§ 4. Resignation and Exchange of Benefices

— 1. "After a year from any religious profession emitted, parochial benefices are vacant; after three years, the rest" (c. 584).

2. They are vacant through voluntary and accepted resignation. This must be simple and absolute. The Ordinary cannot admit one made for the advantage of others or under a condition which touches the provision of the benefice or the distribution of revenues, unless the benefice is litigated and the resignation is made by one of the litigants for the advantage of the other (c. 1486).

It is required besides that a cleric in sacred orders have elsewhere the things necessary for honest support; and if the benefice was his title of ordination, express mention of this matter and of the substitution of another title of ordination is required (cc. 1484, 1485).

— The exchange of two benefices cannot validly be made unless for a just cause, without detriment to others, with the patron consenting, if there was one, and with the Ordinary of the place consenting.

But an exchange of benefices of which both or either one is reserved to the Holy See cannot be admitted by the Ordinary (c. 1487).

If they are unequal, they cannot be compensated by reservation of fruits or by the furnishing of a thing estimable by price (c. 1488, §1).

Nor can it be made among more than two beneficiaries (c. 1488, §2).

— I. An ecclesiastical office, taken broadly, is any function exercised unto a spiritual end; but strictly, and thus it is of itself taken in law, it is a function: a. stably constituted by divine or human ordinance; b. to be conferred in the mode defined by the canons; c. attributing some power of order or jurisdiction.

Canonical provision or nomination is essential; nor is it validly made or promised before the office is vacant. But it is made through free conferral, with a competition sometimes acceding for discerning suitable persons, which of itself belongs to the Ordinary of the place in his own territory; or through institution of a person presented by a patron or by him to whom a similar faculty has been conferred from indult; or through confirmation of an elected or postulated person. He is elected who, being suitable, is called collegially to a vacant office, whether through secret votes of scrutiny, or through quasi-inspiration, immediately by unanimous consent, or through compromise, when the electors by unanimous and written consent transfer the right of electing to one or several. He is postulated whom the electors, although laboring under a dispensable impediment, wish to have the office conferred upon, a dispensation having been granted. The election having been accepted, the elected person must, within eight days, petition confirmation from the competent Superior, which cannot be denied to one suitable and legitimately elected. Yet the election of the Supreme Pontiff cannot be confirmed; that of a Superior General of a religion of itself does not have to be confirmed: then by the very acceptance full right is acquired. But after the postulation has been freely accepted by the Superior who can confirm the election and dispense from the impediment, the one postulated acquires right by acceptance.

Offices are of themselves to be conferred on him who, with all things considered, is judged more worthy or to be preferred. And he will have sinned gravely who has called an unworthy person. Passing over the more worthy person is not proved grave in conferral or presentation to an office not having care of souls.

An office is lost by accepted resignation, by privation legitimately carried out, and by transfer, which, if the cleric is unwilling, requires the causes and mode of privation.

II. An ecclesiastical benefice is a juridic entity, a moral person, erected in perpetuity by competent ecclesiastical authority, and consisting of a sacred office and the right of perceiving revenues from the endowment annexed to the office.

Benefices are erected by: the Supreme Pontiff; a Cardinal in his own title or diaconia, when they do not belong to an exempt clerical religion; and Ordinaries of places. The endowment can now be contained not only in goods possessed by the church, but also in taxed prestations of the faithful, whether owed or voluntary. A benefice is distinguished as consistorial, which is conferred in consistory, and non-consistorial; secular and religious, according as it belongs only to secular or religious clerics; double or residential, and simple, without the obligation of residing; with care of souls or with the care of souls, or not having care of souls; manual, temporary or removable, and perpetual or not removable.

All benefices can be conferred by the Supreme Pontiff; and some are reserved to him; those not reserved are conferred by the Cardinal in his own title or diaconia, and by the Ordinary of the place in his own territory. Some are conferred freely; others are subject to the right of patronage, which now cannot be constituted in the future, and which attributes certain privileges, with a burden, especially that of presenting a candidate. The beneficiary enjoys the spiritual and temporal rights of his benefice and perceives its revenues, with the burden, from which Cardinals are exempted, of destining superfluous revenues to the poor or to pious causes.

A benefice is vacant after three years from religious profession; indeed after one year, if it was parochial; it is also vacant through accepted resignation, which must be absolute. The very exchange of benefices is subject to various rules to be observed.