CAPPELLANO. — In the generic sense, the term is often used to designate the priest entrusted with the care of a chapel or oratory without pastoral care. In the strict sense, it expresses the specific designation of the priest assigned to religious service among certain institutions (female religious communities, male lay orders, confraternities and pious associations, the army, the pontifical household, courts, noble families, educational institutions, charitable institutions, hospitals, prisons, etc.), or bound by special obligations of Masses and worship in the so-called ecclesiastical or lay chaplaincies (cann. 451, § 3, 479, § 2, 529, 698, 1412, n. 2). This latter sense is particularly proper and predominant in civil legislation concerning ecclesiastical matters.
In the canonical order, the c. has its own juridical status, partly reproducing that of the parish priest and the rector of a church, while at the same time distinguishing him from both. The parish priest is the holder of pastoral care in a parish, a territorial entity, whereas the c. either has no pastoral care or, if he does (military, palatine, noble chaplains, etc.), exercises it as a personal office for the benefit of social groups determined qualitatively rather than territorially. Likewise, while the office of rector is considered exclusively in relation to a church, the office of c. is instead considered chiefly in relation to the juridical person for whose benefit it is established (can. 479).
In non-exempt lay orders, both male and female, the appointment and removal of the c. belong to the ordinary of the place; in exempt orders, on the other hand, he is designated by the regular superior, with the bishop taking his place in this matter in the event of negligence (can. 529). The appointment and removal of the c. in confraternities and other canonically erected and approved associations of the faithful likewise belong to the Ordinary of the place, except where an apostolic privilege provides otherwise; an exception is made for those erected by religious in their own churches, for which the Ordinary’s consent is required only when the c. is chosen from among the secular clergy (cann. 698, § 1, and 3; 480, § 2).
As regards rights and duties, the position of the c. must be determined in each case from the statutes or foundation deeds, from particular law, where it exists, from the prescriptions of the Ordinary, and from the legitimate customs of the place. The competence of the c. generally corresponds to the degree of autonomy enjoyed, in relation to the parish priest of the place, by the respective juridical person to which he is attached. The total exemption of the juridical person—for example, a religious community, a prison, a hospital, etc. (cann. 615, 464, § 2)—as a rule authorizes the c. to exercise, in its interest, the same functions that would by right belong to the parish priest. Thus, if the persons concerned are religious women not subject to the jurisdiction of the parish priest, the right and duty to administer the last Sacraments to them and to conduct their funerals belong to the c. (cann. 514, § 3, 1230, § 5).
If the entities in question are confraternities, pious associations, or other institutions possessing their own public church (not attached to a religious house), their respective c. also assumes the role of rector of that church, with all the corresponding rights and duties, as well as all the limitations and safeguards imposed by law upon rectors so as not to disturb parish services or harm the ministry of pastoral care (cann. 481–83, 1345). The same rights and duties as those of church rectors also belong to the c. of confraternities and pious associations in the oratories and chapels of their respective sodalities, even when these are not public churches, although, naturally, in such a case they cannot be described as true rectors in the strict sense (can. 479, 1). All these persons also have the faculty to bless and impose upon candidates the habit or scapular of the association; as regards preaching, however, they are subject to common law (can. 698, 2).