Lawgivers in the Church

Lawgivers in the Church.—The Pope, as Vicar of Christ and Visible Head of the Church, has supreme legislative power in the Church (Canon 218): “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church .... And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, etc.” (Matt., xvi. 18, 19). Thus, the Pope can legislate: (a) for the whole Church, either alone or with the body of the Episcopate subject to him in an Ecumenical Council, either directly or through Congregations; (b) for any part of the Church, either directly or through representatives. Thus also, by Papal concession, legates may legislate for a place to which they are sent, Praelati nullius for a territory over which they are placed, General Chapters for a Religious Order, and the like.

The Bishops, “placed by the Holy Ghost to rule the Church of God” (Acts, xx. 28), have legislative power within their own territory, dependently on the Pope (Canon 335). (a) They can make laws, each for his own diocese, either in or out of a synod; (b) when gathered together in council, provincial or plenary, they can legislate for ecclesiastical provinces, or for all the faithful of their country.

85. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Who in the Church have the faculty of establishing laws?

I answer. The Pope, a general Council, Bishops, and particular Councils.

1. The Pope, or Roman Pontiff, for the whole Church. For to him it was said in the person of Peter: Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. John 21. 15 and 16. But the word to feed signifies the same as to govern and rule. - Add the words of Matt. 16. 19 reported above: Whatever thou shalt bind, etc. For the Pope is the true successor of Peter in the Roman chair; he is therefore the Supreme Pontiff, the Supreme Key-bearer, Pastor of Pastors, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

2. A general Council likewise for the whole Church. For a general Council juridically represents ² the whole teaching and ruling Church; therefore it can establish laws for the whole Church. Nevertheless a general Council can do nothing unless the Supreme Pontiff, either through himself or through Legates, presides over it and confirms its decrees. For the Church, when the head or Pope is absent, cannot be represented.

² To represent here is to set present, not however to act in some way in the place of another by an office committed; which heretical sense was proper to the Jansenists.

3. Bishops for the diocese. For this is necessary for the right administration of the diocese. It is also clear from that text, Acts 20. 28: The Holy Spirit has placed you Bishops to rule the Church of God. But the Bishop receives this right in his canonical institution. Moreover a Bishop can do nothing concerning the law of the Supreme Pontiff, since an inferior does not have jurisdiction over a superior. Nor therefore can he establish anything that is opposed to the common law or weakens it. - The statutes of a Bishop, even those made and promulgated outside a Synod (with the counsel of the Chapter nevertheless having been heard), according to the truer sentence have the same perpetuity as synodal Constitutions. - Thus Benedict XIV, On the Diocesan Synod, book XIII, ch. 5, no. 1 ³. - But Archbishops and Patriarchs cannot make laws for the dioceses of suffragans, because they are not Superiors properly so called, although they can settle their lawsuits brought before them.

³ On this matter perhaps Scavini says it better thus (Moral Theology, tr. 2, ch. 1, q. 2, in note): By common usage it has been introduced that ordinances of Bishops given outside a Synod, unless the Bishops themselves expressly declare otherwise, are then only to be had as true laws when they bind all diocesan persons, both clerics and laics; otherwise they are reputed only as precepts. I said outside a Synod; for ordinances which have been established in a Synod are had as true laws by themselves going to endure perpetually, even if they regard only one group of subjects, since they are contained in the legislative code. I said unless the Bishops expressly declare otherwise; for it is always free to them even outside a Synod to establish laws for each group only. But if this is not clearly established, they are held not as laws, but as precepts from common custom. But against these things those things which Lambertini discusses in the place cited by the Author do not have much strength.

