GIUBILAZIONE, INDULTO by. — It is the pontifical indult by which prebendaries and beneficiaries of a Chapter obtain exemption from the obligations of choral service and residence, while retaining the rights corresponding to those obligations. It is also called an indult of emeritus (can. 422).
The institution already appears in certain medieval chapter statutes. From the seventeenth century onward, the S. Congregation of the Council used to grant indults of g. and to approve statutes that provided for their concession. Before the CIC, however, g. was still a matter of particular law, governed by custom, by the practice of the S. Congregation of the Council, and by the wording of the various chapter statutes.
The purposes of the institution are, on the one hand, the good of the Church and, on the other, the just recognition of the merit of one who, for a considerable period, diligently carried out its service. Initially the first purpose was considered predominant, and therefore only service rendered in the same church was taken into account. Later the second prevailed, and consequently service rendered in different churches is today also considered a sufficient title.
The indult is not acquired by right, but must each time be sought by means of a rescript from the Holy See. The title for obtaining g. is forty years of continuous and praiseworthy choral service in the same church or in other churches of the same city or, at least, of the same diocese (can. 422 § 1). At times the Holy See has also considered service rendered in different dioceses sufficient. Absences caused by force majeure or by any legitimate reasons do not prejudice the continuity of service. Illegitimate absences, on the other hand, especially when frequent and prolonged, while impairing the continuity of service, always deprive it of the qualification of praiseworthy.
The subject capable of receiving the indult is the member of the chapter, whether prebendary or beneficiary, who is obliged to choir, regardless of whether he holds the position of supernumerary, mansionary, or canon.
The object of the indult is the exemption of the jubilarian from the common duties of residence and ordinary choral worship and, consequently, from the other burdens connected with those obligations. The specific burdens of the individual prebends, however, remain, such as, for example, the burdens of founded Masses, the care of souls in the case of the parochial vicar, the catechetical and scriptural lessons in the case of the theologian canon, and assistance in hearing confessions in the case of the penitentiary canon. Other exemptions, often disputed in doctrine—for example, from the rotation for the conventual Mass—are usually indicated in the rescript of concession.
The indult establishes a privileged status, since the jubilarian, although exempted from the obligations of the office, nevertheless retains its rights, with the sole exception of the right of option, where this is recognized in the Chapter (can. 422 § 3). He therefore remains a true canon and a true member of the chapter: he receives the revenues of the prebend, the daily distributions, the fallentiae, and even the distributions reserved exclusively for those present in choir (inter praesentes), unless he has been explicitly excluded from them by the will of the donors or founders, or by the statutes or custom.
Zaccaria da San Mauro