Congrua

CONGRUA. - With the name c., or portio congrua, canonists customarily designate that amount of income which is considered necessary for the dignified support of a benefice holder (v. BENEFICIO ECCLESIASTICO) or of anyone holding any ecclesiastical office (for the concept of c. in the CIC cf. cann. 471 § 1, 472 n. 1, 475 § 1, 476 § 1, 1429 § 1, 1439 § 2, 1473 etc.; and, in some manner, also cann. 122 and 979 § 2). The amount of the c. varies according to the importance of the office and the duties it entails.

Sometimes the name c. is found used also to designate simply the parochial benefice, just as the names mensa and prebend are used to designate respectively the episcopal or capitular benefice.

Supplements of c., or supplementary allowances of c., are the sums of money that the State pays to the holders of benefices whose income is lower than what the State itself considers a portio congrua, so that the benefice income properly so called, with the addition of the supplement, reaches exactly that c. portion.

It cannot be excluded that one of the motives for which the Italian State introduced the supplementary allowances of c. was the aim of asserting to some extent the will of the State over especially that part of the clergy which is most in contact with the people (this idea was already Napoleon's) or also that of favoring the lower clergy to the detriment of the higher clergy (the supplements of c. were originally established only in favor of parish priests).

But the objective and official cause of the introduction of the supplement of c. was the improvement of the economic conditions of the poor clergy through a re-equalization and redistribution of ecclesiastical revenues: the State in fact employed in supplementary allowances of c. a part of the revenues derived from the patrimony of ecclesiastical bodies suppressed as useless, and from the impositions with which it burdened the benefices not suppressed but provided with greater incomes.

In the legislation of the Kingdom of Italy the supplement of c. was introduced for the first time by art. 28 n. 4 of the Royal Decree of 7 July 1866, n. 3036, in favor of parish priests who, including casual revenues calculated on the average of a three-year period, had an income of less than 800 lire per annum. Subsequently the limit of the c. was raised several times, and moreover the supplements were extended also to other categories of beneficiaries; however, all the improvements that were granted after 30 June 1920 had a provisional character, and their effectiveness was extended from year to year (cf. art. 9 of the law of 14 June 1928, n. 1315, on the basis of which they would have expired on 30 June 1920).

By art. 30 of the Concordat (2nd paragraph) it was provided that "the Italian State, until it is otherwise established by new agreements, shall continue to make up for the deficiencies of the incomes of ecclesiastical benefices with allowances to be paid in a measure not less than the real value of that established by the laws currently in force," and consequently art. 25 of the law of 27 May 1929, n. 848 provided: "The present economic treatment of the clergy becomes definitive also as regards the improvements that the provisions issued thus far considered as temporary."

Now the matter is regulated, besides by these two provisions, principally by the Consolidated Text of 29 January 1931, n. 227, and by the Regulation of 29 January 1931, n. 228.

The categories of beneficiaries who, on the basis of the laws in force, enjoy the supplement of c., and the limits of the annual c. in force in 1929 are the following: metropolitans: 18,000 lire; other archbishops and bishops, prelates and nullius abbots: 17,000 lire; parish priests of the city of Rome: 6,000 lire; the two first dignities of the cathedral or collegiate Chapters of Rome: 4,000 lire; other parish priests, dignities of Chapters, and canon theologian and penitentiary: 3,500 lire; other canons (cathedral, outside Rome; cathedral or collegiate, in Rome): 3,000 lire; other beneficiaries (no more than six) of the Chapters (cathedral or collegiate, as above), and independent parochial vicars: 2,000 lire.

Since, however, art. 30 of the Concordat spoke of a "measure not less than the real value of that established by the laws currently in force," the measures of the limits of c. were from time to time changed (cf. Royal Decree-Law of 23 January 1942, n. 162; Royal Decree-Law of 24 January 1944, n. 19; Lieutenant-General's Legislative Decree of 22 March 1945, n. 213; Decree-Law of 1 April 1947, n. 272; Decree-Law of 22 January 1948, n. 44; law of 29 July 1949, n. 494).

The categories have been fixed by the Italian laws on the basis of the criterion of favoring the holders of benefices having duties that the State considers most necessary to the life of the Church, and therefore especially those having jurisdiction or care of souls; hence the categories of benefices whose holders are granted the allowance coincide in part with the categories of ecclesiastical bodies preserved by the suppressive laws.

It should be noted that the supplement of c. is reduced by a sum not exceeding one third of the limit of the c. for parish priests of parishes with fewer than 200 inhabitants, unless "in the judgment of the administration of the fund for worship, grave circumstances of places and communications concur" (art. 2 of the cited Consolidated Text).

For each cathedral Chapter, with the exception of those of Rome and of the suburbicarian dioceses, the allowance may not be paid to more than twelve canons and six lesser beneficiaries.

Detailed rules are established by the law for the computation of the income of the benefice, for the purposes of granting the supplement of c., and for determining its amount (art. 6 ff. of the Consolidated Text); in particular the law, starting from the principle that net income, not gross income, is to be computed, establishes which assets must be taken into account and which liabilities are to be deducted.

The supplement of c. is an allowance granted not to the benefice, but to the person of the beneficiary; therefore it is not granted during a vacancy. While, however, the enjoyment of benefice revenues, according to canon law, does not begin from the day of the conferral of the benefice, but from the day of taking possession, the supplement of c. is paid from the date of conferral: in this sense, in fact, the rule of the first part of art. 26 of the Concordat has been applied by the subsequent provisions (cf. art. 25 of the law of 27 May 1929, n. 848; art. 82 of the Consolidated Text on supplementary allowances of c.; art. 45 of the relative Regulation).

In accordance with art. 6 of the Concordat, the supplementary allowances of c. are unseizable to the same extent as the salaries and allowances of State employees, and therefore may be seized only within the following limits: a) up to one third, by reason of maintenance owed by law; b) up to one fifth, for debts toward the body on which the debtor depends, arising from the exercise of the functions of his office; c) up to one fifth, for taxes owed to the State, the provinces and the communes, chargeable, from their origin, to the person who receives the salary or allowance (art. 80 of the cited Consolidated Text, and arts. 1-2 of the Royal Decree of 5 June 1941, n. 874).

Moreover the allowance of c. may not be assigned except within the limits of one fifth, and only in deduction or guarantee of debts contracted or to be contracted with the prescribed authorization in the interest of the benefice or of the Church (art. 80 of the cited Consolidated Text).

Pio Ciprotti