ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE. — In general, any stable task performed for a spiritual end, such as the spiritual director of seminaries, the confessor of monasteries, the preacher, the organist, the cantor, etc. In the proper sense, it is the task permanently constituted, by divine or ecclesiastical ordination, which grants participation in the power of order or jurisdiction (CIC, can. 145; V. JURISDICTION; ORDER).
Thus, the office of cardinal, bishop, vicar general, parish priest, etc., which possess the required qualities of objective stability and participation in the power of order or jurisdiction. In a very strict, canonistic sense, the expression ecclesiastical office denotes those offices whose holders are prelates in the juridical sense (can. 110). The normal meaning in canon law is that indicated above in can. 145. However, since certain offices entail benefices (v. BENEFICE), the canons concerning offices (cann. 147-195) must be supplemented by those concerning benefices (cann. 1499-89).
I. NATURE AND DIVISION OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE
Although almost all modern canonists hold that ecclesiastical offices are, *ipso iure*, juridical persons, in more recent doctrine the personal aspect of the office is emphasized over the real aspect. It is generally held that the organ of the Church is not the office in itself, considered as an abstract complex of attributions, but rather the person of the office-holder, through whom the power of order or jurisdiction is exercised. Apart from the distinction between offices of divine institution (that of the Supreme Pontiff and, as a genus, that of residential bishops) and those of human institution (all others), ecclesiastical offices are usually divided into: 1) benefice-holding and non-benefice-holding, according as they are connected with a benefice (cann. 1499); 2) major and minor, according as their holders possess episcopal or quasi-episcopal power; 3) residential (also called *duplices*) and non-residential (or *simplices*), according as they entail or not the obligation of residence (v.); 4) parochial and non-parochial (i.e., with or without cure of souls); 5) secular and religious, according as, by their nature, by the laws of foundation, or by legitimate custom, they can be conferred only on secular or religious clerics; 6) removable and irremovable, according as their holders can be removed with greater or lesser ease (v. REMOVABILITY; IRREMOVABILITY); 7) freely collatable or necessary; 8) reserved or non-reserved.II. HISTORICAL NOTES
Although, as already noted, some offices, such as that of the Supreme Pontificate and of bishops in general, are of divine institution, it is not possible to form a correct idea of the origin and nature of ecclesiastical offices in particular without tracing them back to the beginning of the Church and following the evolution of ecclesiastical discipline through the various ages. It is certain, however, that in the early Church all charges were purely offices. The goods of the Church were then held in common, and each cleric, according to his rank, exercised an office to which no revenue was attached. Once, however, the institution of the benefice was introduced, the concept of the ecclesiastical office, which earlier canonistic doctrine had associated with that of the benefice, was lost sight of.For the erection, modification, or suppression of any ecclesiastical office, the following are required: 1) the competent authority, which varies according to the office; 2) a just cause, which is ordinarily indicated by the necessity or utility of the Church; 3) the due form, which varies according to the canonical provision of the office (v. CANONICAL PROVISION).
III. LOSS OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE
This is a juridical fact by which the ecclesiastical office is lost by the clerical holder and becomes vacant. It occurs: a) by the natural death of the holder; b) by the expiration of the time established, when the office is conferred *ad tempus* (cann. 1833); c) by the cessation of the power of the grantor, when the law expressly declares it (cann. 1833); d) by the expiration of the term *ad beneplacitum nostrum* (cann. 1833); e) by deprivation of the office by the superior or by *amotio*; f) by transfer.---
**Figure 1:**
- **(Property of Enc. Catt.)**
Uganda — 1) State or colonial boundary; 2) boundaries of ecclesiastical circumscription; 3) railways.