4. Particular Councils for the province. For if Bishops taken separately are able to establish laws for dioceses, similarly also in a Council, whether national or provincial, they can constitute laws for a nation or province. Nevertheless the decrees of these Councils must be sent to the Sacred Congregation of the Council of Trent so that they may be recognized. Thus from the ancient law confirmed by Sixtus V in the Bull Immensa aeterni, where it is said of the Sacred Congregation of the Council: But of provincial Councils, wherever on earth they may be celebrated, it will command that the decrees be sent to it, and it will examine and recognize each one. It is also clear from Benedict XIV, On the Diocesan Synod, book XIII, ch. 3, where he has these things: Sixtus V commanded that these decrees, before they are promulgated, be transmitted to the sacred Congregation of the Council, not indeed so that afterward they may receive confirmation from the Apostolic See, but so that they may be corrected, if perhaps anything either too rigid or less congruent with reason is detected in them. Yet it has happened more than once that provincial Councils are not only recognized by the sacred Congregation of the Council and, if there is need, amended, but also confirmed by the Supreme Pontiff, when the Metropolitans by whom they were celebrated request it, through apostolic letters. But the confirmation of Synods by the Apostolic See can be made in two ways, to be carefully distinguished: in common form, or in specific form. - See Benedict XIV, On the Diocesan Synod, book XIII, ch. 5, no. 11 ⁴; and book XII, ch. 5, no. 13. Yet neither transmission to the Sacred Congregation of the Council, and much less confirmation by the Apostolic See, are necessary for the statutes of a diocesan Synod. - Benedict XIV, ibid., book XII, ch. 3, no. 6.

⁴ Statutes are said to be confirmed in common form when they are not examined one by one, nor approved by the Pontiff motu proprio and from certain knowledge... and such a confirmation gives them nothing of new right or efficacy.

A confirmation is said to be made in specific form when cognition of the cause is premised, and the individual statutes are diligently weighed, and then, with no condition added, by Apostolic authority with the clause motu proprio and from certain knowledge, they are confirmed.... A statute confirmed in specific form, since it has put on the nature of pontifical law, no one of inferiors is permitted to derogate from it; indeed from this confirmation it receives such strength that it prevails over common law, to which otherwise it may be contrary. Thus Benedict XIV, On the Synod, books and chapters cited by the Author.

258. From what was said in the Treatise on the Church (loc. cit.), by divine right, the Supreme Pontiff can make laws for the whole Church, but Bishops for the part of the territory assigned to them by the Roman Pontiff,¹ and indeed by ordinary power. Moreover the Pope, who is endowed with supreme legislative power, sometimes grants part of his power to others, either by simple delegation, or by deputation to some office, to which ordinary jurisdiction is annexed.

¹ Whether the jurisdiction of Bishops proceeds immediately from God, or immediately from the Supreme Pontiff and mediately from God, is disputed, from what was said in the Treatise on the Church, n. 208.

259. 1. The Roman Pontiff can establish laws for the universal Church, and for any part of it; and indeed either alone, insofar as he is the vicar of Christ, - or with the sacred Council approving, in which case the Bishops are legislators together with him.² And indeed, although he is able by his own authority to make laws, sometimes it is expedient that a Council, whether provincial or ecumenical, be convoked, for knowing better what abuses have crept into various parts of the Church, and by what means he may be able to remedy them; moreover, those things which have been decreed by common counsel are more efficaciously put into execution with concordant mind. - An Ecumenical Council enjoys the same universal authority as the Pontiff himself (On the Church, n. 211-216).

² De Ecclesia, n. 199-216.

260. 2. A Bishop can make laws for his own diocese, either in synod (that is, with the pastors of his diocese and others to be called by law convoked), or outside synod, - yet under the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, who can set certain limits to their power, and can invalidate their laws if he judges them to be contrary to the common good.

Patriarchs, Primates, Metropolitans can indeed make laws for their own diocese; but not for the whole province over which they preside, except in a provincial or plenary Council, namely with the suffragan Bishops concurring, who possess true lawmaking power. In the western Church, before the decrees of a plenary or provincial council are promulgated, they must be reviewed by the Sacred Congregation of the Council, or of Propaganda Fide (where missions are in question), so that they can be amended, if there is need;¹ nevertheless that review in common form² does not give greater force to these decrees, but only shows that nothing stands in the way of their promulgation.

