INCORPORATION OF BENEFICES. — It is one of the possible innovations in benefices and consists specifically in the permanent union, known as *minus principali*, of a benefice with another moral person.
It differs from a simple union, since the latter, strictly speaking, takes place when two or more benefices are united with one another. The institution of the incorporation of benefices can be traced back to the 9th century.
However, abuses were not lacking, and so the Council of Constance first (Session 43, ch. 2) and the Council of Trent later (Session 24, ch. 13 *de ref.*) subjected to the review of individual Ordinaries the incorporations of benefices already made, and decreed that, for the future, any union or incorporation of parishes with monasteries or abbeys, with dignities and prebends of cathedral or collegiate churches, etc., should be reserved to the Holy See (cf. can. 1425 of the CIC).
The aforementioned canon distinguishes two types of incorporation: 1) merely in temporal matters; 2) *pleno iure*.
In the first case, for example, if a parish is united to a religious house only with regard to temporal matters, the religious house participates solely in the revenues of the parish, and the superior must present a secular priest to the Ordinary, assigning him a suitable income. If, on the other hand, it is a case of an incorporation *pleno iure*, the superior appoints a religious, the bishop approves him, and the incumbent, under the bishop’s authority, assumes the cure of souls (see cited canon).
The competent authority is the Holy See alone when a religious benefice is to be incorporated into a secular one and vice versa (can. 1423 § 3). In the case of unions of parishes with religious houses, it is the practice of the Sacred Congregation of the Council to require an agreement between the local Ordinary and the respective religious house, in which the boundaries of the parish, the number of religious, the endowment, etc., are determined. And such an incorporation is granted *ad mutum* of the Holy See. The Holy See is also competent alone when the benefices in question are concorsional and reserved because they are expressly subject to the competence of the local Ordinaries (can. 1423 § 2 and 1424). In other cases, the local Ordinary is competent, though not the vicar general or capitular, without a special mandate, in the cases envisaged by can. 1423 § 1.
For the incorporation of benefices, a just cause is required *ad validitatem* (can. 1428 § 2), such as the necessity or great utility of the Church. In view of the tenor of can. 105, the consultation of the cathedral chapter (formerly its consent was required) and of those concerned is also probably required *ad valorem*. An *authentica scriptura* (can. 1428 § 7) is required *ad sollemnitatem actus* (cf. also can. 150).
To avoid the situation in which a single incumbent holds multiple benefices, the local Ordinary must proceed to unions that are perpetual (can. 1423 § 3).
An appeal against the decree of the Ordinary may be made to the Holy See, but only in a devolutive sense (can. 1428 § 3). Finally, incorporation falls among the cases envisaged by Article 4 of the law of 27 May 1928, no. 848, concerning the recognition of civil rights in every substantial change of the benefice.