Section — Vermeersch, Theologia Moralis
§ 2. Loss of an Ecclesiastical Office
— 1. An ecclesiastical office is lost by resignation freely made and accepted by the legitimate Superior.
With a special prohibition saved, it is lawful for a just cause to resign an office; Superiors are admonished not to accept resignations without a just and proportionate cause. The office is vacant from the moment at which the acceptance has been signified to the one resigning.
The resignation of the Supreme Pontiff, without anyone's acceptance, is of itself valid (c. 221).
Besides express resignation, which, for validity, must be made in writing or before two witnesses, there are cases of tacit resignation introduced or admitted by the law itself. They are numbered in c. 188.
An office is lost by privation, whether by the law itself or from a decree of the legitimate Superior. The cause can be delict, incapacity, or reason of the common good. Process is required when there is question of an irremovable office or of a parish; no mode of proceeding is necessary in other cases. From the decree of the Ordinary, recourse to the Holy See is given in devolutive effect.
An office is also lost by transfer, which only he can carry out who has the right of accepting resignation or of removing from the prior office and promoting to the other. The transfer of a consenting cleric can be made for any just cause; the transfer of an unwilling cleric requires the causes and mode of privation; and the transfer of a pastor is governed by the special law of cc. 2162-2167.
"In transfer, the prior office is vacant when the cleric canonically takes possession of the other, unless something else has been provided by law or prescribed by the legitimate Superior" (c. 194).