PROCURATOR GENERAL. - In canon law, he is the religious who ordinarily handles with the Roman Curia the affairs of the religious society to which he belongs, and has an honorary right of representing it before the Holy See.
I. HISTORY
It has its origin in the procurator ad lites whom the regular Orders appointed in disputes with other ecclesiastical moral persons. Subsequently the procurator ad lites was also procurator ad negotio, but only for those affairs that were proper to the whole Order or to the general Curia, not to the provinces or individual houses. Among the principal affairs of the general Curia there was also that of collecting and safeguarding the tribute that the individual parts of the Order owed to the general government; this task too was entrusted to the procurator, who thus became the treasurer of the general house, later giving rise to the present figure of the procurator general (cf. Constitutiones et statuta generalia instituti oratorii s. Philippi Neri, Vicenza 1943, art. 82, II). When many Orders had their general Curia in Rome, the procurator also began to represent the Order before the Holy See. The obligation of a procurator general was imposed by the Holy See on the individual Orders and Congregations at different times and under different circumstances; a general order was given by the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in the instruction of 22 August 1814. The institution of the procurator general subsequently developed along quite different lines in the particular law of each institute, as can be observed from comparative religious law.
II. CURRENT DISCIPLINE
Can. 517 § 1 requires all male religious institutes of pontifical right to have a procurator in Rome. This procurator, according to the admonition of the S. Congr. of Religious of June 4, 1920 (AAS, 22 [1920], p. 301), must be a member of the religious institute he represents. By common law, the p. g. has the faculty to transact the affairs of the religious institute with the Holy See. However, this right is not, today, exclusive, both insofar as can. 611 permits all religious free epistolary commerce with the Holy See, and insofar as the law always grants the supreme Superior, or even only a major or local superior, the right to transact his own affairs directly with the Holy See. Some Roman dicasteries, such as the Holy Office, even today deal only with the Superior general, while the other Congregations, especially the S. Congr. of Religious, are accustomed to deal with the p. g. in almost all the affairs of the religious institute. Questions of the internal forum are, naturally, excluded. Another ordinary right of the p. g. is the representation of his religious society. Today, however, this right is reduced to a purely ceremonial, honorific representation, insofar as only the Superior general has the faculty to assume obligations that concern the whole institute (can. 502). Nor, for civil law either, is the status of p. g. indicative of a delegation to assume juridical responsibilities: for this, even the p. g. requires a special mandate from the Superior general.
The right to transact affairs at the Holy See is today, by common law, extended not only to the affairs of the Institute as such, but also to its parts, provinces, houses, and even of individuals. In ancient times, the parts of a religious institute could have their own procurator, and in some Orders even today, for the p. g. to transact an affair of a part of the society, he must have the permission of the Council. The CIC prescribes that once appointed, the p. g. is not to be removed without prior notice to the Holy See (can. 517 § 2). In the comparative law of religious institutes, two kinds of p. g. are substantially found. The first is that of the p. g. who is a member of the general Council, sometimes the first of the councilors and vicar of the Order (Regula... s. Francisci et Constitutiones Fratr. Min. Capuccin., Rome 1931, art. 165); or he may become a member of the Council and, in the absence of other general councilors, also has the administration of certain goods (Regulae et Constitutiones Fratr. Discalceat. Ord. B. Mariae V. de monte Carmelo, Rome 1940, n. 141; Constitutiones Fratrum S. Ordinis Praedicatorum, ibid. 1929, art. 507); in the right of precedence he comes before the other councilors. This second figure, today more common, is the one codified especially in the Constitutions of religious institutes with simple vows: the p. g. is elected in the General Chapter (Const. pro Missionariis Cong. Piliorum Immaculati Cordis B.M.V., Madrid 1924, art. 21); he transacts at the Holy See the affairs that the Superior general, with or without a vote of the general Council, entrusts to him (Const. Societatis Verbi Divini, Vatican City 1944, art. 458); he is not a member of the general Council, unless he is expressly invited with only a consultative vote (Const. et Regulae Cong. Missionariorum Oblatorum S.mae et Imm. B. V. M., Rome 1928, art. 493); in precedence he follows the councilors (Cost. dell'Istituto Missioni Consolata, Turin 1950, art. 179).
In some religious institutes the p. g. is appointed by the Superior general and is ad nutum of the same (Cost. della Società di s. Francesco di Sales, Turin 1923, n. 82).
Bibliography2 works
Giulio Mandelli