KAILASA's Jurisprudence - Volume 1

Ecclesiastical Offices

1. An ecclesiastical office is any function constituted in a stable manner by divine or ecclesiastical ordinance to be exercised for a spiritual purpose.
2. The obligations and rights proper to individual ecclesiastical offices are defined either in the law by which the office is constituted or in the decree of the competent authority by which the office is at the same time constituted and conferred.
3. An ecclesiastical office is lost by the lapse of a predetermined time, by reaching the age determined by law, by resignation, by transfer, by removal, and by privation.
4. An ecclesiastical office is not lost by the expiration in any way of the authority of the one who conferred it unless the law provides otherwise.
5. Loss of an office which has taken effect is to be made known as soon as possible to all those who have some right over the provision of the office.
6. Anyone responsible for oneself can resign from an ecclesiastical office.
7. A resignation made out of grave fear that is inflicted unjustly or out of malice, substantial error, or simony is invalid by the law itself.
8. To be valid, a resignation, whether it requires acceptance or not, must be made to the authority to whom it pertains to make provision of the office in question; this must be done either in writing, or orally in the presence of two witnesses.
- a. The authority is not to accept a resignation which is not based on a just and proportionate cause.
- b. A resignation can be revoked by the one resigning as long as it has not taken effect; once it has taken effect it cannot be revoked, but the one who resigned can obtain the office by some other title.
9. A person is removed from office either by a decree issued legitimately by competent authority.
10. A person cannot be removed from an office conferred for an indefinite period of time except for grave causes and according to the manner of proceeding defined by law.
11. The following are removed from an ecclesiastical office by the law itself:
- a. a person who has lost the citizenship of Kailasa
12. If a person is removed not by the law itself but by a decree of competent authority from an office which provides the person's support, the same authority is to take care that the support is provided for a suitable period, unless other provision is made.
13. Privation from office, namely, a penalty for a delict, can be done only according to the norm of law.