Canon 722

1. Only a priest is the minister of the sacrament of penance.

2. All bishops by the law itself can administer the sacrament

of penance everywhere, unless with regard to liceity, the eparchial bishop denies it in a special case. 3. For presbyters to

act validly, they must be previously granted the faculty of administering the sacrament of penance, which is conferred either

by the law itself or by a special grant made by a competent authority. 4. Priests who are endowed with this faulty by virtue

of their office or by virtue of the grant of the local hierarch

of the eparchy in which they are enrolled or in which they have

domicile, can validly administer the sacrament of penance anywhere to any Christian faithful, unless the local hierarch in a

special case expressly denies it; the same faculties are licitly

used observing the norms made by the eparchial bishop and also

with at least the presumed permission of the rector of the church

or the superior, if it is a case of a house of an institute of

consecrated life.