Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Two. On the Delegated Priest.
649. Conditions Required for Delegation.1
If the competent parish priest does not assist at the matrimony, he can delegate another priest who may assist at the matrimony in his place.2 The conditions must be set forth which are required either for delegation or for the license of assisting.
I. On delegation for assisting validly.
- Delegation must be given expressly, whether in writing or by words or by nods. Therefore tacit, presumed, interpretative delegation has no force. Delegation extorted by grave fear is not invalid: for free assistance is indeed required, but not free delegation.
It is expedient that delegation be granted by writing; nevertheless in a case of necessity it can also be sought and given by telegraph. But if by particular statutes delegation in telegraphic form is prohibited, this does not render telegraphic delegation invalid.
- It must be given to a determinate priest who is not excommunicated, or interdicted, or suspended from office by sentence, nor declared such.
a. He is determinate if the person and status are indicated: N. N., assistant priest in N.; if the person alone is indicated (N. N.), provided the person is so designated that he cannot be confused with another; if the status alone is indicated (assistant priest in N., first assistant priest in N.).
b. Nothing prevents several determinate priests from being delegated, whether they are named individually or all collectively: N. N. the parish priest and N. the assistant priest; all the assistant priests at St. James in Innsbruck; all the Servite Fathers in Weissenstein; the parochial clergy of parish N. But this delegation no longer has force: any priest whom the spouses choose can assist at the matrimony of those about to marry; or: the faculty of assisting is granted to the parish office (dem Pfarramt).
c. To the delegated priest there can be granted the faculty, either special or general, of subdelegating: for delegation of this sort is not judged indeterminate, provided the delegate substitutes for himself (does not subdelegate) except a determinate person.
- It must be given for a determinate matrimony, or for determinate persons. General delegation, e.g., for all marriages which are celebrated in the parish, is invalid.
A general delegation is held by the priest who for a longer time acts for an absent parish priest or bears the care of a vacant parish, and assistant priests, chaplains, or vicars of parish priests can receive it, but besides these no one else.
- It cannot be given except for the territory of the one delegating.
A parish priest can delegate another priest only so that he may assist at matrimony within the limits of his parish; an ordinary, so that he may assist within the limits of his diocese.
It must be known to the delegate: for delegation which is unknown by the delegate profits nothing.
In order that the delegate assist validly and licitly, he must observe the limits of the mandate and the rules established for the parish priest (ordinary).
For observing these rules it is required first that he assist freely, without coercion and not constrained by grave fear, and then that he ask and receive the consent of the contracting parties.
- Delegation ceases by revocation made by the delegating person and directly intimated to the delegate, and in other cases listed in law;3 but it does not cease by the death of the delegating person or by the resolution of his right.
II. Concerning license for assisting licitly.
License is not to be granted unless the parish priest (ordinary) has already completed all things which the law requires for proving freedom of state (proclamations, examination of the betrothed).
If the contracting parties have neither domicile nor quasi-domicile, nor have they stayed for a month in the place of the parish priest (ordinary) who assists at the matrimony, this one, in order to act licitly, needs the license of the parish priest (ordinary) of the domicile, or quasi-domicile, or monthly stay of either contracting party, in the first place of the parish priest (ordinary) of the bride, unless the matter concerns a wanderer. From seeking this license the Code excepts only the case of grave necessity (Cn. 1097, 3), e.g., danger of civil matrimony, departure not to be deferred, etc.
Note. 1. With regard to delegation neither the decree Ne temere nor the new Code changed anything, except that it must be made to a determinate priest and particularly, with the exception of assistant priests, and has no force except within the territory of the one delegating. Therefore the parish priest can delegate priests assigned to the care of souls in the parish itself even generally, but priests not assigned to the care of souls in the parish only particularly for individual cases.
- Since the recent decree establishes nothing concerning subdelegation, the rules of law previously established concerning this matter are to be observed. Therefore:
a. A simple chaplain (assistant priest, vicar, coadjutor) of himself or by force of his office cannot validly assist at marriages unless he has received delegated power from the parish priest or from the ordinary. Although he is sent by the bishop not only to administer the sacraments but to exercise the whole care, nevertheless in this mission there is not contained the power of validly assisting at marriages, unless he has been delegated for this by the parish priest or bishop.
b. Now it can happen that the parish priest grants this power only for individual times for a particular case, and then he cannot subdelegate unless he has also received this faculty. It can happen that the parish priest grants to him universal delegation for all marriages to be contracted in the parish, and then per se he can also subdelegate, since he has been delegated to a universality of causes in this genus of marriages. In practice, however, attention must be paid to the custom of places and also to diocesan statutes.
Examples in which by the name delegation is signified the faculty of assisting validly, and by the name license, the faculty of assisting licitly.
If the spouses from A contract in B with the parish priest of B assisting, no delegation is needed, but only the license of assisting granted by the parish priest in A.
If the spouses from A contract in B with the parish priest from C assisting, the parish priest in A cannot grant valid delegation, but the parish priest in B can and must grant it; the parish priest in A must give the license of assisting.
If the groom is from A (whether by reason of domicile, quasi-domicile, or monthly habitation) and the bride from B, and they contract in C with the parish priest in C assisting, this one does not need delegation, but only the license of assisting either from the parish priest in A or from the parish priest in B (strictly, from the parish priest in B, as the parish priest of the bride).
If the groom from A and the bride from B contract in a sanctuary situated in parish D, with Marcus, the blood relative of the bride, assisting, the parish priest in D must give delegation, but the license of assisting must be given either by the parish priest in A or by the parish priest in B (theoretically by the parish priest in B).
If the spouses, having domicile in A and quasi-domicile in B, contract in B, with Peter, the blood relative of the groom, assisting, the parish priest in B must give delegation, and he does not need license.
Since the Austrian Code, sec. 75, has: "Die Erklarung der Einwilligung mussen vor dem ordentlichen Seelsorger oder dessen Stellvertreter geschehen," it can happen that a matrimony is civilly invalid which in the face of the Church is valid, namely where it is contracted before a parish priest who is not the proper parish priest of the contracting parties, with only the license of the proper parish priest; or where, in a case of necessity, it is contracted without the license of the proper parish priest. Nevertheless the danger of discord between the ecclesiastical and civil forum in this matter is not serious. For either it can happen that the license of the proper parish priest (although strictly it is not delegation) is said to suffice according to the mind of the civil law for the value of the matrimony in the civil forum; or it must be enjoined that matrimony never be contracted without the license of the proper parish priest, and moreover that the proper parish priest add also delegation for the civil forum to the license of assisting required by the Church. Thus it happens that matrimony is civilly valid.
1 Cn. 1095-1098.
2 Council of Trent, c. Tametsi, sess. 24, De reform. matr. Cn. 1095, 2.
3 Cn. 207.