PIA UNION. — It is an association of the faithful established for a purpose of piety or charity. It is not strictly necessary for it to be a juridical person, since the simple approval of the Ordinary suffices for its juridical existence and spiritual capacity; should it, however, acquire an organic structure through formal erection, it would take the name of sodality (cann. 707 § 1, 708 CIC). Thus the works of the S. Infancy and of S. Francesco di Sales are merely p. unions; the Missionary Union of the Clergy, on the other hand, is a sodality.
Before the promulgation of the CIC, the terms confraternities, congregations, sodalities, and p. unions were used indiscriminately, even by ecclesiastical authority. The CIC, however, clearly distinguishes Third Orders, confraternities, and p. unions, assigning to them respectively as their distinguishing element the purpose of personal sanctification, worship, piety, or Christian charity. Although p. unions are associations approved by the Church, they do not always attain the full status of juridical entities, as do Third Orders and confraternities; they therefore constitute an intermediate category between lay associations founded for some purpose without the authority or approval of the Church, but merely recommended or commended by it (the Conference of S. Vincenzo de' Paoli, Catholic Action Associations), and ecclesiastical associations erected as juridical persons. Indeed, by virtue of the decree of approval, a p. union receives from ecclesiastical authority a public recognition which enables it to obtain spiritual graces and indulgences and subjects it to the jurisdiction of the Church, but does not confer perpetuity upon it; and its members remain united by a personal bond and may therefore separate at will. Any property it may possess belongs to the members, who are nevertheless obliged to respect both the conditions imposed by the donors and the special purpose to which they agreed to devote such property at the time of their enrollment.
In this form, p. unions began to appear in the Church after the Council of Trent and multiplied especially during the last few centuries, that is, after the invasion of the ecclesiastical sphere by the modern State established the lay character of confraternities as a principle, subjecting them to its authority and preventing them from freely exercising Christian piety and charity.
Like confraternities, p. unions may be erected in collegiate churches, with the prior consent of the Chapter, or even in semi-public oratories, but never in private ones. In the churches of women religious, only prayer p. unions are permitted (can. 712), with the exclusion of men. The competence to erect p. unions belongs by right to the H.
See and to the Ordinaries; by apostolic privilege it also belongs, exclusively or cumulatively, to certain juridical persons, which must nevertheless ordinarily obtain the permission of the Ordinary before exercising II. P. unions, like any association wishing to be approved by the Church, must take their name either from some attribute of God, from a Mystery of the Christian religion, or from the feasts of the Lord, the Virgin, and the Saints. The existence of several p. unions with the same title and the same character in the same locality is forbidden, unless they are located in the major urban centers. An exception to this rule is the p. union or Sodality of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which the Ordinaries may, depending on the circumstances, erect in individual parishes in place of the confraternity of the same Mystery. When a p. union can aggregate other similar unions for participation in privileges of a spiritual nature, it is called an archsodality or, respectively, a primary society, according as it belongs to the section of sodalities or of simple p. unions. The faculty of aggregating and the concession, even merely as an honor, of the corresponding designation derive solely from the H. See (cann. 721, 725); and then, by a sort of special manuum, it is not permitted to transfer to another see the p. union serving as the aggregating center (can. 724). Except by apostolic indult, only unions having the same title and the same purpose may be aggregated (can. 721 § 2). Aggregation does not imply hierarchical subordination (can. 722 § 2); it must be perpetual and is granted only to canonically erected p. unions, that is, to sodalities. If, however, the primary p. union is merely approved, the canonical erection of the p. union to be aggregated does not seem necessary. The Ordinary may, for serious reasons, suppress associations, including those erected by others through a privilege subject to his consent; an appeal against his measure is nevertheless admissible; associations erected by the H. See cannot be dissolved by a lower authority. To enjoy the rights, privileges, indulgences, and other spiritual graces proper to each p. union, enrollment is sufficient (can. 692). Under the CIC, anyone who belongs to the Church may be validly enrolled in a p. union, provided that he has not incurred a notorious censure, does not belong to a condemned society, and is not a public sinner (can. 693 § 1). Admission is regulated according to the statutes (upon application or by co-optation), and if the p. union is a juridical person, enrollment does not take effect until it has been entered in the association’s roll or register (can. 694). Anyone enrolling personally must have attained the use of reason; by common law, however, absent persons may be admitted to p. unions not constituted with an organic structure, and by privilege certain p. unions may admit infants (can. 693 § 3).