¹ Sixtus V, Const. Immensa, 22 Jan. 1588; cf. Benedict XIV, De synodo, l. XIII, c. 3, n. 3; Pius X, Bull Sapienti consilio, 29 Jun. 1908.

² Decrees are confirmed in solemn form when the Pontiff makes them his own and promulgates them in his own name; this is not customarily done today.

261. By common ecclesiastical right, Vicars and Prefects Apostolic can make laws for their territory (c. 294, § 1), Abbots and Prelates nullius (c. 323), major Superiors and, according to the norm of the Constitutions, Chapters in exempt clerical religions (cc. 198, § 1, 501, § 1). - By particular ecclesiastical right, legates, nuncios, and others can make laws according to the tenor of their faculties.

Abbesses or superioresses, and rectors of lower communities, namely parishes, monasteries, sodalities, universities, etc., do not enjoy legislative power.

— Hierarchy means the same as sacred principate or ecclesiastical power. But subjectively it designates the order of persons who participate in that power in various degree. A twofold hierarchy is distinguished, according to the twofold power which belongs to the Church: the power of order and the power of jurisdiction.

The hierarchy of order consists of bishops, priests, and ministers.

The hierarchy of jurisdiction strictly embraces only those persons who possess ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the external forum, and possess it in a certain perfect grade, i.e., one which comprehends legislative, judicial, and coercive power. Less strictly it is constituted by all persons who participate in some jurisdiction of the external forum.

Each hierarchy is of divine origin; but as to the persons in whom it exists, the hierarchy, at least of jurisdiction, is participated by some by divine right, by others by human right, and this either by ordinary right or by delegated right. Finally, one is in a college, another in an individual person.

By divine right jurisdiction is possessed by the Roman Pontiff, by bishops (in general, insofar as Christ wills that in the Church there be a grade of episcopal jurisdiction), and by a general council with the Pope. The other jurisdictions are of human right.

These grades, moreover, must be indicated.

— I. The Supreme Pontiff, to whom the fullness of power belongs, with jurisdiction also immediate over all the baptized.

To exercise his universal jurisdiction, he uses the Sacred Congregations, Tribunals, and Offices of the Roman Curia; to prove and exercise his immediate jurisdiction, he sends Legates. These, in extraordinary circumstances, are Legates a latere; but in ordinary circumstances, Nuncios or Internuncios, if at the same time they represent the Apostolic See before the civil government; Apostolic Delegates, if merely in the territory assigned to them they must observe the state of the churches and report on it to the Roman Pontiff (c. 267); to fulfill his office of spreading the Gospel he uses Apostolic Vicars, Apostolic Prefects, or Superiors of missions in a prefecture not yet erected.

Moreover, in regions separated from a diocese, he constitutes Abbots nullius or Prelates nullius (understand: of a diocese). And in the dioceses themselves he also communicates jurisdiction to Prelates of clerical religions, which at the same time, by a general reason prudently tempered, he has made exempt from episcopal jurisdiction.

The subject of the same universal power, inadequately distinct from the former, is the Ecumenical Council, which the Supreme Pontiff alone convokes, directs, and closes.

— II. Residential bishops with perfect ordinary power govern a diocese under the authority of the Roman Pontiff. He, saving special concessions, freely names the same. Before they begin to exercise the office of ordinary and immediate pastor, they must take possession of the diocese; this requires that, by themselves or by a procurator, they show the apostolic letters to the chapter of the cathedral church, or, if this is lacking, to the episcopal council (c. 334).

Besides residential bishops, there are titular bishops, to whom an ancient see is assigned as a title, which now belongs to places of the missions. Those places are administered through Vicars or Prefects, so that titular bishops enjoy no power in the church from which they borrow the name.

