Chapter V

A.Power of Governance
B.Ecclesiastical Offices
C.Prescription
D.The Reckoning of Time
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

FAITHFUL

HIERARCHY LAY RELIGIOUS

PRIESTLY PROPHETIC KINGLY

 POWER OF GOVERNANCE
Hierarchy Lay Religious

Priestly

Prophetic

Kingly
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE
Hierarchy Lay Religious

Priestly Ministerial
Sacramental

Prophetic Teaching
(bishop-fullness)
(priest-participation)

Kingly Governing
(bishop-fullness)
(priest-participation)
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE
Hierarchy Lay Religious

Priestly Ministerial Common

Sacramental Priesthood

Prophetic Teaching Participation

(bishop-fullness)
(priest-participation)

Kingly Governing Participation

(bishop-fullness)
(priest-participation)
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE
Hierarchy Lay Religious

Priestly Ministerial Common Ministerial/

Sacramental Priesthood Common

Prophetic Teaching Participation Participation

(bishop-fullness)
(priest-participation)

Kingly Governing Participation Participation

(bishop-fullness)
(priest-participation)
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE
Hierarchy

Priestly Bishop’s power

• Ordinary
• Proper

• From consecration and hierarchical act

Prophetic (munera and potestas)

Priest’s power
Kingly • Participation in the Bishop’s potestas
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

Power of Governance
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

Power of Governance

Legislative
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

Power of Governance

Legislative Executive
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

Power of Governance

Legislative Executive Judicial

 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

FACULTIES
• A faculty is a grant by a higher authority
enabling a subordinate to act in a way that the
recipient would not otherwise be empowered or
authorized to act.
• Habitual faculties are habitually delegated power
of governance. They are directed to the
governance of the Church and are not primarily
favors granted to a person. Thus it stays with
the office, not the person.
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

LOCAL ORDINARIES (cf. c. 134)

• Equivalent to a bishop
• Vicars general
• Episcopal vicars

(who have at least ordinary executive power)

 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

ORDINARY DELEGATED
• Attached to a • When it is conferred
specific office by upon a person by
reason of law itself. special concession,
(e.g. Diocesan Bishop either by the law
has legislative, itself or by someone
executive, and judicial enjoying the
power in his diocese) ordinary power of
governance.
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

Cessation of Ordinary Power

1. Loss of an office (both ordinary and vicarious
power)
2. Excommunication
3. Suspension (all or some acts)
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

Delegated power ceases:

1. By the fulfillment of the mandate
2. By the lapse of time or by the completion of the
number of cases for which it is granted
3. By the cessation of the final cause of the
delegation
4. By the revocation of the one delegating, directly
communicated – i.e. communicating officially to
the delegate
5. By the resignation of the delegate, made known to
and accepted by the one delegating
 POWER OF GOVERNANCE

PROPER VICARIOUS
• Exercised by the • Although attached
person who holds a to a particular
particular office office, it is
(e.g. a diocesan exercised by
bishop acting in his someone who is
own name.) specifically acting
in the name of the
office holder (e.g.
vicars general,
Episcopal vicars,
judicial vicars)
 Chapter V
A.Power of Governance
B.Ecclesiastical Offices
C.Prescription
D.The Reckoning of Time
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES

The creation of an office assures that important

functions will be continued in the Church even after
the initial officeholder is no longer available.

ordination office

Ordained for service in a

particular locality.
(4th century)
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES

(middle ages)
Absolute ordination. Ordination was no longer tied
to a specified place.

Ecclesiastical office became increasingly a clerical

concern: only ecclesiastics could confer an office in
the Church, and eventually only clergy could be
named to Church offices.
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES

(1917 Code)
Offices (broad sense) – any function performed for a
spiritual purpose.
(narrow sense) – any function constituted in a stable
manner by divine or ecclesiastical ordinance, to be
conferred according to the norms of canon law,
involving at least some participation in the powers
of either orders or jurisdiction.
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES

(c 145, §1 of the 1983 Code)

An ecclesiastical office is any function constituted
in a stable manner by divine or ecclesiastical
ordinance to be exercised for a spiritual
purpose.

