are going to confession. The common error is not of law, but of fact;

(b) in case of uncertainty of law (e.g., whether a certain sin is reserved) or of fact (e.g., whether the confessor’s jurisdiction has expired) about the confessor’s jurisdiction, if the confessor has a positive or probable reason in favor of his right to absolve. The Church supplies jurisdiction in the absolution of a reserved censure whose reservation was not known to the priest, unless it be ab homine or most specially reserved to the Holy See (Canon 2247, n. 3);

(c) in case of danger of death, when full jurisdiction is granted to every priest (Canon 882).