In the diocesan curia there occurs the Vicar General (in large dioceses two or more are constituted), named by the bishop, who participates in the ordinary power of the bishop. He is also called the Ordinary of the place ¹, and, except for affairs which require a special mandate or which the bishop has reserved to himself, he can do those things which pertain to the ordinary power of the bishop, and also, for the most part, those things which are conceded to the bishop by faculties received from the Holy See.

The bishop must also name a chancellor, who takes care of the diocesan archive, and by that very fact is a notary (c. 372); and an Official with ordinary power of judging (c. 1573).

In administering the diocese he is assisted by the chapter of the cathedral church, whose counsel at times, at other times whose consent itself, he must seek. That chapter is composed of canons.

Diocesan consultors in dioceses where a chapter is lacking supply the place of this chapter for the governance of the diocese (c. 427).

Dioceses have customarily been divided into various districts or deaneries, over which a Vicar Forane or Dean is placed. He must hold conferences of the clergy and, in the manner prescribed to him by the bishop, watch over the discipline of his district.

But in the spiritual care of his diocese, the bishop obtains as cooperators pastors, to whom a distinct part of the diocesan community is entrusted to be cared for. That part for the most part and of itself is distinguished by territory; there are, however, personal parishes, which are constituted for persons of a certain origin, of a certain rite, indeed of a certain family. Assistant vicars, or cooperators, are often present to pastors.

The diocesan synod, which the bishop must celebrate at least every ten years (c. 356), and by which he gathers his clergy, is not properly a council, since the bishop alone there establishes or promulgates his statutes.

When the episcopal see is vacant, the ordinary authority of the bishop passes into the cathedral chapter, or, where there is no cathedral chapter, into the assembly of diocesan consultors (c. 427). Within eight days the chapter, or that assembly, must constitute one capitular Vicar, and transfer all its jurisdiction into him.

¹ Thus c. 198 expressly has it. Sometimes, however, the context shows that only he who is the head of a diocese or region is designated by this name.

— III. Several bishops make up an ecclesiastical Province, over which a Metropolitan or Archbishop presides, with power limited to the cases contained in law. He is the judge of appeal, and, in defined cases, supplies for negligent bishops. Provincial bishops are called suffragans of the Metropolitan.

The Metropolitan himself once and for all must, with the Apostolic See approving, designate the local Ordinary to whom appeal is made from causes which in the first instance were treated before the Metropolitan (c. 1591).

A provincial Council, of which the most important part is the bishops of the province, although others also must be called, is to be celebrated at least every twentieth year; and bishops sui iuris, or those who immediately depend on the Supreme Pontiff, must choose the metropolitan whose provincial council they themselves attend ¹.

In the Western Church, Patriarchs and Primates bear merely an honorific title. Not so in the East, where Patriarchs, under the Supreme Pontiff, are the supreme pastors of some rite.

¹ The same must be done by an archbishop who is not a metropolitan, or who has no one as suffragan, as for example the archbishop of Catania.

— IV. The Ordinaries of several ecclesiastical provinces can come together in a plenary Council, after permission has nevertheless been sought from the Roman Pontiff, who designates his Legate to convoke the council and preside over it (c. 282).

— 1. For the universal Church, the Roman Pontiff, whether alone or in an Ecumenical Council. He is bound by no special form. Sometimes he makes laws through the Roman Congregations themselves, concerning which below, in the appendix on the Roman Curia.

2. Within the ambit of a general or particular mandate, Legates of the Supreme Pontiff and the Sacred Roman Congregations, for example, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in the territory subject to it. We shall treat of these Congregations in the appendix on the Roman Curia.

3. For the territory of each, the plenary Council and the provincial Council. But the decrees of either Council, before they are promulgated, must have been reviewed by the Sacred Congregation of the Council.

4. For their diocese or quasi-diocese, bishops and prelates of similar jurisdiction: Prelates nullius, Apostolic Vicars and Prefects.

