Canon
204
1. The
eparchial bishop, even if he has a coadjutor or auxiliary bishop, is bound by
the obligation of residing in his own
eparchy. 2.
In addition to those obligations which require a
legitimate
absence from his own eparchy, the bishop can be absent
for a just
cause for not more than one continual or interrupted
month, so
long as the precaution is taken that the eparchy not
suffer harm
from his absence. 3. The eparchial bishop, except
for some
grave cause, must not be absent from his eparchy on days
of special
solemnity established by particular law according to
the
tradition of his own Church sui iuris. 4. If an eparchial
bishop exercising
his authority within the territorial boundaries
of the
patriarchal Church has been unlawfully absent beyond six
months from
the eparchy entrusted to him, the patriarch is immediately to defer the matter
to the Roman Pontiff. In other cases
this is to
be done by the metropolitan or, if the metropolitan
himself has
been unlawfully absent, by the eparchial bishop senior in episcopal ordination
and subject to that same metropolitan.
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