There are 4 key concepts of an ecclesiastical office

in the 1983 Code.
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
1.An office is a • Doing something on behalf of
FUNCTION the church and of Christ
• Frequently used for the
threefold ministry of Christ.
Offices in the Church
participate in the functions in
various ways
• Some offices are constitutional,
central to the organization and
functioning of the Church as
the continuation of Christ’s
mission (Pope, Bishop, Pastor)
• Responsibility may be carried
out individually or collectively
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
1. An office is a • Ordinance is a broader term for
FUNCTION “law”

2.An ecclesiastical • Church offices are not created

office must be by secular authorities. They
CONSTITUTED BY must have an appropriate
DIVINE OR canonical origin
ECCLESIASTICAL • Offices arise from divine
ORDINANCE ordinance (petrine ministry,
bishops)
• Offices exist when the juridic
structure they serve is created
• Offices are created when a law
creates them
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
1. An office is a • Objective sense – the office
FUNCTION continues even when there is no
more officeholder
2. An ecclesiastical
office must be • Subjective sense – the person
CONSTITUTED BY named for the office holds it for
DIVINE OR a notable period of time
ECCLESIASTICAL • ‘stability’ in the code is in the
ORDINANCE objective sense
3.An office is • Stability does not mean an office
CONSTITUTED IN is perpetual
A STABLE
MANNER
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
1. An office is a • Salus animarum suprema lex
FUNCTION • When a function is constituted
2. An ecclesiastical as an ecclesiastical office, the
office must be effect is that the person who
CONSTITUTED BY performs that function for a
DIVINE OR spiritual purpose does so in the
ECCLESIASTICAL name of the Church
ORDINANCE • The spiritual purpose is provided
3. An office is not on the initiative of the
CONSTITUTED IN A individual, but primarily as an
STABLE MANNER act of the Church.

4.An office is
constituted for a
SPIRITUAL
PURPOSE.
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
Practical importance of the erection of a position as an
ecclesiastical office:
1. An office is a commitment by church officials to the
people of God, that this function is important enough
to be assured on their behalf, even when the initial
officeholder is no longer available
2. It provides a procedure for appointment
3. Each office has its own “job description”. The
officeholder is presumed to be free to do what is
needed to carry out the obligations and rights of the
office without need for further authorization, unless
explicitly required
4. The law establishes criteria and procedures for loss of
office
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
The Provision of Ecclesiastical Office

1.Free Conferral • Diocesan bishop provides for

offices in the diocese
• Same authority who selects the
candidate and confers the office
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
The Provision of Ecclesiastical Office

1. Free Conferral • A person or group of persons

select one or more candidates,
2.Presentation
but a separate authority
installs/confers the office.
• Presentation gives the candidate
no right to the office, but does
limit the competent authority to
considering only the
candidate(s) presented
• Presentation must be made
within 3 months of notice of
vacancy. There is no time limit
set for conferring
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
The Provision of Ecclesiastical Office

1. Free Conferral • An electoral body selects the

candidate for an office
2. Presentation
• The elected person obtains the
3.Election
office either by accepting the
election, or by being confirmed
by a competent authority
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
The Provision of Ecclesiastical Office

1. Free Conferral • An electoral body elects a

candidate who is canonically
2. Presentation
impeded from an office
3. Election
• A competent authority must
4.Postulation determine whether to admit the
postulation and grant a
dispensation from the
impediment
• Postulation means that the
electors request a higher
authority to dispense from an
impediment which stands in the
way of electing a best suited
person
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
Loss of Office
• Request initiated by an 1.Resignation
officeholder to leave the office.
• Anyone responsible for oneself
can resign from an ecclesiastical
office for a just cause (cf.c.187)
• Resignation must be made to
the authority providing the
office, be done in writing, or
orally in the presence of 2
witnesses
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
Loss of Office
• Initiated by the competent 1. Resignation
authority and results in the 2.Transfer
vacancy of one office and the
provision of another
• Can be imposed as penalty
• Can only be made by a person
who has the right of providing
the office which is lost and for
the office which is conferred
• If officeholder is willing, a just
cause is required. If unwilling, a
grave cause is required
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
Loss of Office
• Results in loss of office 1. Resignation

