COADIUTOR. – C. is the holder of a coadjutorship, that is, the cleric whose duty it is to assist or replace a beneficiary in carrying out the functions pertaining to his office. The granting of a c., with or without right of future succession, is reserved to the Holy See (can. 1433).
A c. may be granted especially to bishops, canons, and parish priests.
I. THE COADIUTOR OF BISHOPS
He is usually appointed to a bishop when, either because of personal impediments or because of the size of the diocese, the latter is rendered incapable of discharging his office worthily (cann. 350–55). He may be appointed to the person, with or without right of future succession, or, more rarely, to the see. He is a coadjutor in the strict sense when he is appointed to the person with the right of succession; when appointed to the person without this right, he is specifically called an auxiliary.If the coadjutored bishop is entirely incapable of office, the coadjutor appointed to the person acquires all the powers and rights of the Ordinary; but if the former is not entirely incapable, the coadjutor has only those powers delegated to him by the former. The coadjutor appointed to the see has no jurisdiction except insofar as it may be entrusted to him by the bishop or by the S. See; he may, however, within the territory of the diocese, exercise all the functions proper to the episcopal order, except sacred ordination.
When appointed to the person with the right of succession, he succeeds the coadjutored bishop by right as Ordinary of the diocese as soon as the see becomes vacant (hence art. 19 of the Italian Concordat prescribes for the appointment of such coadjutors the same formalities prescribed for the appointment of bishops); when appointed to the see without future succession, he remains in office even during the vacancy. The auxiliary, on the other hand, leaves office when the residential bishop ceases to hold his own.
The practice of assigning to residential bishops coadjutors without jurisdiction (auxiliares or vicarii in pontificalibus) seems originally to have become confused with the institution of the chorepiscopus (v.). After the suppression of the chorepiscopi (eighth century), residential bishops made use, in cases of need, of the services of wandering bishops or of bishops who had emigrated from dioceses occupied by infidels. Inconveniences and abuses led Clement V to prohibit their ordination without the authorization of the S. 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 to the size of the diocese; in the latter case, it became customary to grant them to the see even on a permanent basis. This practice is presently sanctioned in the CIC.
Examples of coadjutor bishops with jurisdiction, constituted for the most part with the right of succession, are found 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 becoming Ordinaries. These were nevertheless exceptions, since it was then held that such a practice conflicted with the conciliar provisions of the time prohibiting a plurality of pastors in individual dioceses (c. 5, 6, C. VII, q. 1; Council of Nicaea c. 8; c. 14, X, 1, 31). Subsequently, however, a more lenient interpretation prevailed, especially in view of the urgent needs that had to be addressed (c. 5, X, 3, 6). Boniface VIII expressly reserved to the S. 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 abolishing expectancies for any ecclesiastical benefice and, in particular, all coadjutorships with the right of succession, expressly excepted coadjutors of bishops when the urgens necessitas or the evident utilitas of the cathedral church recommended their appointment (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 CANONS
The coadjutor assigned to the canons of a Chapter with the right of future succession (coadiutores perpetui) was widely used at one time under the law prior to the Council of Trent. Although it was abolished by the Council itself through the suppression of expectations and coadjutorships with succession, traces of it survive in the statutes of certain Chapters of Italy and particularly of Rome. The coadjutor canons are charged with assisting the coadjutant in his canonical func-tions. They are not, however, true beneficiaries and do not belong to the Chapter (canonici ficti).
III. — THE C. OF PARISH PRIESTS. — For the c. of the parish priest (vicarius adiutor) V. VACARIO.
Zaccaria da S. Mauro