QUINQUENNALI, FACOLTÀ. - I. GENERAL NOTIONS. THE FACULTIES OF THE S. CONGREGATION OF THE COUNCIL. - The various powers or indults by which the ecclesiastical superior, having jurisdictional competence, authorizes an inferior to perform validly and licitly, in both the internal and external forum, acts which, either by their nature or by explicit reservation of law, would pertain to the superior himself, are canonically designated habitual faculties when they are granted for habitual or at least repeated use, that is, either in perpetuity, for several persons or for an indeterminate number of cases, or even for a fixed period or for a determined number of cases. If, on the other hand, they are granted for one or two cases or with an individual determination of the case or person, they are called current or particular faculties.
Any ecclesiastic possessing ordinary jurisdiction may, within the scope of his competence, grant such faculties. Thus, according to the granting authority, there are apostolic or pontifical faculties, the most important of all, granted by the Pope directly or through the competent departments of the Roman Curia; episcopal faculties; and the ordinary faculties of regular prelates. According to the object of the grant, there are jurisdictional faculties, which entail a genuine exercise of the power of jurisdiction (to absolve or to dispense from a law), and non-jurisdictional faculties, involving the granting of graces and licenses alone. In the past, the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary faculties was made on the basis of the formulas of concession, whereas at present it refers primarily to the content of the concession itself. The criterion of distinction is often derived from the duration of the faculties: there are annual, triennial, quinquennial, decennial, twenty-year faculties, etc. Among all of them, the best known and most important are the apostolic quinquennial faculties which the S. Congregation of the Council and Propaganda Fide customarily grant, each within its own sphere of competence, to the Ordinaries of the territories subject to them. The list of the quinquennial faculties of the S. Congregation of the Council currently in existence was promulgated on 17 May 1922,
after the previous ones had been declared lapsed under the new CIC. These faculties are granted to the Ordinaries concerned in the year in which they must submit to the same Congregation the report on the condition of their dioceses.
Next in order of importance are the faculties customarily granted by the Holy See, for their respective territories, to nuncios, internuncios, and apostolic delegates; those of the S. Penitentiary to confessors; and those of the S. Congregation of Religious to the superior generals of the various religious orders. Habitual faculties possess the character of real privileges and are classified by the canon legislator among the category of privileges praeter ius (can. 66 § 1, 2). This means that they enjoy a particular favor iuris, whereby they must be regarded and treated as privileges, even though by their intrinsic nature they are not such; indeed, as privileges praeter ius, even when they sometimes entail concessions contra ius. Since they are real privileges, they belong to the office, not to the person: they may therefore be used by all who, for whatever reason, occupy the office; they pass by right to successors, unless the grant is personal or the concession itself provides otherwise. Faculties granted to the bishop are understood to be granted also to the vicar general (can. 66 § 2). Since they are privileges praeter ius, they always admit of broad, that is, favorable interpretation (cann. 50, 200 § 1), but never extensive interpretation (can. 67). Moreover, the faculties necessary for its use are implicitly understood to be granted along with the faculty granted; for example, the faculty to absolve from penalties incurred by one whom the grantee is authorized to dispense from some canonical impediment, when the existence of the penalty would obstruct the obtaining of the dispensation (can. 66 § 3).
Since these are delegated faculties, their use must be regulated according to the principles relating to delegated power (can. 199 ff.). They may be subdelegated, even habitually, provided that subdelegation is not prohibited and that the matter does not concern a personal grace. Further subdelegation by a subdelegate, however, is not permitted (can. 199 §§ 2, 5).
Habitual faculties and special indults are recorded as having been granted by the supreme pontiffs, from the earliest centuries, to the first evangelizers of pagan Europe, in the capacity of apostolic legates: to s. Agostino di Canterbury (d. 604), to s. Bonifacio (d. 755), and to the ss. brothers Cirillo and Metodio (9th century). Beginning in the 14th century, such faculties increasingly multiplied, especially in favor of the first Franciscan and Dominican missionaries and of the bishops of regions very distant from Rome. In the 16th century, they were already customarily granted, under fixed formulas and in defined lists, to missionaries destined for the evangelization of the Americas, then recently discovered. At the same time, they are found granted, in the same terms, to nuncios and apostolic legates and, soon afterward, to almost all bishops of non-Italian dioceses. Urban VIII reformed them by the apostolic constitution Operosum of 10 February 1637, establishing new formulas and new lists. The ordinary formulas of concession numbered ten and were distinguished by Roman numerals; the extraordinary ones had no number and were arranged under uppercase or lowercase letters. In the past, the department competent to grant them was the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide, even for territories not subject to it, until Pius X, by the apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908), assigned their concession to the individual congregations according to their respective competence. With a view to reorganizing the matter, by decree of 25 April 1918 the S. Congregation of the Council (AAS, 10 [1918], p. 191) abolished all apostolic faculties except those granted by Prop. Fide for its own territories and those granted by the S. Penitentiary for the internal forum; and a new list with the new formulas was promulgated and sent to the diocesan Ordinaries on 17 May 1922 by the S. Congregation of the Council, to which, by the motu proprio Post datam of 20 April 1923, the granting of these faculties for territories of common law was definitively reserved (AAS, 15 [1923], p. 193). Every five years, the formulas were to be updated after consultation with the individual departments competent in the matter. The aforementioned S. Congregation simultaneously undertakes the compilation of new formulas for the faculties of nuncios, internuncios, and apostolic delegates.