A fundamental characteristic of p. unions, as of lay associations in general, is the gratuitous nature of their erection (can. 686 § 5), aggregations (can. 723, 5°), and admission (can. 695): compensation for the procedures required in the first case is permitted, every gift, even a spontaneous one, is excluded in the second, and legitimate enrollment fees are permitted in the third. Internal life develops according to the statutes, which are in every case subject to the prior approval and any subsequent amendments of the Ordinary, unless they are directly imposed or confirmed by the H. See (can. 689 § 2). The appointment of officers and administrators is likewise subject to the Ordinary’s ratification; he has the right to annul it and to remove those elected from office if their unworthiness or lack of suitability is known to him. Intervention in and presidency of both ordinary and extraordinary meetings, as well as confirmation of their decisions, belong to him only when confraternities are concerned, not p. unions (can. 715). Finally, he is responsible for supervising the annual accounts, granting consent for collections, and verifying the proceeds of quest collections and offerings (can. 691). As regards the appointment and removal of the assistant and the chaplain—two offices that may be combined in a single incumbent—the Ordinary acts directly for all p. unions, even those erected by religious outside their churches; in the churches of religious, his consent is required only when the superior of the community designates a secular priest (can. 698). Parallel to the continuing subjection to the Ordinary, today much more prominent than it was under the previous discipline, is the economic and cultural autonomy vis-à-vis the parish priests that belongs to associations, and therefore to p. unions, erected in their own church; this independence is not lost if the church of the pious association should happen to house the parish seat (cann. 691, 716). But if the p. union were a guest in another’s church, it may not exceed, in the exercise of worship, the chapel or altar assigned to it, and its accounts are separate from the administration of the church’s property. This patrimonial distinction is also prescribed in the case of ex aequo co-ownership of the same church by the p. union and the parish (can. 717).
It is clear that the autonomy of the u. p. does not entail for individual members exemption from the rights inherent in the office of their proper parish priest, and especially from the ius funerandi within the limits of common law. The relations between the u. p. and other associations in the exercise of worship are determined, with regard to precedence, by the descending order of rank: Third Orders, actual and honorary archconfraternities; confraternities; primary actual and honorary u. p.; u. p. (can. 701). Within the same order of rank, precedence is regulated, according to the norms of common law, by quasi-possession or, failing that, by priority in time. In every case, the exercise of the right of precedence is inseparable from the collective and official participation of the members with the banner and their respective insignia (can. 710). The insignia, the outward expression of the associative bond, have juridical importance. Their form ranges from a simple badge to a complete habit, and it is the chaplain’s responsibility to bless and impose them according to the approved rite (can. 698 § 2). This faculty of the chaplain is held to be ordinary and therefore delegable without any special permission. By virtue of the Lateran Concordat (arts. 30-32), the u. p., like all pious associations, except for the special juridical treatment accorded to confraternities, depend exclusively on ecclesiastical authority and may obtain from the Italian State juridical recognition for civil purposes and, consequently, authorization to acquire and possess immovable property as well. According to the implementing regulation of the law of 27 May 1929, no. 848, the application for recognition of juridical personality is submitted by their representative to the Minister of the Interior.
Pious associations too, and therefore the u. p. juridically recognized by the Italian State, remain exempt from all state interference, except for compliance with arts. 4, 5, and 9 of the implementing law, concerning respectively any substantial change in the purpose, the destination of the assets, and the manner of existence of pious associations; their educational or welfare activities; and their capacity to acquire immovable property and to accept gifts, inheritances, or legacies.