Article V: On the Dominion of Religious

197. Principles. - Religious of themselves preserve entire rights in the internal goods of body and soul and in reputation, although they must satisfy special obligations of obedience. But as to external goods of fortune, they are bound by the vow of poverty; by reason of which:

1. The solemnly professed are incapable of private dominion, so that the goods which they possess they cannot keep, and other goods they cannot acquire (can. 579, 581, 582); yet they can possess in common, unless by their special constitutions they are prohibited from this, as the Friars Minor and Capuchins.

Yet by dispensation they can in certain regions, as in Belgium, acquire and retain goods in particular, but only in order to civil law (S. Poen., Dec. 1, 1820; and Leo XIII, July 31, 1878).

2. The simply professed remain capable of possessing goods (c. 580, § 1), but they cannot dispose of them without the express or tacit consent of the superior; consequently:

a) before profession, they must cede the administration of their goods to whom they wish, and, unless the constitutions provide otherwise, freely dispose of their use and usufruct (c. 569);

b) in a religious congregation, the novice must, before the profession of temporary vows, freely make a testament concerning present goods or goods perhaps to come (c. 569, § 3), which, when vows have been emitted, he cannot licitly change without the permission either of the Holy See or, if a cause is urgent, of the Superior (c. 583);

c) the professed in a religious congregation cannot licitly abdicate dominion of their goods by gratuitous title through an act among the living (c. 583);

d) whatever any professed acquire by their own industry or in view of religion, they acquire for the religion (c. 580, § 2).

More particular matters pertain to canonical legislation concerning religious.