PRECEDENCE. - It is the right to precede other persons and therefore to have the most noble place in assemblies and functions of a public character. Its foundation rests on the respect owed to persons who enjoy a higher rank in the hierarchy.
The CIC, following dispositions confirmed by centuries of experience, traces the fundamental lines of precedence in can. 106; from it, it clearly appears that in the first place the special norms regulating certain ecclesiastical personalities must be applied (cf. cann. 239, nn. 1 and 21; 280; 347; 450 etc.). When there are no specific norms, the following principles apply: 1) in precedence, diversity of rite has no juridical relevance. 2) Representation has its foundation of precedence in the person who is represented, since the representative is invested with the personality of the one whose place he takes: evidently in that case the right of precedence is subordinate to that of those who participate personally in the assembly.
Once these two negative principles have been determined, the CIC formulates the positive principles, which are based on authority. 1) One who is invested with authority also obtains the right of precedence over the physical or moral persons subject to him. 2) If, on the other hand, it is a question of persons of whom one has no authority over the other, then for precedence one must keep in mind the rank that each of them holds; if they are of the same rank, precedence is founded solely on Order; if they are of the same rank and the same Order, he precedes who has priority of appointment in the same rank; if this occurred on the same day, the older by ordination precedes, except in the case that the younger had been ordained by the pope; if on the same day they had also received ordination, only age must be kept in mind. In the case of two twins there would be no point of distinction, and then recourse would have to be had to the Holy See. In the word "Order" are included the different powers of the sacred Order, and in the word "rank" the hierarchical offices in the broadest sense of the word. 3) For moral persons, the rules proper to each Institute apply; if, on the other hand, the question is between different moral persons, then the one that is in peaceful quasi-possession of precedence precedes; if this right were not clear, the one that first established itself in the place precedes.
The Ordinary is the judge of every controversy that may arise concerning precedence: against his decisions only recourse in devolutive form is admitted.
From the norms recalled, the following order of precedence can be derived: cardinal legate a latere (can. 239, 1 and 21); cardinal dean and subdean (can. 237, 1 and 2); cardinals of the episcopal, presbyteral and diaconal Order (can. 231, 1); legates of the Roman pontiff (can. 269, 2); patriarchs (can. 280); primates (can. 280); metropolitans and archbishops in their own province (can. 272, 280); bishops in their own diocese (can. 347); archbishops and bishops outside their own province (can. 280); abbots, prelates nullius, vicars and apostolic prefects (can. 215, 3); apostolic administrator, capitular vicar, vicar general (can. 370, 1); canons: dignitaries, titular canons, honorary canons, beneficed canons (can. 408, 1); vicar forane (can. 450, 2); parish priest (can. 478, 1); substitute vicar and coadjutors; cooperator vicars (can. 478, 2).