Coadjutor
The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence.
These include:
- Coadjutor archbishop
- Coadjutor apostolic vicar
- Coadjutor archeparch
- Coadjutor apostolic exarch
Overview
The office is ancient. "Coadjutor", in the 1883 Catholic Dictionary, says:
One who helps a prelate, or a priest holding a benefice, in discharging the duties of his bishopric or benefice. Coadjutorship may be of two kinds: one temporary and revocable, allowed on account of sickness or other incapacity, and implying no right of succession; the other perpetual and irrevocable, and carrying with it the right to succeed the person coadjuted. In this latter sense it is expressly forbidden by the
Congregation of Rites.[1]
Another source identifies three kinds of coadjutors:
- (1) Temporal and revocable.
- (2) Perpetual and irrevocable.
- (3) Perpetual, with the right of future succession.[2]
It describes:
As regards temporal coadjutors. Since a cleric who enjoys a benefice cannot be deprived of it on account of old age or infirmity, it is fitting that he should have someone to assist him in the work. This substitute or coadjutor has a claim in justice to share the fruits of the benefice in a reasonable proportion. The sacred Sess. xxi. canons only speak of parochial churches; and the Council of Trent orders the bishops, as delegates of the Holy See, to provide parish priests, who are ignorant but of good life, with coadjutors and vicars, and to assign these a sufficient share of the fruits of the benefice. As regards benefices without cure of souls, it is not the custom to give these temporary coadjutors, as the end in view can be attained by other means. As regards perpetual coadjutors. The Council of Trent forbids absolutely perpetual coadjutors except for bishops and abbots, and this only under the conditions—viz. (1) that the necessity is pressing and the utility evident; (2) and that the coadjutorship be not given with the hope of future succession.[2]
See also
References
- ^ A Catholic Dictionary, William Edward Addis and Thomas Arnold, 1884, page 193.
- ^ a b The Law of the Church: A Cyclopedia of Canon Law for English-speaking Countries, Ethelred Luke Taunton, 1906, page 204.
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