VACANCY OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE. – This occurs when an ecclesiastical office is without its incumbent. It may be de iure, when there is no legitimate incumbent of the office, even if in fact someone has abusively taken possession of it or is exercising its functions, and de facto, when no one exercises the functions of the office or has taken possession of it, regardless of whether or not an incumbent has been appointed. The vacancy of the office may also be both de iure and de facto, if both circumstances are present, that is, when the office vacant de iure is not abusively occupied by anyone. As a rule, in canon law, when vacancy is spoken of in the technical sense, reference is made to vacancy de iure, and it is this, therefore, that is dealt with here.
The causes determining vacancy are: a) the death of the incumbent (cann. 430 § 1 and 1438); b) a voluntary act, such as resignation and, for beneficed offices, dimissio and permutatio, as well as translatio libera and accepted amotio; c) the law or the pronouncement of the legitimi superioris in particular cases: renuntiatio tacita or forfeiture, privatio (cann. 192 and 2298), amotio (cann. 2147–61), translatio coacta (cann. 193 § 2, 2163). In the case of appointment to a temporary ecclesiastical office, vacancy occurs through lapsus temporis praefinitis, or through the expiration of the power of the grantor, or again through revocation by the latter (can. 183).
The absence of the physical person who is the incumbent of an ecclesiastical office creates a particular juridical condition for that office, in the sense that, while continuing to exist, it nevertheless assumes another aspect, so juridically significant that canon law regulates its status through special provisions. The peculiarity of the state of vacancy consists in the office being without its incumbent: the munus remains unchanged, but it lacks the person who, with the energy and strength necessary for the efficacy of the office, puts it into operation and makes it living and active. By defining it as vacant, emphasis is placed on a particular, abnormal phase in the existence of the office, a phase characterized by the application of the principle laid down in can. 436, « sede vacante nilul innovetur », and consequently normally marked, depending on the case, by the limited or extremely limited exercise of powers. The munus proper to the ecclesiastical office that is vacant is provisionally entrusted by law to a person other than the incumbent, designated by it not with the juridical qualification of incumbent, but by another title, so that his activity is distinguished from that carried out in sede plena.
The exercise of the power of jurisdiction attributed to an ecclesiastical office does not, as a rule, come to a complete halt during vacancy, with the exception of the vacancy of the Apostolic See. This is readily explained if one bears in mind the characteristics of pontifical power, namely, that it is primatial, infallible, and an expression of an absolute regime. The exercise of this power must be regarded as an exclusive attribute of the person of the Pontiff, so that during a vacancy it must necessarily remain inactive: the College of Cardinals – in accordance with the currently effective constitution Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis of Pius XII (8 Dec. 1945), and likewise in accordance with the earlier constitutions abrogated by it – will provide only for the election of the successor and for the governance of the Church in urgent affairs and in matters of ordinary administration whose treatment is not reserved by law to pontifical competence. As a rule, however, among the other major offices, that is, those whose incumbents possess ordinary jurisdiction in the external forum, namely episcopal or quasi-episcopal power, as in the offices of metropolitan, residential bishop, and major superior of an exempt clerical religious institute, the exercise of the powers of an office does not remain entirely inactive during a vacancy. Indeed, if one considers, for example, the typical ecclesiastical office, the diocese, all activity referable to the rank of bishop in the hierarchy of orders ceases in it, whereas, under can. 435 § 1, the powers inherent in the ordinary « episcopi iurisdictio in spiritualibus et temporalibus » belong first to the Chapter and then to the capitular vicar, with the exception of those acts expressly prohibited by law that bring about a change in the status and assets of the diocese.
Among the minor ecclesiastical offices, such as, for example, the parish, the principle mentioned above does not find analogous application. Indeed, the vicar-oeconomus who governs the parish in the event of vacancy (cann. 471–78) has plena potestas paroecialis, that is, full pastoral care of souls (can. 451 § 2, n. 2), so that, having duties identical to those of the parish priest, he is equated with him in all rights and obligations and is included by the legislator under the designation of parish priest.
The vacant status of an ecclesiastical office makes it necessary to establish to whom the fruits of the corresponding benefice, accrued during this period, belong. Can. 1480, which provides for the case in which a benefice has been held during the year by more than one incumbent, establishes that the revenues, after the emoluments and burdens of the current year have been calculated, are to be divided, in proportion to the service rendered, between the successor to the beneficed office and the predecessor, represented, if he has died, by his heirs. Other criteria of distribution in use or established by legitimate custom are also admitted (as in the case of crops whose fruits are biennial or occur at even longer intervals, in which case the calculation covers the entire cycle from one harvest to the next), or in accordance with special statutes. The « fructus intercalares » or « medii temporis », that is, those accrued during the vacancy of the beneficed office, unless there is a legitimate custom of assigning the net income to the diocesan treasury, are allocated half to increasing the benefice endowment and half to the church or sacristy of the church in which the benefice is established. The Lateran Concordat recognizes, in art. 26, the provisions of canon law concerning the administration and enjoyment of the revenues of vacant benefices; nevertheless, the law implementing the Concordat in patrimonial matters, 27 May 1929, no. 848, provides in art. 25 that the allowances calculated by the Fund for Worship begin from the ecclesiastical appointment and thus even before possession. This unilateral provision of the State does not, however, derogate from the canonical principle that the fruits must be received from the moment possession is taken; consequently, the beneficiary must assign to the pool of intercalary fruits the portion of the allowances corresponding to the period running from appointment to possession.