CONGRUA. — With the term *congrua* or *portico congruae*, canonists refer to that amount of income considered necessary for the decent sustenance of a beneficiary (v. BENEFICIO ECCLESIASTICO) or of anyone holding an ecclesiastical office (for the concept of *congrua* in the CIC, cf. cann. 471 § 1, 472 n. 1, 475 § 1, 476 § 1, 1429 § 1, 1439 § 2, 1473, etc.; and, in some way, also cann. 122 and 979 § 2). The amount of the *congrua* varies according to the importance of the office and the duties it entails.
Sometimes the term *congrua* is also used simply to indicate the parochial benefice, just as the terms *mensa* and *prebenda* are used to indicate the episcopal or capitular benefice, respectively.
Supplementary *congrua* or supplementary *congrua* allowances are the monetary payments made by the State to make up the income of a benefice whose revenue is below what the State itself considers the *congrua* threshold, so that the actual benefice income, with the addition of the supplement, exactly reaches that amount.
One cannot exclude the possibility that one of the reasons the Italian State introduced supplementary *congrua* allowances was to subject, to some extent, that part of the clergy most in contact with the people to the will of the State (this idea was already Napoleon’s) or even to favor the lower clergy at the expense of the higher clergy (the supplementary *congrua* allowances were originally established only for parish priests).
However, the objective and official reason for the introduction of the supplementary *congrua* was the improvement of the economic conditions of the poorer clergy through an equalization and redistribution of ecclesiastical revenues: the State indeed used part of the revenues derived from the assets of suppressed ecclesiastical bodies, deemed useless, and from taxes imposed on non-suppressed benefices with higher incomes, to fund the supplementary *congrua* allowances.
In the legislation of the Kingdom of Italy, the supplementary *congrua* was first introduced by art. 28 n. 4 of Royal Decree 7 July 1866, n. 3036, in favor of parish priests whose income, including the average of household products over three years, was less than 800 lire per year. Subsequently, the threshold of the *congrua* was raised several times, and the supplements were extended to other categories of beneficiaries; however, all improvements granted after 30 June 1920 were of a provisional nature, and their effectiveness was renewed annually (cf. art. 9 of the law of 14 June 1928, n. 1315, which would have expired on 30 June 1929).
With art. 30 of the Concordat (paragraph 2), it was stipulated that “the Italian State, until new agreements are made to the contrary, will continue to supplement the incomes of ecclesiastical benefices with allowances to be paid in an amount not less than the real value of that established by the laws currently in force,” and accordingly, art. 25 of the law of 27 May 1929, n. 848, provided: “The current economic treatment of the clergy becomes definitive, even for improvements that previous provisions considered temporary.”
Now the matter is regulated, in addition to these two provisions, mainly 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, under current laws, receive the supplementary *congrua*, and the limits of the annual *congrua* in force in 1929, are as follows: metropolitans: L. 8,000; other archbishops and bishops, prelates, and abbots *nullius*: L. 17,000; parish priests of the city of Rome: L. 6,000; the first two dignitaries of the cathedral and collegiate chapters of Rome: L. 4,000; other parish priests, dignitaries of chapters, and theological and penitentiary canons: L. 3,500; other canons (cathedral, outside Rome; cathedral or collegiate, in Rome): L. 3,000; other beneficiaries (no more than six) of chapters (cathedral or collegiate, as above), and independent vicars: L. 2,000.
However, since art. 30 of the Concordat spoke of “an amount not less than the real value of that established by the laws currently in force,” the limits of the *congrua* have been adjusted from time to time (cf. Royal Decree-Law of 23 January 1942, n. 162; Royal Decree-Law of 24 January 1944, n. 19; Lieutenant’s Legislative Decree of 22 March 1945, n. 213; Decree-Law of 19 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 Italian laws based on the criterion of favoring the holders of benefices whose duties the State considers most necessary for the life of the Church, and therefore especially those with jurisdiction or cura animarum; hence, the categories of benefices whose holders are granted the allowance partly coincide with the categories of ecclesiastical bodies preserved by the eversive laws.
It should be noted that the supplementary *congrua* allowance is reduced by an amount not exceeding one-third of the *congrua* limit for parish priests of parishes with fewer than 200 inhabitants, unless “in the judgment of the administration of the Fund for Worship, serious circumstances of location and communications concur” (art. 2 of the aforementioned Consolidated Text).
For each cathedral chapter, with the exception of those in Rome and the suburbicarian dioceses, the allowance cannot be paid to more than twelve canons and six minor beneficiaries.
Detailed rules are established by law for calculating the income of the benefice for the purpose of granting the supplementary *congrua* and for determining its amount (arts. 6 and following of the Consolidated Text); in particular, the law, starting from the principle that net income, not gross income, should be taken into account, establishes which assets should be considered and which liabilities should be deducted.
The supplementary *congrua* is an allowance granted not to the benefice but to the person of the beneficiary; hence, it is not granted during a vacancy. However, while the enjoyment of benefice revenues, according to canon law, does not begin on the day the benefice is conferred but on the day of possession, the supplementary *congrua* is paid from the date of conferral: in this sense, the provisions subsequent to the first part of art. 26 of the Concordat have been applied (cf. art. 25 of the law of 27 May 1929, n. 848; art. 82 of the Consolidated Text on supplementary *congrua* allowances; art. 45 of the relevant Regulation).
Moreover, the *congrua* allowance cannot be assigned except up to one-fifth, and only in payment or guarantee of debts contracted or to be contracted with the prior authorization in the interest of the benefice or of the Church (art. 8 of the aforementioned Consolidated Text).