5. For the diocese also, when the See is vacant, the Chapter of the cathedral church and the capitular Vicar: insofar as there is need, and with nothing innovated.

6. For the religion subject to them, the general chapters of regular Orders and of exempt clerical religions. Congregations or general chapters of lay or non-exempt religions are without jurisdiction. They establish ordinances, which for the most part are not perpetual, but are in force until the next chapter, by the force of a certain domestic or dominative power, which is measured according to vows or promises made (Cf. Wernz, t. 1, n. 94).

What particular chapters or the supreme Prelate alone can do must be gathered from the various Constitutions. In the Society of Jesus, the Superior General can establish ordinances which, although they are not of the same grade as the decrees of general Congregations, nevertheless have the force of law to some extent; while in the same Society and in many religions, provincial congregations are destitute of all jurisdiction.

— You ask what laws can be made by bishops?

Bishops by their laws can establish nothing against common law or against the decrees of a plenary or provincial council. Wherefore, unless the superior law itself expressly grants this, they can neither prohibit what law expressly permits, nor permit what it prohibits, nor order matters which are reserved to the Holy See. Therefore this power of bishops has this scope, that they determine more particularly the more universal laws of the Church and apply them to the diocese. Cf. Wernz, II, n. 756.

Those laws can be made both within and outside a synod. The things which are ordered in synod are judged to be true laws; but those which are promulgated outside synod, according to a sufficiently approved opinion, are rather regarded as precepts, unless they affect all diocesan persons, or unless the bishop has clearly signified the mind of establishing a law ¹, for example, for the Clergy. Cf. Lehmk. I, 213.

Observe that synodal statutes are subject to no Roman review.

¹ This will now happen more easily, since synods are to be assembled much more rarely than before the Code. By the Council of Trent annual meetings were established.

324. All those can make law who enjoy perfect public power of ruling, or political jurisdiction, over a perfect community or a part of it. In the Church, power, from the will of Christ, belongs by ordinary divine right to the Supreme Pontiff (Mt. XVI, 19; Jn. XXI, 15-18) and to bishops (Mt. XVIII, 18; XXVIII, 20); by ecclesiastical right it can be conceded also to others. But one kind is called ordinary, had by force of one's own office; another delegated, from a special commission of him who has ordinary power (c. 197, § 1). Hence they can make laws who enjoy:

2. This is always vicarious, or to be exercised in the name of another; but ordinary power can be proper or vicarious according as it is exercised in one's own name or in the name of another. But that difference does not regard legislative power.

a) ordinary perfect jurisdiction in the external forum:

1. the Supreme Pontiff for the whole world and any part of it (c. 218), whether alone, or with others, e.g., Roman Congregations, by whose aid he composes or issues decrees which he himself confirms;

2. a Council: an ecumenical council (c. 228) confirmed by the Roman Pontiff (c. 227) for the whole Church; a plenary council for its territory (c. 290), e.g., a national council for a nation, a provincial council for a province; but the decrees of particular councils cannot be promulgated before they have been reviewed by the Sacred Congregation of the Council (c. 291, § 1); likewise a diocesan synod for a diocese (c. 356);

3. bishops for their subjects, even outside a synod (c. 362); likewise, when the see is vacant, the chapter of the cathedral church (c. 429 and 431) or the college of consultors (c. 427) and the capitular vicar (c. 435), although this is not expedient unless for urging laws previously enacted or there is need during a very long vacancy, yet in such a way that "nothing be innovated" (c. 436); likewise those who exercise episcopal jurisdiction, such as prelates nullius and exempt prelates for the territory subject to them (c. 323); likewise apostolic vicars and prefects for their region (c. 294), and apostolic administrators permanently constituted (c. 315);

4. religious Orders and exempt clerical religions in general chapter (c. 501, § 1);

b) or jurisdiction delegated by the Pontiff: legates, nuncios, etc., for the region to which they are sent and according to the tenor of the concession and of their faculties; likewise vicars general by special delegation of the bishop;

c) but not those who lack such jurisdiction:

