OCR Text |
Show CONSIDERATIONS OU" CANON LAW. (New York Freeman's Journal.) To the Bishop's conscience 13 left the rejection of the candidate who may-have may-have appeared to the Synodal Kxamin- ers by far the most worthy, if th Bishop from the watchtower from which he sees the diocese had discovered! discov-ered! in him serious wrong doing which may bo entirely unknown to them. A3, however, this candidate for the parish par-ish has a right to appeal front the Bishop's decision, tho Bishep must fortify himself with evidence of the supposed wrong-doing, which he must bu ready to present to the Holy See, to which recourse i provided by the Council of Trent, which allowed in extraordinary er:ses such extra judicial judi-cial power, where it was incumbent to prvent wolves from entering the fold in sheep's clothing. Without this sufficient suffi-cient evidence the Holy See; wemH follow tho law of equity and reverb the illegal rejection. A special provision i also made in favor of a candidates who, because of his holding a high position in th- diocese, dio-cese, or because of prolonged work for the welfare of the Church, is recognized recog-nized to have given ample proof of his learning, the Bishop, after obtaining tho opinion of the Synodal Examiners, may exempt such a candidate from this examination. In Germany and in other countries a. custom wa.T introduced of basing th judgment with regard to leaning upon a general examination of the clergy for any vacane ien of parishes which might occur within six years from the time of the examination, then as a vacancy occurred oc-curred the Synodal Examiners should pass judgment on the? other requisite in the candidate;! for the parish for which they may make application. The Holy See has granted the privi- lege of following this custom to any of the dioceses in the United States whro beeautVJ of th- fix tent of the diocese, or tho great distances; to be traveled or for any other serious inconvenience, i' should become a hardship to have this examination each time there was a vacancy va-cancy to he filled. It has not come to our knowledge that any dioces-o ha? as yet availed itself it-self cif this privilege. After the six year?, another examination would be necesJiiry before an irremovable rectorship rec-torship could be bestowed. The special privilege that follows-, the bestowal e,f an irremovable rectonhi; i. is not thnt the rector cannot be removed re-moved at all. but that for the removal there must be a cause fixed by th'j canons, and proven by the regular procedure pro-cedure of law. To the causes laid down for the removal of parish priests the older canons, ther" are add-d . I by the third Council of Baltimore several sev-eral others which are recognized to seriously endanger, especially in this country, the welfare; of the Church. Such are an unreasonable and serious infraction of important regulations made for. the temporal administration of the mission or for the relief of the diocesan burdens: a persistent rej-fusal rej-fusal after repeated warnings to maintain main-tain Catholic schools or to establish them where the mature judgment of j the Ordinary requires it; the rash burdening bur-dening a pari;h with debt, even after warning and against the Bishop's con- . ' sent, and a clear, unreasonable refusal to meet the dbts already incurred; as also a combination with the lay trustees trus-tees for a falsification of the Church's inctebtedness and again a falsification of th annual report of the tenirKraI or spiritual state of the parish such a.s to seriously misJead the Bishop and cause serious harm to tho parish; finally a persistent ill-repute affecting the priestly character to the serious injury of souls. In caso the irremovable rector, without with-out fault of his. should become or ba found to be notoriously and permanently permanent-ly incapable of managing the misdion, he should be led to resign of his own accord the rectorship. If this were found impracticable, an administrator , should be appointed. If the revenues of the mission should not permit the extra expense that this appointment of an administrator might entail, the rector may then against his will be removed, but such provision must be made for his maintenance as will be found suitable in the opinion of the diocesan consultors; however, the title of "Rector Emeritus" will be secured to him. As the salvation of the people is the supreme law which govern the Church, there is provided a remedy ; that all must recognize as not unrea- j sonable. The proverb that one must suffer,, even die, for the welfare of tho : people, is true, though it may at times seem to entail hardshipon an individual. individ-ual. Yet this rule should never be allowed al-lowed to cover injustice. At times there arises among a people an unreasoning dislike and even hatred for a pastor, whose ministrations become? so distasteful dis-tasteful that souls are in clear danger of perishing it he is not removed. This may occur even from some good work and zeal displayed by the pastor; the opposition may be founded on error. As long as there is a chance by proper explanation of doing away with such oppesition, every reasonable mear.s must bo used; but where it has becoma useless, the removal is lawful. Yet it must be so carried out as to save the honor of the removed pastor. There is no doubt that in the case of the irremovable ir-removable rector, all this must ba shown clearly through the canonical procedure prescribed by the third plenary ple-nary Council of Baltimore, under guidance guid-ance of tho Holy See. A FRIEND OP LAW. |