CONSTITUTION. — From cum and statuere, it denotes, in the ancient sense, the morphological structural complex of the human body; the individual's original architectural type, essentially hereditary and congenital, however formed during the period of intrauterine and extrauterine development.
Today, in the concept of constitution, chiefly through the merit of the Italian medical school (A. De Giovanni, G. Viola, N. Pende), the individual dynamic aspect, or functional temperament, inseparable from the characterological aspect, is also included. The science of constitution, thus understood, was called by Viola individuology; more expressive and synthetic is Pende’s term individual biotypology. For many, however, constitution is still the morphological aspect of personality, with its anomalies and morbid predispositions, which are called constitutional anomalies and constitutional morbid dispositions, abnormal and submorbid morphological habits. Biometry (v.) in the form of anthropometry is, in fact, still the fundamental diagnostic method for the study of individual constitution.
Diseases having a fundamental root in the subject’s hereditary constitution are called constitutional diseases and are confused with hereditary and familial diseases; but the term is somewhat improper, since human genetics now teaches that diseases are not inherited, but dispositions to diseases.
CONSTITUTION. -
I. NOTION
In diplomatics, constitution (c.) is the document containing particular sovereign dispositions: pontifical constitutions are distinguished, which are solemn acts (bulls) of the Roman Pontiff addressing grave matters concerning doctrine and discipline, and sovereign constitutions, solemn acts issued to legislate especially in judicial matters.In legal language, this term, which from the era of imperial Roman law designated any legislative act of the emperor, was already found in ecclesiastical usage from the earliest centuries with the generic meaning of written law (c. 3, D. 1) and, more particularly, of lex saecularis (c. 4, D. 1) in opposition to canon, the specific and distinctive designation of the laws of the Church. From that time, however, it was also occasionally used in the sense of ecclesiastical law, as confirmed by that most ancient compilation of primitive canon law known by the original name of Constitutiones Apostolicae (v.).
Subsequently, while remaining synonymous with law in general, the term gradually became the most common predicate for episcopal laws and the particular statutes of autonomous moral persons, notably those of religious institutes (Constitutiones episcopales, synodales, capitulares, religiosorum). In the 13th century, it already seems to have been preferably employed to indicate specifically the legislative acts of the Supreme Pontiff, a usage that from then on became increasingly frequent and exclusive, although throughout the Middle Ages the more generic appellation of decretal (decretalis epistola) prevailed in this regard.
In modern times (especially from the 19th century onward), the term constitution is also used to denote the fundamental law of the State.
In current canonical terminology, the term, while not excluding attributions of lesser value or less constant application (e.g., synodal constitutions, capitular constitutions, instead of statutes), is predominantly used to indicate pontifical constitutions and religious constitutions.
II. PONTIFICAL C.
These are the most solemn legislative acts in form and the most important in content, which the Supreme Pontiff issues motu proprio and directly, with the efficacy of general laws. They are also called Apostolic Constitutions. Normally, they concern definitions and decisions regarding faith or the general discipline of the Church: they take the form of letters and are issued mostly, though not necessarily, bull (v.). They are clearly distinguished from other pontifical legislative acts that refer to provisions of lesser importance and particular character (motu proprio, chirographs, etc.) or that the Pope issues through his dicasteries (decrees, instructions, circulars, etc.).
III. RELIGIOUS CONSTITUTIONS
With this term, always used in the plural, the official canonical terminology indicates the code of particular norms governing individual religious institutes. Constitutions represent one of the primary sources, often indeed the sole source, of the particular law of individual Religious Orders. In this respect, constitutions and rule are two substantially equivalent terms. However, they are two practically distinct designations, though the difference is merely historical and contingent.From the earliest centuries of religious life, the primary code that gathered the constitutive and fundamental norms of individual institutions was called the rule, while the accessory compilations of more detailed norms, issued subsequently or adopted within the various institutes subordinate to the common rule professed, were denominated, with varying terminology, ordinationes, ordines, statuta, instituta, consuetudines, institutiones, until, beginning in the 12th century, the practice of calling them predominantly constitutiones took hold. After the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) prohibited the creation of new religious institutes and new rules (c. 9, X, 3, 36), while the designation of rule remained exclusive to the four classic models—that is, the rules of St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, and St. Francis—the term constitutiones became the specific designation for the complementary and particularistic legislation that subsequently developed within the same Orders or in their collateral branches and reforms that adopted one of the aforementioned rules. Thus, different Orders and institutes professing a common rule as their fundamental code came to have their own distinct constitutions.
From the 16th century onward, the term was adopted, independently of any preexisting common rule, to designate indistinctly the proper legislation of new Religious Orders and Congregations. More recently, in a reversal of the practice prior to the 16th century, some institutes began to call the body of primary and fundamental statutes constitutions, reserving the designation of rules, in the plural, for the collection of more detailed and complementary norms.
At present, to avoid confusion, the term constitutions is made obligatory and official for designating the proper legislation of Religious Congregations, while the designation of rule remains the term for the fundamental legislation of Religious Orders alone. Currently, therefore, the more ancient Religious Orders include among their normative sources the rule and the constitutions, while the more recent ones have only the constitutions.
Under the current discipline, constitutions take the form of a particular law and are interpreted and treated as such in all respects. Consequently, they cannot be considered revoked, nor otherwise derogated or corrected by any new general laws that may be promulgated, unless this is expressly provided (can. 22). Those prior to the new Code retain their full validity insofar as they are praeter or secundum the prescriptions of the Code itself, but are abrogated insofar as they are contra (cann. 489, and 6 n. 1, 6). The consequent general revision of constitutions and their adaptation to the law of the CIC was mandated and carried out on the basis of the decrees of 26 June 1918 (AAS, 10 [1919], p. 290) and 26 October 1921 (ibid., 13 [1921], pp. 538-39) of the Sacred Congregation for Religious, which, however, were not applied with respect to the ancient monastic rules.
Currently, religious constitutions acquire legal force through pontifical or local Ordinary approval. In current practice, all new Religious Orders or Congregations are subject to the obligation of pontifical approval, following the approval and presentation of the local Ordinary. The approval process normally comprises three phases: dilatio cum animadversionibus, corresponding to the initial examination with official observations; approbatio ad experimentum, which is generally accompanied by the granting of the decretum laudis to the new institute; and approbatio definitiva, which coincides with the definitive approval of the new institute and its enrollment among the Religious Orders of pontifical right (cf. Normae S. Congr. de Religiosis, 6 March 1921, arts. 19-21; AAS, 13 [1921], pp. 312-19). Definitive approval is generally given in common form, by means of the decretum approbationis; however, it may also be given in specific form, by means of apostolic letters.
Pontifical approval removes constitutions from the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary (can. 618 § 2), confers upon them greater stability and immutability, so that they cannot be changed or amended by any inferior authority without the permission of the Holy See, and reserves their authentic interpretation to the same Holy See. However, according to the prevailing doctrine, it does not inhibit the faculty, traditionally attributed to the superiors of exempt clerical religious orders, to dispense from them in particular cases, when the dispensation does not entail a change in the constitutions themselves, harm to the vows, or a substantial derogation from the constitutive form of the institute.
In every religious house, the constitutions must be read publicly at least once a year (can. 509 § 2 n. 1).