1. rectors of lower communities: parishes, monasteries, sodalities, universities, a non-exempt religion (c. 501, § 1), etc.; their statutes, however, can have the force of obligating from the pact or vow of subjects, or from dominative authority, or from the will of the legislator;

2. superiors general or general chapters of a lay religion even if exempt, because only clerics are able to obtain jurisdiction in the Church (c. 118);

3. abbesses or superioresses: for although by domestic authority they can command, nevertheless no power of jurisdiction in the Church belongs to women.

A legislator is called a superior in whom there is present either independent and supreme power, or subordinate power, of making laws for a community over which he has jurisdiction.

I say, 1st. The Church has the power of establishing laws which conduce to the end proper to herself. The reason is that the Church is a perfect society in her own kind, and therefore she ought to be able to provide for her own governance, which she obtains through legislative power. The positive arguments are handed down more fully by the canonists.

I say, 2nd. Those who hold supreme power in civil society can establish laws which conduce to the end of temporal happiness. For the power of making laws is a necessary means for preserving society. Therefore it ought to be present in him to whom supreme authority over it belongs.

Question 1. Who in the Church possess the faculty of establishing laws?

Response. The Pope, a general Council, Bishops, and particular Councils.

1st. The Pope or Roman Pontiff for the whole Church. For it was said to him in the person of Peter: "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep." John xxi, 15 and 16. - But the word to feed signifies the same as to govern and rule.

2nd. A general Council likewise for the whole Church. For a general Council juridically consists of all the Bishops of the whole world convoked by the Pope, and of the Roman Pontiff, the supreme head of the whole Church, by whose authority its decrees must necessarily be confirmed. Therefore it has the fullest jurisdiction over the universal Church.

3rd. Bishops for the diocese. This is clear from Acts xx, 28: "The Holy Spirit has placed you Bishops to rule the Church of God."

§ 1. Bishops are successors of the Apostles and by divine institution are placed over particular churches, which they govern with ordinary power under the authority of the Roman Pontiff (Can. 329).

§ 1. It is their right and duty to govern the diocese both in spiritual matters and in temporal matters with legislative, judicial, and coercive power, to be exercised according to the norm of the sacred canons.¹

§ 2. Episcopal laws begin to oblige immediately from promulgation, unless something else is provided in them; moreover, the mode of promulgation is determined by the Bishop himself (Can. 335).

And therefore he can also simply make laws even outside a synod and without the chapter having been heard. For to him must be attributed the principal authority of all things to be done. An abbot or prelate nullius has the same ordinary powers which belong to bishops in their own dioceses. Cf. Can. 323, § 1.

Apostolic Vicars and Prefects enjoy in their territory the same rights and faculties which belong to bishops in their own dioceses. Cf. can. 294; 323, § 1; 198, § 11. Concerning Apostolic Administrators, see canons 312-318.

Archbishops, however, and Patriarchs cannot make laws for the diocesans of their suffragans, because they are not their superiors properly so called, although they can settle lawsuits brought before them.

4th. Particular Councils for the province. For if Bishops, taken separately, are able to establish laws for dioceses, similarly also in a Council, whether plenary for the whole nation or provincial, they can establish laws for the nation or province. Concerning these councils the new Code decrees as follows:

§ 1. When the plenary or provincial Council has been completed, the president is to transmit all the acts and decrees to the Holy See, and these are not to be promulgated before they have been weighed and reviewed by the Sacred Congregation of the Council; moreover, the Fathers of the Council themselves are to designate both the mode of promulgating the decrees and the time at which the decrees, once promulgated, begin to oblige.

§ 2. The decrees of a plenary and provincial Council, once promulgated, oblige in the whole territory of each one, and local Ordinaries cannot dispense from them except in particular cases and for a just cause (Can. 291).

