Case 12. Interpretation of a Privilege

Caius and Julius, priests, went for a whole day to a distant place for the sake of recreation. Since they foresaw that they would not be able to recite the Breviary after their return, they intended to take it with them; nevertheless, each, occupied with other things, forgot it. Caius, taking the opportunity, began to recite the Rosary, saying that, by reason of the commutation granted to them in the faculty sheet, the Rosary was to be substituted whenever the Breviary could not be recited because of a legitimate impediment. Julius, however, replied that he would not recite the Rosary, for the faculty in the sheet was a privilege which no one was bound to use. Having returned home around midnight, they asked the rector which of them had judged better concerning the obligation of reciting the Rosary. Hence it is asked:

1. What is a privilege, and what are its various species?

2. How is this statement to be understood: “No one is bound to use a privilege”?

3. How is “Rosary” to be understood in the faculty mentioned in the case?

4. What is to be said concerning the case?

1. What is a privilege, and what different sorts are there?

A privilege is defined by canonists and theologians to be a private law conferring on the holder some special favor. It partakes of the nature of a law, inasmuch as it imposes on others the obligation of not violating the privilege.

Privileges are personal when they are granted immediately to a physical or moral person; that is, to an individual, or to a class, or to a corporation. Those which are granted immediately to a thing or a place are called real privileges. They are against the law when they derogate from it, as does the privilege of a private oratory. If there be no law from which it derogates, a privilege is said to be beyond the law, such as the faculty of absolving from reserved cases.

2. How is the saying to be understood, “No one is bound to use a privilege”?

This rule follows from the nature of a privilege, for a privilege is a special favor. But if it imposed on the holder an obligation to use it, it might become a burden. However, the rule must be understood with some limitations; for it may be that if I do not use a privilege which I possess, harm may ensue which I could prevent by using the privilege. In such a case charity requires that I should use the privilege. And thus if a penitent comes to me with a reserved case, for which I have a special faculty, I am bound to give absolution. Individuals who belong to a privileged body are not at liberty to renounce the privileges of their order, so that a cleric can not lawfully give up the privilege of the ecclesiastical court.

3. How is “Rosary” to be understood in the faculty in question? Does it mean five decades or fifteen?

In some forms of the faculty this question can not arise, for it says expressly “fifteen decades of the Rosary.” But the meaning is the same even if the word “Rosary” alone is used, according to a response of the Holy Office, July 2, 1884, in reply to question 8.¹

1 Collectanea S. C. de P. F., n. 1622.

4. The case. Caius and Julius, priests, went off for the whole day on an excursion. They foresaw that they would not be able to say their Breviary on their return, so they intended to take it with them, but they both forgot it. Caius thought that in these circumstances he was bound to say his Rosary, for there was a faculty in the faculty sheet: “Of reciting the Rosary or other prayers, if they cannot carry the Breviary with them, or cannot recite the divine office because of some legitimate impediment.” Julius, on the contrary, said that the faculty was a privilege, which no one is bound to use. On their return home they submitted their difference to their rector. The rector while admitting that in such circumstances it is a very good thing to say one’s Rosary, yet will doubtless agree with Julius that there is no strict obligation to do so. For the Church imposes on priests the obligation of saying the Breviary, not the Rosary. And, as Julius said, the faculty in the faculty sheet is a favor, a privilege, which does not in this case impose any special obligation of using it out of charity or other extrinsic reason.