CAPPELLANO MILITARE

MILITARY CHAPLAIN. —

I. General Considerations

To grasp the notion of a military chaplain, it is helpful to refer back to that of a personal parish priest. Canon law indeed defines the spiritual jurisdiction of the parish priest over the faithful not only in relation to the territory where they have domicile or residence, but also (albeit exceptionally) in relation to the status of the persons, according as they belong to a particular family, estate, class, or finally by the concurrence of both criteria, the local and the personal (cf. also CIC, can. 216 § 4).

A military chaplain may thus be defined as a parish priest (often styled in texts as parochus militum or missionarius exercitus), whose spiritual jurisdiction over the faithful is established by their belonging to a well-defined class: the military.

Yet the jurisdiction of the military chaplain is not always confined to those properly belonging to the military (soldiers, non-commissioned officers, officers of any branch of the state’s armed forces): it sometimes extends to personnel assimilated to the military and even to the families of the military themselves; cf., for example, the decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 8 Dec. 1939 (AAS, 31 [1939], p. 710, and the Concordat with Poland, art. 7).

The reasons why, at all times, the need or expediency has been felt to assign certain priests to the specific task of ministering to the military are self-evident. Membership in the military often entails—especially in time of war—grave difficulties for the faithful in resorting, for their spiritual needs, to the territorial ecclesiastical hierarchy; hence the institution of military chaplains. Without recourse to too remote historical precedents, it suffices to recall the priests who accompanied the legions of Emperor Constantine, those who ministered to the communal militias in battle, the very spiritual care of troops exercised by the glorious monastic-military orders, and, finally, in an era much closer to our own, the almoners of the Sardinian army and the chaplains of the Spanish, Austrian, Neapolitan, etc., armies.

II. DUTIES OF THE MILITARY CHAPLAIN

Under the heading “De parochis,” can. 451 § 3 of the CIC treats the figure

The military chaplain (c. m.) has been treated in the preceding paragraphs alongside the parish priest and those persons who are equated to him. For the military chaplain, the following is established here: “regarding military chaplains, whether superior or inferior, recourse shall be had to the monetary provisions prescribed by the Holy See.”

This is sufficient to warn us that, although it is permissible to define the military chaplain as a personal parish priest, one cannot, however, refer simply and solely to general principles; rather, one must turn to the special law laid down by apostolic provisions regarding spiritual assistance to the troops.

These provisions vary according to the relations existing between the Holy See and the States, but in any case they can be reduced to three categories:

a) Assignment of priests to assist the military, while remaining subject to the exclusive authority of the local Ordinary;

b) Establishment of a superior military chaplain (vicar general or military vicar) to whom more or less extensive faculties are temporarily granted, including the power to subdelegate to other priests;

c) Establishment of an autonomous hierarchical order, in which the military chaplains and the faithful entrusted to their spiritual care are subject to their own Ordinary (military Ordinary), who exercises his jurisdiction explicitly for the purpose of providing, albeit cumulatively with that of the diocesan Ordinaries, and in relation to the latter, in the places destined for the military (barracks, airfields, arsenals, schools, military hospitals, etc.), as declared by the decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 13 April 1940, regarding the jurisdiction of the military Ordinary in Italy (AAS, 32 [1940], p. 280).

It is easy to grasp immediately the difference between the first and the other two types of organization: in the first, the military chaplain exercises his spiritual jurisdiction within the territorial limits of the diocese; in the other two types of organization, he exercises it independently of any territorial relationship.

As a general principle, it may be established that, unless there is a particular apostolic norm which provides otherwise, military chaplains depend on the local Ordinary. Thus, for example, in disputes of competence arising between bishops and royal military vicars in the kingdoms of Spain, Austria, and Naples, the Sacred Congregations always decided in favor of the local Ordinary having the sole right to appoint military chaplains and to grant them the necessary faculties for the fulfillment of their duties. Nor, on the other hand, does the mere appointment of a priest with supervisory functions over military chaplains—such as the appointment of the two inspectors, one for priests and clerics serving in the army, the other for those serving in the French navy, made by decrees of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 19 November 1917 and 30 April 1918 (AAS, 9 [1917], p. 566; 10 [1918], p. 238)—exempt him from the jurisdiction exercised by the local Ordinary.