BBL.: G. Michiels, Normae generale iuris canonici, II, Lublino
1929, pp. 432-45; G. Vromant, Facultates apostolicae, Parigi 1938; Wernz-Vidal, I, p. 456 ff.; A. van Hove, De privilegiti et dispensationibus, Malines-Roma 1939, pp. 147-62. Zaccaria da San Mauro
II. THE FACULTIES OF THE S. CONGREGATION OF PROPAGANDA FIDE. — Before the institution of the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide (1622), all the missionaries at that time belonged to some religious institute, and by direct concession or by communication enjoyed many privileges and faculties. They were granted by the Pope through the S. Congregation of the S. Office or by brief, by the cardinal protectors of the seminaries, by their rectors, and also by the superiors general or other superiors of the religious orders in vim literarum apostolicarum vel vivus vocis oraculorum (Arch. di Prop. Fide, Miscellanea missioni, t. X, f. 155). Over the years, however, the formulas of the faculties granted increased greatly, even for the same region, and did not always correspond to the needs of the places concerned. The new Congr. of Propag. Fide immediately understood that action had to be taken.
In the early years, requests concerning the granting or renewal of faculties were almost always forwarded to the S. Office. In many cases, however, Propaganda examined them directly in plenary congregations, subsequently obtaining pontifical approval.
It was necessary to review this extensive matter according to new criteria; Pope Urban VIII (1623–44) established within Propaganda a particular congregation super facultatibus missionariorum. The first meeting recorded (cf. Miscellanea Missioni, t. X, ff. 155–58) was that of 25 Apr. 1633: it consisted of several cardinals, the assessor of the S. Office, and the secretary of Propaganda; it was to be permanent in character, but the last recorded meeting is that of 1643. In 1637 it had completed the work of reform by establishing seven general rules for the granting of the five formulas that had been drafted. The fifth, however, was never printed. On the model of the first five, four more were added, thus bringing the number to nine and then to ten; they were granted, with minor modifications, to the various mission countries. In addition to these ordinary faculties, there were also extraordinary faculties, generally granted by the S. Office. Around the middle of the 19th century, Propaganda itself began to grant certain extraordinary faculties according to new formulas, which were designated by the letters of the alphabet in upper- or lower-case form. No designation was given, nor is any given today, to the faculties granted to religious missionaries, to the students of the Collegio Urbano, and to the missionaries ad honorem. After the CIC, the ordinary and extraordinary formulas, reexamined directly by the cardinal prefect together with the principal officials of the Congregation, were reduced to three: first, second, and third, each with a twofold version, major and minor. Approved on 6 Feb. 1919 by Benedict XV, they began to have force on 1 Jan. 1920. A supplement of faculties concerning confraternities and blessings was attached to the third formula. Later (1931), an extra ordinem formula was drafted for the dioceses of southeastern Europe, analogous to the one customarily granted by the S. Congregation of the Consistory to the bishops of the same territory dependent upon II. Compared with the preceding version, the new formulation was clearer and more precise; it contained broader faculties, and many of them could be communicated to the missionaries. It made no mention of dispensation from irregularities, from the law of fasting, or of the faculty concerning prohibited books, perhaps because the CIC already granted the Ordinaries various faculties in these matters.
The great development experienced by the missions in recent years made the need to simplify the formulas still further increasingly evident, especially since the criterion of distance from Rome could no longer be given the importance it once had, given the ease of communication. The new formulation, prepared by the special commission of Consultors, was submitted to the examination of the plenary congregation and then to the Pope for approval on 20 Feb. 1941. The three formulas in use were reduced to two: major and minor. The first is reserved for Ordinaries with episcopal character, and the second for those without episcopal character.
