Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume I › Book II. On the Exercise of the Christian Life, or on the Cultivation of the Virtues › Treatise II. On the Cultivation of the Moral Virtues › Dissertation III. On the Precepts or Duties of the States of Life › Part II. On the Duties of Clerics › Section II. On the Duties of Clerics › Chapter II. On the Duties of Certain Clerics Specifically

Article — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Article I. On the Duties of Beneficiaries in General

1204.

I. Notion of a benefice. An ecclesiastical benefice is a juridic entity constituted or erected in perpetuity by competent ecclesiastical authority, consisting of a sacred office and of the right of receiving revenues from an endowment annexed to the office (can. 1409). It is called a juridic entity, that is, a moral person; but the beneficiary is usually a physical person. Moreover, for constituting that juridic entity which is called a benefice, there are required:

  1. A sacred or ecclesiastical office, and indeed taken in the strict sense, that is, a function stably constituted by ordination, whether divine or ecclesiastical, to be conferred according to the norm of the sacred canons, carrying with it at least some participation in ecclesiastical power, whether of order or of jurisdiction (can. 145).

  2. The right of receiving revenues from the endowment annexed to the office. The endowment of a benefice is constituted either by goods whose ownership is in the juridic entity itself, or by certain and due payments of some family or moral person, or by certain and voluntary offerings of the faithful which pertain to the rector of the benefice, or by the rights, as they are called, of the stole within the limits of diocesan taxation or legitimate custom, or by choral distributions, with a third part of the same excluded,1 if all the revenues of the benefice consist in choral distributions (can. 1410).

  3. Legitimate erection, namely proceeding from competent ecclesiastical authority; hence, for example, a foundation of Masses, even though constituted in perpetuity, is not sufficient, but it is required that competent authority have erected it into the title of a benefice.

  4. Erection in perpetuity, so that, when the beneficiary, for example the parish priest, has died or been removed, it persists.

Corollary. Beneficiaries are residential Bishops, canons, parish priests; but not apostolic administrators, confessors, episcopal secretaries, spiritual directors of religious women, assistant vicars, sacristans; nor religious Superiors, because although they discharge an office strictly so called, nevertheless they lack the right of receiving revenues from an endowment annexed to the office.

1 This third part is to be converted into daily distributions among those present (can. 395).

Benefices

1205.

II. Division of benefices. From can. 1411 benefices are distinguished into:

  1. Consistorial, which are customarily conferred in Consistory; the rest are non-consistorial.

  2. Secular or religious, according as they pertain to secular clerics alone or to religious clerics alone; but all benefices erected outside the churches or houses of religious are presumed, in doubt, to be secular.

  3. Double or residential, or simple or non-residential, according as, besides the benefice-office, they have annexed to them the obligation of residing, or not.

  4. Manual, temporary or removable, or perpetual or irremovable, according as they are conferred revocably or in perpetuity.

  5. With cure or without cure, according as they have the cure of souls annexed or not.

Benefices

1206.

III. Duties of beneficiaries. As the title of the article indicates, the discussion is about the duties which are common to beneficiaries, with the special obligations of some being omitted.1 Moreover:

  1. A beneficiary is bound faithfully to fulfill the particular burdens annexed to the benefice and, besides, to recite the canonical hours daily. If, detained by no legitimate impediment, he has not satisfied the obligation of reciting the canonical hours, he does not make the fruits his own in proportion to the omission, and he should hand them over to the fabric of the church or to the diocesan Seminary, or distribute them among the poor (can. 1475); these things were explained more fully in n. 1192.

  2. A beneficiary must administer the goods pertaining to his benefice as the curator of the benefice (can. 1476); and in particular he must carry out as soon as possible the lesser repairs which fall upon him, lest the necessity of greater repairs arise (can. 1477, § 3).

  3. Expenses connected in an ordinary way with the administration of benefice-goods and the perception of fruits are to be borne by the beneficiary. Expenses for extraordinary repairs of the benefice-house are to be borne by those upon whom falls the burden of repairing the benefice-church, unless the documents of foundation or legitimate agreements and customs provide otherwise (can. 1477, §§ 1 and 2).

  4. A beneficiary is bound by the obligation of expending superfluous benefice-fruits for the poor or for pious causes; Cardinals, however, are not bound by this obligation (can. 1473). Since there is question of fruits which he has made his own (cf. can. 1409, 1472, and 1475), the said obligation is not to be judged an obligation of justice; hence a beneficiary who illicitly expends superfluous revenues is not bound to restitution (St. Thomas, Quodlibet 6, article 12, ad 3; St. Alphonsus III, 492).

1 I note, however, can. 2381: One who obtains an office, benefice, or dignity with the burden of residence, if he is illegitimately absent: 1st, by that fact is deprived of all the fruits of his benefice or office in proportion to the illegitimate absence, and must hand them over to the Ordinary, who is to distribute them to the church or to some pious place or to the poor; 2nd, he is to be deprived of office, benefice, or dignity according to the norm of canons 2168-2175.

BeneficesDuties of the beneficiary