VICARIO GENERALE. – He is the priest lawfully constituted to represent the person of the bishop in the exercise of his jurisdiction throughout the diocese.
In the fourth century, as their ministry intensified, bishops found it necessary to have assistance in attending to the governance of the diocese; for this purpose, the person among the clergy who enjoyed a pre-eminent position, archdeacon (v.), was entrusted with this task and came to be regarded as the bishop’s vicar in the governance of the diocese. Already in the seventh century his position had become so firmly established in authority as to cause concern because of the danger of possible abuses. In the thirteenth century the archdeacon had attained the height of his prominence, to such an extent that his dignity was considered inferior to that of the bishop only because he lacked the fullness of the power of order. His prominence was also favoured by the division of the diocese into districts, each headed by an archdeacon; thus, although within the diocese this dignity was now held by several persons, they nevertheless enjoyed ordinary, personal jurisdiction, which they exercised autonomously within the district entrusted to them.
In the face of the archdeacons’ predominant jurisdictional powers, the bishops nevertheless began to show opposition aimed at limiting their authority, which by then largely competed with their own. Indeed, they opposed the archdeacons’ predominance by creating true subordinates, namely general vicars, for the ordinary governance of the diocese, and officials for the administration of justice. As regards the former, the bishops delegated their jurisdiction to ecclesiastics removable ad nutum, distinguished as vicarius principalis sive urbicus and vicarius forensis, according as they were assigned to assist the bishop in the city or in the countryside. This innovation, whose establishment took place gradually, consequently weakened the position of the archdeacons, so that in the second half of the sixteenth century the title of archdeacon meant merely a capitular dignity.
Thus arose the office of general vicar, whose origin must be traced back to the thirteenth century and of which references are already found in the Decretals of Gregory IX (chap. 14, X, de off. iud., I, 31), an office subsequently frequently mentioned and regulated in the Sext of Boniface VIII (chap. 2, 3, de off. vic., I, 13; chap. 1, de off. ordin., I, 16; chap. 2, de consuetud., I, 4) and in the Clementines (chap. 3, de rescr., I, 2). The Council of Trent, moreover, by depriving the archdeacon of every power of jurisdiction and reducing him to an honorary dignity in cathedral chapters (sess. XXIV, chap. 20, de reform., sess. XXV, chap. 3, de reform.), strengthened the powers that legislation and practice had already recognized in the general vicar.
The CIC now regulates the office of general vicar, in addition to various provisions concerning matters connected with this institution, in Book II, under the title « De potestate episcopali deque iis qui de eadem participant », where it treats it fully in canons 366–71. Residential bishops, abbots, and nullus prelates are entitled to choose a general vicar, although his appointment is not obligatory but merely optional, since they need do so only if they consider it necessary for the proper governance of the diocese. Contrary to a custom that had formerly become established, particularly in France, the CIC, in canon 366 § 3, expressly excludes the possibility of the bishop appointing more than one general vicar, unless this is required by the diversity of rite among the faithful or by the extent of the diocese; it nevertheless allows him to appoint a substitute called a vicegerent or pro-vicar.
The general vicar is an ecclesiastic freely appointed by the bishop and removable by him ad nutum. The requirements necessary for holding this office are: to have priestly orders and to belong to the secular clergy, except when a religious Order or Congregation has charge of a diocese; in that case the general vicar belongs to that Order or Congregation; to be at least thirty years old; to be a doctor or licentiate in theology and canon law,
or at least to have a thorough knowledge of these disciplines; and to possess probity, prudence, and experience. The office of general vicar may not be held by the canon penitentiary, in order to prevent internal and external fòro jurisdiction from being exercised simultaneously with regard to the same persons; nor may it be held by the bishop’s relatives, especially in the first degree or in the second degree combined with the first, or, except in a case of necessity, by clerics who have the care of souls.
The general vicar is the bishop’s general representative and collaborator in the exercise of the potestas iurisdictionis, specifically in the administrative and disciplinary affairs of the diocese—not in the exercise of the power of order, in relation to which the bishop is assisted and represented, when necessity requires, by the auxiliary bishop. By virtue of his office, he exercises the same powers of jurisdiction in spiritualibus ac temporalibus ordinarily attributed by law to the bishop, and therefore also administers ecclesiastical property, except, according to some writers, the episcopal mensa. The powers of the general vicar are not unlimited, since there are certain matters whose treatment the bishop reserves to himself, while for others the law requires the general vicar to have a special mandate from the bishop, such as, among many others, the granting of excardination and incardination (can. 113), the granting of dimissorial letters (can. 958 § 1, no. 2), and the establishment of offices (can. 1414 § 3). It is nevertheless always possible for the bishop, in the very letters of appointment, to have generally conferred upon the general vicar the powers relating to matters for which the law requires a special mandate.
The general vicar has ordinary vicarious power, since, although he exercises it by virtue of his office—in the sense that it is the law itself that attributes it to him—he exercises it in substitution for another, namely in the bishop’s name. As the bishop’s representative in the potestas iurisdictionis, the general vicar takes precedence over all the other ecclesiastics of the diocese, with the exception of those who possess episcopal dignity, unless he himself is invested with such dignity.
The office of general vicar ceases, besides upon the death of the person who holds it, through his resignation, through revocation communicated by the bishop, provided that it is based on just causes, and through the vacancy of the episcopal see.