The military vicar or superior military chaplain, in order to exercise his jurisdiction independently of the local Ordinary, must be vested with the appropriate faculties by the Holy See. This occurred at the beginning of the last world conflict, when by decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 8 December 1939 (cited above), the military vicars or superior military chaplains were expressly granted, for the duration of the war, the faculties listed therein, to be habitually subdelegated to military chaplains or other priests, secular or religious, in military service. Such a regime was established in all nations and regions at war or in a state of mobilization, with the exception, of course, of those already provided with a military organization.

The figure of the military vicar, even if invested with episcopal dignity (field bishop), must therefore be clearly distinguished from that of the military Ordinary: the preeminent distinguishing feature lies precisely in the jurisdiction which the former exercises by delegation, while the latter exercises it *iure proprio*; to this is connected the temporariness of the jurisdiction of the former in contrast to the stability of that of the latter.

As regards the military chaplain, the qualification of personal parish priest and the consequent properly parochial competencies must certainly be recognized in the case of the subject under the jurisdiction of the military Ordinary, whereas they should be excluded in the case of the priest who exercises his ministry by virtue of the faculties subdelegated to him by the military vicar. Moreover, the military chaplain who enjoys parochial competencies does not exercise them in relation to all military personnel, but only in relation to those belonging to the unit or units to whose spiritual care he is specifically assigned; this has recently been clarified in Italy by a specific decree of the military order.

Spiritual assistance to the military has often been regulated by concordats, as, for example, in Spain, Austria, Lithuania, Germany, and Poland. In the Concordat with Poland (10 February 1925), it is expressly stipulated (art. 7) that military chaplains have, with regard to the faithful subject to them, the rights of a parish priest and that they exercise the functions of their ministry under the jurisdiction of a bishop (*évêque d’armée*), who has the right to choose them.

III. THE MILITARY CHAPLAIN IN ITALY

With regard to Italy, the regime in force at the time of the First World War was undoubtedly that of the military vicar, whose office was established within the state system by Royal Decree-Law of 27 June 1915, no. 1022, and abolished by Royal Decree of 29 October 1922, no. 1552, by which military chaplains were also abolished, with the exception of some retained for the navy, for the collection of the remains of the war dead, and for the arrangement of war cemeteries. These represented, so to speak, the germ that continued the life of the organization until the establishment of the military order, which was canonically erected by decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 6 March 1925 and recognized by the Italian State by law of 11 March 1926, no. 417.

The Concordat with Italy (11 February 1929) found this situation in place and regulated it in articles 13, 14, and 15, followed by the law of 27 May 1929, no. 848, containing norms regarding appointments to ecclesiastical offices and benefices (art. 3), the Royal Decree of 25 November 1929, no. 2184, and finally the law of 16 January 1936, no. 77, with its implementing regulation contained in the Royal Decree of 10 February 1936, no. 474. From this complex of norms and other supplementary provisions, the special structure given in Italy to the service of spiritual assistance to the armed forces emerges (art. 1 of the Law of 16 January 1936). The military order, whose jurisdiction extends to the army, navy, air force, finance police, prison guards, fire brigade, military personnel of the Italian Red Cross and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as well as male and female religious personnel attached to military hospitals, is vested with the dignity of archbishop (art. 13, paragraph 3 of the Concordat) and is placed in charge of the Chapter of the church of the Pantheon in Rome (art. 15). Its appointment, along with that of its immediate assistants (vicar general and inspectors), is made, upon designation by the Holy See, by decree of the President of the Republic, proposed by the President of the Council of Ministers, in agreement with the Minister of the Interior. The appointment of military chaplains is likewise made by decree of the President of the Republic, but upon proposal of the competent minister and upon designation by the military Ordinary.

Requirements for the appointment of priests, secular or religious, to the office of military chaplain are Italian citizenship and enjoyment of civil rights, as well as age under forty years. Preference is given to those who have served in war or have earned military distinctions (art. 6 of the Law of 16 January 1936).

The same law provides (art. 8 and 9) for the assimilation of rank (respectively of the military order to the rank of divisional general, of the vicar general to that of brigadier general, of the inspectors to that of lieutenant colonel, and finally of chief military chaplains and military chaplains to the rank of captain and lieutenant), the economic treatment of the ecclesiastical personnel attached to the assistance of the armed forces, as well as (art. 17) their subjection to military penal and disciplinary jurisdiction, limited to cases of total or partial mobilization or the outbreak of hostilities, and always subject to the opinion of the military order.