But confirmation of Synods by the Apostolic See can be done in two ways, to be carefully distinguished: in common form, or in specific form. In common form, by which their statutes are neither approved absolutely, nor, much less, sanctioned by Apostolic authority, but are only permitted to be promulgated; in specific form, by which, after diligent examination has been premised, their decrees are confirmed by the Apostolic See motu proprio and from certain knowledge, and therefore put on the nature of pontifical law with regard to those to whom they are directed. - Cf. Bened. XIV, de Synod. dioec. lib. 13, cap. 5, n. 11; and lib. 12, cap. 5, n. 13. - Nevertheless transmission to the Sacred Congregation of the Council, and much less confirmation by the Apostolic See, is not necessary for the statutes of a diocesan Synod.

The Bishop is the only legislator in a Synod, the others having only a consultative vote; he alone subscribes the synodal constitutions; and if these are promulgated in the Synod, by that very fact they begin to oblige, unless something else is expressly provided (Can. 363).

¹ Cf. Addenda, p. 1126, n. 83.

Question 2. Are the statutes of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore to be said to have been approved in common form, or rather in specific form?

Response. It seems it must be said that they were approved only in common form. For the approval which they received was neither given to them from certain and personal knowledge of the Supreme Pontiff, nor with the formalities required for specific form having been employed. This is clear from the letter of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Pius IX, to the Fathers of the Council, where it is said: "As regards the acts of the aforesaid Council ... you will receive a suitable response concerning those same acts from Our Congregation set over the Propagation of the Faith." - Cf. Acta Conc. Plen. Balt. II, p. cxxxv. - It is also clear from the decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith for the recognition of the Council, p. cxxxvi. - Cf. Smith, Elem., vol. 1, n. 74.

Question 3. Must the same be said concerning the statutes of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore?

Response. Affirmatively, as is gathered from the Decree of recognition, which is prefixed to the acts of the Council itself. For there it is said that "the Most Eminent Fathers set over the Sacred Council for Propagating the Christian Name, in general meetings held on the days 17, 24, 27, and 31 of the month of August, and also on the 5th day of September in the year 1885, after diligent inquiry had been employed, and after all things had been weighed with careful study and due maturity of judgment, examined the Decrees of the same Council and, with some emendations and modifications added, recognized them, that they may be observed inviolably by all to whom it pertains." Then it is added: "Moreover, His Holiness deigned benignly to approve this sentence of the Sacred Congregation, reported to the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII by the Most Reverend Lord Dominic Jacobini, Secretary of the same Sacred Congregation, in the Audience of the 10th day of September 1885, and commanded that the present Decree be issued concerning these things."

Question 4. Can the Administrator of a Diocese, while the see is vacant, Prelates of Religious, and Abbesses or Superioresses of Nuns establish laws?

Response, 1st. The administrator of a vacant diocese has all and only those faculties which belong to a Capitular Vicar, and therefore, just as ordinary episcopal jurisdiction passes to the latter, so it passes to the former, in spiritual and temporal matters, excepting those things which in law are expressly prohibited to him. Hence he cannot innovate or abrogate anything, but can only govern the Diocese according to laws already existing. Yet he can make statutes which would be necessary for the circumstances, so that laws already made may have force. Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 104. - Cf. Can. 431, § 2; 435, § 1, 2, 3; 436.

Response, 2nd. Chapters or general Congregations and Prelates of Religious are able to establish true laws, within the limits of their jurisdiction, according to the proper constitutions of the Order. For they have statutes approved by the Supreme Pontiff, which bestow this faculty upon them.

Response, 3rd. Abbesses or Superioresses of Nuns cannot make laws properly so called, since they are not capable of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. They can, however, exact obedience in conscience concerning things commanded, or concerning those things which conduce to the progress of the Nuns according to the rules. For they have the right of commanding both from the vow of obedience emitted by the subjects, and from the necessity of discipline which ought to be preserved in a community.