• Differs from transfer in that, of 2. Transfer

itself, it does not include 3.Removal
provision with another office
• Can be initiated by the
authority competent to provide
for the office
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
Loss of Office

The following are removed from 1. Resignation

an ecclesiastical office by the 2. Transfer
law itself
3.Removal
1. A person who has lost the
clerical state
2. A person who has publicly
defected from the Catholic faith
or from the communion of the
church
3. A cleric who has attempted
marriage even if only civilly
 ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
Loss of Office
• Penal removal from office, one 1. Resignation
of the expiatory penalties
2. Transfer
• Can be imposed only if a delict
3. Removal
has been committed and is
imputable to the officeholder 4.Privation
• The procedures for penal law
must be followed
• Privation cannot be imposed
where the law states simply a
“just penalty” for it is one of the
graver penalties
• Cannot be imposed latae
sententiae
 Chapter V
A.Power of Governance
B.Ecclesiastical Offices
C.Prescription
D.The Reckoning of Time
 PRESCRIPTION

• [what?] Means of acquiring or losing rights

• [how?] By the passage of time under certain
conditions prescribed by law
• [why?] Grounded on societal needs for the peace
and good order that ensue from bringing closure
to disputes
• [effects…] Precludes prolonged uncertainty of
ownership
• Cures transactional defects flowing from failure
to fulfill formalities
• Avoids the brining of stale claims after witnesses
and relevant documentary evidence are no
longer available
 PRESCRIPTION

PRESCRIPTION

ACQUISITIVE LIBERATIVE
• acquisition of rights, • The freeing of
especially ownership oneself of an
of temporal goods obligation
 PRESCRIPTION

The following are not subject to prescription:

1. Rights and obligations which are of the divine natural or
positive law
2. Rights which can be obtained from apostolic privilege alone
3. Rights and obligations which directly regard the spiritual life
of the Christian faithful
4. The certain and undoubted boundaries of ecclesiastical
territories
5. Mass offerings and obligations
6. Provision of an ecclesiastical office which, according to the
norm of law, required the exercise of a sacred order
7. The right of visitation and the obligation of obedience, in
such a way that the Christian faithful cannot be visited by
any ecclesiastical authority or are no longer subject to any
authority
 Chapter V
A.Power of Governance
B.Ecclesiastical Offices
C.Prescription
D.The Reckoning of Time
 RECKONING OF TIME

1.Continuous Time • That which undergoes no

interruption
• Ordinary moment by moment
passage of time
 RECKONING OF TIME

1. Continuous Time • That which is available for the

exercise or pursuit of a right.
2.Useful Time
 RECKONING OF TIME

1. Continuous Time • Period consisting of 24

continuous hours and begins at
2. Useful Time
midnight unless otherwise
3.Day expressly provided.
 RECKONING OF TIME

1. Continuous Time • Period of 7 days

2. Useful Time
3. Day
4.Week
 RECKONING OF TIME

1. Continuous Time • Period of 30 days

2. Useful Time • If computed as tempus utile, a
month always consists of 30
3. Day
unimpeded days.
4. Week
• If computed as continuous time,
5.Month January will be 31 days,
February as 28 or 29, etc.
• If computed as continuous time,
a month is taken as it is in the
calendar.
 RECKONING OF TIME

1. Continuous Time • Period of 365 days

2. Useful Time • If time is continuous, a month
and a year must always be
3. Day
taken as they are in the
4. Week calendar.
5. Month
6.Year
 RECKONING OF TIME

1. Continuous Time • Not computed in the total

2. Useful Time
3. Day
4. Week
5. Month
6. Year
7.Initial day (a
quo)