VICARIO FORANEO. — He is the bishop’s immediate executive collaborator in a given diocesan district, composed of several parishes and called a forania, deanery, archpresbyterate, etc.
His existence dates back to the Middle Ages, as Benedetto XIV demonstrated against Thomassin, who attributed the institution to s. Carlo Borromeo, whereas the latter merely perfected it and made extensive use of it for his marvelous work of reform. Indeed, the size of diocesan circumscriptions naturally made necessary suitable organs for transmitting episcopal directives and information to the individual districts. Thus, between the sixth and ninth centuries, just as the practice was introduced of dividing dioceses, especially the larger ones, into archdeaconries, so these in turn were divided into smaller districts called archpresbyterates, presided over by archpriests or rural deans, though with very limited powers (v. DECANO). The Council of Trent mentions the deans only in passing (sess. XXIV, c. p. 3, 20, de reform.), further restricting their functions, which always remained very limited, given the importance first of the archdeacon (v. DIACONO E ARCIDIACONO) vicar general (v.), whose importance increased during the post-Tridentine period. All the more so because, until the Codice Piano, the division of dioceses into deaneries or foranie had never been rigorously imposed by common law, and still less had the rights and duties of the V. f. been carefully and exhaustively determined.
Today the new CIC prescribes that bishops subdivide the diocesan territory into vicariates forane, each comprising several parishes (can. 217), and, following the approach of all earlier legislation, more clearly sets out the functions of the V. f. The bishop may choose any priest for this office, even one not engaged in the care of souls, provided that he is suitable, and in any case may remove the appointee ad nutum.
Under common law the V. f. has only administrative and disciplinary power; under particular law (regional, provincial, synodal, or extrasynodal), he may also be granted jurisdictional power, properly so called, either ordinary or delegated, according as it is attached to the office or granted only to the person. The CIC orders that he be given habitual faculty in reserved cases (can. 899 § 2) and authorizes him to grant administrators of ecclesiastical goods permission to appear in court in the name of the Church in urgent cases (can. 1526).
The V. f. is also entitled to use a special seal of the vicariate and to precedence over all the clergy of his circumscription (since he enjoys hierarchical and permanent superiority over them), but not over his colleagues in the Chapter during capitular acts and choral functions, when he is a canon (Pont. Comm., 10 Nov. 1925).
An innovation introduced by the CIC, derived from the particular law of many regions, is the V. f.’s obligation to visit the parishes according to the schedule and at the time fixed by the bishop (can. 447 § 2). The purpose of this visit is to verify whether or not the canonical prescriptions concerning the care of souls, ecclesiastical discipline, and divine worship are being observed in the forania (can. 447 § 1). This visit, which is entirely distinct from the pastoral visitation, entails the duty of an annual report (can. 449). Other specific and exclusive duties of the V. f. are: to ensure that priests who are near death receive spiritual assistance and all necessary care, and that at their death neither the sacred furnishings nor the parish archive suffer any harm; to convene the clergy of the forania on the days fixed by the bishop for conferences on cases and to preside over them; finally, to reside in the parish if he is a parish priest, or, if he is not a parish priest, within the territory of the vicariate or at least in a place not too distant, according to the norms established by the bishop. Under current law, the bishop is not obliged to respect the custom according to which, in many dioceses, the office of V. f. is attached to a particular parish of the district, ordinarily the most important one.
vicariato, ibid., 12 (1933, II), pp. 187-89; and canonists in general, e.g., A. Werneersch-I. Creusen, Epitome juris, I, Rome 1937, n. 531 ff. Luigi Fini