AMOTION. — Amotion (or removal or more often deprivation, though the latter term is generally used when it involves a penal sanction) is the dismissal of the holder of an ecclesiastical office; this sometimes occurs ipso iure, as a consequence of a penal conviction (cf. cann. 2266 and 2396–98), while at other times it must be pronounced by ecclesiastical authority. In addition to the distinction between amovible and inamovible offices, with regard to the causes that may legitimize dismissal, it should be noted that for the second category of offices, unlike the first, dismissal cannot take place except following a regular judicial process (cf. cann. 192, § 2 and 1576, § 1); for the removal of parish priests, a special administrative procedure is established, which is more complex for inamovible parish priests than for amovible ones (cf. cann. 2147–2161).
Properly speaking, promotion of the holder of an office to a higher office and transfer from one office to another do not fall under amotion (v. also AMOVIBILITY). PIO CIPRIOTTI.
BIBL.:
Cipriotti P., *De amotione*, Roma 1940.