BENEFICIAL EXCHANGE. — It is a bilateral juridical transaction that takes place between two interested beneficiaries, with the authorization of the local Ordinary or, if at least one of the benefices is reserved, of the Holy See (cc. 1487–88).
It is an institute very similar to a transfer, but sui generis; while on the one hand it cannot be confused with the contract of a true exchange, because its object is directly the persons and offices, and indirectly the benefices, on the other hand it departs greatly from the notion that, before the CIC, authors who treated it extensively commonly held; for these authors, beneficial exchange was a renunciation exchanged on the condition that one party obtained the benefice of the other and vice versa.
According to the new concept, there is no vacancy of the benefice, but it is the first transfer that, from the moment of the consent of the Ordinary (cc. 1487–88), endures in the other person. The distinction of beneficial exchange into triangular and quadrangular is a historical remnant; the CIC, in fact, admits only the bilateral form (cc. 1488–88). The institute of beneficial exchange certainly dates back to a not too remote period, when benefices were attached to ecclesiastical offices. Initially it took place between private individuals. However, given the abuses that were complained of, the popes Alexander III (cc. 1 Con. Turonense; cap. 8, X, III, 5), Urban III (ibid., cap. 8), Innocent III (7 X, III 19) prohibited private and requested beneficial exchanges and required, for their validity, a just cause recognized by the bishop; while other laws were enacted against simoniacal and fraudulent exchangers. Clement V declared null every conferral of benefices made to persons other than the exchangers (Clem. III, tit. V). Gregory XIII, with the constitution Humano of 5 January 1584, ordered that beneficial exchange be published in accordance with the law. This law was confirmed by Benedict XIV with the constitution Ecclesiastica of 25 June 1746. The CIC is almost entirely inspired (the obligation of publication is lacking) by the ancient discipline. For the validity of beneficial exchange, the following are required:
1) a just cause, which must be the utility or necessity of the Church as judged by the Ordinary or another cause (thus also the utility of the exchangers, provided that it always redounds, at least indirectly, to the good of the Church: cc. 1487–88); 2) that the beneficial exchange not be effected to the detriment of those involved and be made with the consent of the patron, if it concerns a benefice of patronage right (cc. 1487–88); 3) that it be made with the intervention of the legitimate
PERPETUA, FELICITY, AND COMPANIONS, saints, martyrs — P. and F. Musicians of the 6th century — Ravenna, Oratory of the Archiepiscopal Palace.