COADJUTOR. - A coadiutore is the holder of a coadiutoria, that is, the cleric whose task it is to assist or supply for a beneficed person in the fulfillment of the functions inherent in his office. The granting of a coadiutore, with or without future succession, is reserved to the Holy See (can. 1433).
A coadiutore can be given especially to bishops, canons and parish priests.
I. THE COADJUTOR OF BISHOPS
He is customarily granted to a bishop when the latter, either because of personal impediments or because of the size of the diocese, is rendered unequal to discharging his office worthily (cann. 350-55). He can be given to the person, with or without future succession, or, more rarely, to the see. He is a coadjutor in the strict sense when he is given to the person with the right of succession: given to the person without such a right, he takes the specific designation of auxiliary.
If the coadjuted bishop is entirely incapable of the office, the coadjutor given to the person acquires all the powers and rights of the Ordinary: but if the former is not entirely incapable, he has only those powers that will be delegated to him by the former. The coadjutor given to the see has no jurisdiction beyond what can be entrusted to him by the bishop or by the Holy See: he can, however, exercise within the territory of the diocese all the functions proper to the episcopal order, except sacred ordination.
Given to the person, with the right of succession, he succeeds by right the coadjuted bishop as Ordinary of the diocese as soon as the vacancy of the see occurs (hence art. 19 of the Italian Concordat prescribes for the appointment of such coadjutors the same formalities prescribed for the appointment of bishops); given to the see, without future succession, he continues in office even during the vacancy. The auxiliary, on the other hand, ceases from office when the residential bishop ceases from his own.
The practice of assigning to residential bishops coadjutors without jurisdiction (auxiliares or vicarii in pontificalibus) seems originally to be confused with the institution of the chorepiscopus (v.). Once the chorepiscopi were suppressed (8th century), residential bishops availed themselves, in cases of need, of the work of pilgrim bishops or bishops emigrated from dioceses occupied by infidels. Inconveniences and abuses led Clement V to prohibit their ordination without the authorization of the Holy See (c. 5 in Clem. 1, 3). Subsequently the vicarii in pontificalibus were permitted only for special reasons relating to the person of the residential bishop or because of the size of the diocese, in which case it was customary to grant them to the see even in a stable manner. This practice is at present sanctioned in the CIC.
Of coadjutor bishops with jurisdiction, constituted for the most part with the right of succession, there are examples from the earliest centuries of the Church. Alexander of Jerusalem (212), Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea and Augustine of Hippo, in their respective sees, were coadjutors before they were Ordinaries. These were, however, exceptions, since it was then held that such a practice clashed with the conciliar provisions of the time forbidding a plurality of pastors in individual dioceses (c. 5, 6, C. VII, q. 1; Council of Nicaea c. 8; c. 14, X, 1, 31). Later, however, a more benign interpretation prevailed, especially in view of the urgent needs that had to be provided for (c. 5, X, 3, 6). Boniface VIII expressly reserved to the Holy See the granting of a coadjutor with the right of succession (c. 1 in Sexto, 3, 5, n. 11). The Council of Trent, while generally abrogating expectatives for any ecclesiastical benefice and, in particular, all coadjutorships with the right of succession, made an express exception for the coadjutors of bishops when the urgens necessitas or the evident utilitas of the cathedral church counseled granting them (sess. XXIV, c. 19 de ref.; sess. XXV, c. 7 de ref.). In the current CIC the matter is regulated in cann. 350-55.
II. THE COADJUTOR OF THE CANONS
The coadjutor given to the canons of a Chapter with the right of future succession (coadiutores perpetui) was widely used at one time in the law prior to the Council of Trent. Although it was suppressed by the Council itself through the abolition of expectatives and of coadjutorships with succession, traces of it survive in the statutes of certain Chapters in Italy and particularly in Rome. Coadjutor canons have the task of substituting for the coadjuted canon in the canonical functions. They are not, however, true benefice-holders and do not belong to the Chapter (canonici ficti).
III. - THE COADIUTOR OF PARISH PRIESTS. - For the coadiutor of a parish priest (vicarius adiutor) v. VICARIO.
Bibliography4 works
Zaccaria da S. Mauro