PARISH VICAR. - He is the priest who takes the place of the parish priest in the exercise of the care of souls. There are five kinds of parish vicar.
The actual or perpetual vicar governs the parish incorporated into a moral person; the administrator vicar governs the vacant parish; the substitute vicar governs the parish during the absence of the incumbent or during the delays of appeal, if the incumbent has been removed by a sentence not yet final; the assistant vicar supplies for an incapable parish priest; the cooperator vicar assists a parish priest in need of help because of the size of the parish, the number of the faithful, or another cause independent of the person of the parish priest. These offices, except the first, are all in the ordinary course ad nutum, not being consolidated into benefices. By way of exception there exist true benefices, destined to the office of cooperator vicar in the whole care of souls and conferred, for the most part, like parishes: they are called autonomous vicariates, although the autonomy is incomplete, since the holder has not broken the dependence of subjection to the parish.
I. THE CURRENT OR PERPETUAL PARISH VICAR
When a parish is united pleno iure, that is, assigned to a college, a Chapter, a monastery or any other moral person, the latter holds the so-called habitual cure and the parish priest only the actual cure, and for this reason he is called current or perpetual v.
The distinction between the two concepts of cure, traces of which already exist in canon law before the Council of Trent, was developed following the Tridentine provisions, which obliged bishops to put an end to the care of souls managed in solidum by moral persons, where the fragmented and non-organic responsibility is less felt, entrusting it to physical persons (sess. VII, cap. 7, de reform.).
After that time the Chapters entrusted the parochial duties either to a member of the college or to one or more subordinate vicars; but they reserved to themselves another direction which comprised, along with the juridical and economic representation of the church, supervision over the parish priest, and which came to be called the habitual cure: a potential state that was translated de iure and de facto into the actual cure, exercised by others. But, since the dividing line between the one and the other was not always drawn, there was room for encroachments and doubts of law.
Therefore the CIC, while leaving intact apostolic privileges and special conventions stipulated at the erection of the parish, reserves to the moral body, besides the right to present the holder of the actual cure, the high liturgical supervision and patrimonial administration of the parish, and assigns to the v. full autonomy in the exercise of the care of souls (can. 471 § 4). He is therefore equated with the parish priest in all pastoral rights and duties; and, if previously he could be removable, today he is irremovable like the parish priest properly so called (can. 741 § 3), save for removability in the case of religious v.
II. THE PARISH VICAR ECONOMO
He is the priest deputed by the Ordinary to govern the vacant parish, with the prior consent of the religious superior regarding the choice of the person, if the parish is regular. The economus has all the spiritual rights and all the duties of the titular parish priest; but he cannot prejudice the rights of the parish priest or of the benefice. He is assigned by way of stipend a fixed share of the benefice's revenues, in addition to stole fees. On ceasing from office, he must hand over the archive and render the accounts of the receipts and expenditures of his administration to the new parish priest or to the economus who succeeds him, in the presence of the v. forane or of another priest designated by the Ordinary (can. 473).
III. THE PARISH VICAR SUBSTITUTE
The titular parish priest or the administrator, who is about to be absent for a period longer than a week, proposes to the Ordinary the priest who is to replace him. The latter, once approved, obtains full powers of care of souls, including in matrimonial matters, unless the Ordinary or the absent parish priest have placed limitations, and he is known under the name of v. substitute. If the titular is compelled by a grave and sudden cause to be absent for more than a week, the substitute immediately acquires such breadth of powers and retains it, until the Ordinary, who must be notified in writing as soon as possible of the absence and the substitution, decides otherwise (cann. 465 §§ 4-5, 474; Pont. Comm., 14 July 1922; 20 May 1923). The substitution of a parish priest who is absent for a period shorter than a week falls under the common rules of delegation. The parish priest substituted for a parish priest removed during the pendency of an appeal is appointed directly by the Ordinary and is equal in powers to the v. administrator.
IV. THE V. ASSISTANT (adiutor)
When the parish priest becomes unequal, in whole or in part, to his offices because of a supervening permanent cause of a physical nature or because of insufficient capacity, the bishop, if he does not deem it opportune to proceed to removal, appoints the v. assistant, whose juridical position varies according to the duties entrusted to him. If he has been given full power to supply for the titular who is entirely incapacitated, there belong to him all the spiritual rights and all the offices proper to the parish priest, except the Mass pro populo. If, on the other hand, a limited supply has been entrusted to him, the scope of his powers is marked out by the letter of deputation (can. 475).
V. THE ASSISTANT PRIEST
The CIC reserves to the Ordinary the right to assign assistant priests freely to parishes in which the intensity of the work of care of souls requires help, after obtaining the opinion of the parish priest. The duties of the assistant priest are derived from three sources: from the diocesan statutes, from the letters of appointment and from the commission of the parish priest. In principle, however, he is obliged to substitute for the parish priest in his offices and to assist him in universo paroeciali ministerio, with the exception for the Mass pro populo (can. 476 § 6). Only the assistant vicar is qualified to receive the general delegation to assist at marriages, and when he has it he may subdelegate it in individual cases. As with marriages, so too for the rest, the jurisdictional power of the assistant vicar is always delegated and never ordinary, unless he is invested with the vicarial benefice in accordance with can. 477 § 2.
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Luigi Fini