CURATO. — The term (from the Latin *curatus*), generally denotes a priest holding a sacred office with the care of souls. It appears in the Middle Ages (long before *parochus*), as the distinction between official clergy and free clergy becomes established, as a synonym for the then-current expressions *sacerdos parochianus*, *presbyter parochialis*, *sacerdos proprius*, *rector*, to indicate the priest (parish priest) to whom, by office, the care of souls in a *baptismalis* church is entrusted, in contrast especially to the *presbyter conducticius*. Initially used as an attribute, it later became a substantive (c. 2, III, 7, in Clem.). From the late Middle Ages, its use became fairly common in France (cf. G. Gerson, d. 1429, *De statu curatorum*) and in some regions of northwestern Italy, where the parish priest is still so designated.
In a stricter sense, *curatus* also denoted in the Middle Ages the priest who exercised actual care of souls with vicarious authority, subordinate to the *presbyter principalis* or *primitivus* who held it habitually with proper authority: this system, later abolished as an abuse, still retains a partial reflection in the figure of the vicar c. (v. VACARIO).
Nowadays, the prevailing usage is to call c. (or autonomous vicar) the priest who exercises the care of souls in an autonomous vicariate curacy, that is, in a specific place (hospital, prison, etc.) or territory, with its own church, within the boundaries of a parish, which, though not a parish, is entirely or partially exempt from the jurisdiction of the parish priest (cf. can. 464 § 2).
In some regions, the term c. is also applied to the coadjutor or assistant vicar.
The official terminology of the *CIC* uses the term *curatus* only as an attribute proper to the vicar c. (cf. above), and as a qualification of the entity to which the care of souls is attached (benefice c., chapter c.; cf. can. 1411 n. 5, 1430 § 1, 402).