INAMOVIBILITY. — It is a quality inherent in certain ecclesiastical benefices, by virtue of which the incumbent is invested with them in perpetuity and cannot be removed except for causes established by law.
The Catholic Church, in its early days, had not established inamovibility for priests and in this followed the precedents of Hebrew law. St. Paul himself broadly states: “I constituted presbyters in the cities” (Tit. 1:5). The reasons subsequently adduced for inamovibility were the indissoluble bond of a spiritual marriage contracted between the Church and the incumbent (cf. Gregory of Nyssa, Oratio catenis: PG 46, 852; St. Jerome, Epist. 69 ad Ocean.: PL 92, 658); and the danger of ambition and avarice. In the East, the first disposition on this matter is found in canon 15 of the Council of Nicaea: “On account of the many disturbances and seditions which arise, it has pleased us to abolish entirely the custom which in some places seems to have been admitted contrary to the rule, so that neither bishop, nor presbyter, nor deacon may be transferred from one city to another.” This prohibition was repeated in canon 6 of the Council of Chalcedon. In the West, the first prohibition dates from the time of Pope Damasus in the Synod of 380 (canon 9), which was later incorporated into the Council of Carthage of 397 (canon 38) and the Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua (canon 27: PL 56, 870), and was reiterated by Leo I: “If any bishop, discontented with the mediocrity of his city, seeks the administration of a more prominent place and transfers himself to a larger flock by any means, he shall be driven from the see he coveted through avarice, but shall also lose his own: so that he may preside neither over those whom he coveted through avarice nor over those whom he despised through pride” (Epist. 14: ibid. 54, 674; Nov. 3, c. 2). This law, moreover, was not absolute but dispensable, as attested by the various transfers permitted in the East. St. Gregory I, moved by historical circumstances, rendered this institution more flexible, and his innovation was fully inherited by the succeeding centuries.
In current canon law, inamovibility is preserved only for certain offices and in particular for benefices and parishes, in which this provision finds complete application: it is not spoken of in regard to episcopal sees, since these today are almost entirely reserved to the Holy See. The incumbent of these offices, having received canonical mission, possesses the benefice in perpetuity, and the Ordinary cannot remove him except for causes well defined by law (Can. 192 § 2). The causes for removal must be contemplated by the law, and the removal must take place through a penal process: the sentence, revoked in the case of contrary custom and any contrary privilege, must be pronounced by three judges (can. 1576 § 1, n. 1). Against this sentence, an appeal in suspensive form is permitted to the higher tribunal; moreover, when the law establishes the penalty of deprivation of a benefice, judicial correction cannot be used (can. 1948 n. 1). By effect of the sentence, the benefice becomes fully vacant. A non-removable parish priest must be removed through an administrative process (can. 454 § 2, can. 2147-2156). The Code of Canon Law favors inamovibility, providing that parishes erected in the future shall be non-removable, unless particular causes of place and persons advise otherwise (can. 456 § 3).