ARTICLE 2:
THE CHANCELLOR, OTHER NOTARIES AND THE ARCHIVES
Can.
482 §1 In each curia a chancellor is to be appointed, whose principal office,
unless particular law states otherwise, is to ensure that the acts of the curia
are drawn up and dispatched, and that they are kept safe in the archive of the
curia.
§2 If it is
considered necessary, the chancellor may be given an assistant, who is to be
called the vice-chancellor.
§3 The
chancellor and vice-chancellor are automatically notaries and secretaries of
the curia.
Can.
483 §1 Besides the chancellor, other notaries may be appointed, whose writing
or signature authenticates public documents. These notaries may be appointed
for all acts, or for judicial acts alone, or only for acts concerning a
particular issue or business.
§2 The
chancellor and notaries must be of unblemished reputation and above suspicion.
In cases which could involve the reputation of a priest, the notary must be a
priest.
Can.
484 The office of notary involves:
1° writing
acts and documents concerning decrees, arrangements, obligations, and other
matters which require their intervention;
2°
faithfully recording in writing what is done, and signing the document, with a
note of the place, the day, the month and the year;
3° while
observing all that must be observed, showing acts or documents from the
archives to those who lawfully request them, and verifying that copies conform
to the original.
Can.
485 The chancellor and the other notaries can be freely removed by the diocesan
Bishop. They can be removed by a diocesan Administrator only with the consent
of the college of consultors.
Can.
486 §1 All documents concerning the diocese or parishes must be kept with the
greatest of care.
§2 In each
curia there is to be established in a safe place a diocesan archive where
documents and writings concerning both the spiritual and the temporal affairs
of the diocese are to be properly filed and carefully kept under lock and key.
§3 An
inventory or catalogue is to be made of documents kept in the archive, with a
short synopsis of each document.
Can.
487 §1 The archive must be locked, and only the Bishop and the chancellor are
to have the key; no one may be allowed to enter unless with the permission of
the Bishop, or with the permission of both the Moderator of the curia and the
chancellor. §2 Persons concerned have the right to receive, personally or by
proxy, an authentic written or photostat copy of documents which are of their
nature public and which concern their own personal status.
Can.
488 It is not permitted to remove documents from the archive, except for a
short time and with the permission of the Bishop or of both the Moderator of
the curia and the chancellor.
Can.
489 §1 In the diocesan curia there is also to be a secret archive, or at least
in the ordinary archive there is to be a safe or cabinet, which is securely
closed and bolted and which cannot be removed. In this archive documents which
are to be kept under secrecy are to be most carefully guarded.
§2 Each
year documents of criminal cases concerning moral matters are to be destroyed
whenever the guilty parties have died, or ten years have elapsed since a
condemnatory sentence concluded the affair. A short summary of the facts is to
be kept, together with the text of the definitive judgement.
Can.
490 §1 Only the Bishop is to have the key of the secret archive.
§2 When the
see is vacant, the secret archive or safe is not to be opened except in a case
of real necessity, and then by the diocesan Administrator personally.
§3
Documents are not to be removed from the secret archive or safe.
Can.
491 §1 The diocesan Bishop is to ensure that the acts and documents of the
archives of cathedral, collegiate, parochial and other churches in his
territory are carefully kept and that two copies are made of inventories or
catalogues. One of these copies is to remain in its own archive, the other is
to be kept in the diocesan archive.
§2 The
diocesan Bishop is to ensure that there is an historical archive in the
diocese, and that documents which have an historical value are carefully kept
in it and systematically filed.
§3 In order
that the acts and documents mentioned in §§1 and 2 may be inspected or removed,
the norms laid down by the diocesan Bishop are to be observed.
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