Title II
Norms
for The Spiritual Care of Migrants
CHAPTER
I
THE
COMPETENCY OF THE CONSISTORIAL CONGREGATION
REGARDING MIGRANTS
We now
review, approve and confirm the enactments of our predecessors of happy memory,
and especially those of St. Pius X; at the same time however, we modify them
somewhat, as seems necessary. We hereby wish and decree that the following
rules be observed in the future.
1. a) The
Consistorial Congregation alone has the authority to seek and to provide
everything pertaining to the spiritual welfare of migrants of the Latin rite,
wheresoever they may have migrated. However, if their migration is to countries
under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Oriental Church, or the
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, then these Congregations must
be consulted depending upon the region.
b) It is likewise within the competence of the Consistorial Congreation to
seek and to provide, in like manner, for emigrants of the Oriental rite,
whenever emigrants of one or another Oriental rite leave for areas which are
not under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Oriental Church, and
where no priests of such rite are available, but in all cases previous
consultation must be taken up with the Congregation for the Oriental Church.
2. a)
Whenever priests of the Latin rite migrate it is always the Consistorial
Congregation alone which has juris. diction over them.
b) If the priests of the Latin rite subject to the Congregation for the
Oriental Church or the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith desire to
migrate into an area not under jurisdiction of the same Congregation, they
also will be subject to the regulations concerning such migration, made or to
be made by the Consistorial Congregation, with-out prejudice of the rights of
the Congregation for the Oriental Church or for the Propagation of the Faith.
c) These same regulations are binding on priests of the Oriental rite migrating
into areas not under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Oriental
Church, likewise without prejudice to the laws and rights of this same
Congregation for the Oriental Church.
3. a) 1.
The Consistorial Congregation alone can authorize priests to migrate from
Europe or Mediterranean regions to other lands overseas. This applies
regardless of any length of time they wish to be gone, whether it be brief or
long, indefinite or permanent. Such authorization may be merely for departure
or for a brief residence in the new country, or for a more prolonged residence
there.
2. Nuncios, Internuncios and Apostolic Delegates may grant this permission to
priests of that nation where they regularly fulfill their assignments, provided
that this faculty has been granted and reserved to them.
b) 1. The priests referred to in a) 1. must obtain permission and comply with
all other regulations before being incardinated into the new diocese overseas.
2. This permission is also necessary for religious priests unless it is a
matter of their going, on orders of their superiors, to another house of their
order. Similarly, religious excloistered need it, during the time of their
exclaustration; also, religious who have been "secularized," whether
they have been accepted outright by a friendly bishop or simply on a trial
basis.
c) This permission, without prejudice to the other requirements of the decree Magni
Semper Negotii, is not to be granted unless it is certain that there are:
1. The testimonials of good conduct of the petitioner;
2. a proper and reasonable motive for migration;
3. consent both of the bishop of the place he is
leaving, or of his superior in the case of a religious, and of the bishop to
whose diocese he is going;
4. an indult from the Congregation of the Council,
if it is a case of a pastor to be absent more than two months from his parish.
d) Priests, whether secular or religious, who have obtained permission to
migrate to an overseas country, must obtain new permission if they wish to go
to still another country, even in that same continent.
e) Priests who, disregarding these rules, heedlessly and boldly migrate, shall
incur the penalties of the decree Magni Semper Negotii.
4. An
apostolic indult to establish special nationality parishes for the benefit of
immigrants can, according to Canon 216, 4 of the Code of Canon Law, be granted
only by the Consistorial Congregation.
5. a) It
is likewise the Consistorial Congregation which has the right:
1. After first reviewing the applicant's previous life, morals and fitness,
and making sure of the Ordinary's consent, then to grant permission to priests,
whether they be secular or religious who now desire to dedicate
themselves to the religious care of migrants of their own nationality or
language, or to the care of people who may be travelling by sea or who, for many
reasons, may be aboard ships or who are attached to ships, in whatever
capacity. Likewise, the said Congregation has the right to appoint, by special
rescript, priests as missionaries to migrants or as chaplains aboard ships;
similarly, to assign their destinations, to transfer them, to accept their
resignations, and in a proper case, to dismiss them.
2. To choose and appoint in any nation Moderators or Directors of Missionaries
for migrants of the same nationality or language.
3. To direct and supervise all these priests, whether through the local
Ordinaries or the Delegate for Migration Affairs, or other ecclesiastics
delegated for this task.
b) 1. If the rescript mentioned in a) 1. is granted, notice must be sent to both
the Ordinaries, the Ordinary from whom and the Ordinary to whom the
priest is going.
2. The Consistorial Congregation must not delay in notifying bishops of the
appointments of moderators or directors for their nations or territories.
6. a) We
approve with our authority the special committees or episcopal commissions set
up in many European and American countries for the spiritual aid of migrants,
and wish that these timely committees be set up also in other areas. We have,
therefore, decided that the priests appointed by Bishops to serve as
Secretaries of these committees may be named Directors of Migration Affairs,
each for his own country, by the Consistorial Congregation.
b) Where this type of committee has not yet been established, the Consistorial
Congregation may choose a director from among the priests presented by the
Bishops of the country.
7. a) In
order to facilitate the work of assisting emigrants, we hereby establish and
institute, in the offices of our Consistorial Congregation, a Supreme Council
on Migration.
b) The president of this Council will be the Assessor of the same Congregation.
Its secretary will be the Delegate for Migration Affairs.
c) The following may be members of this Council;
1. Those priests who in their own country or region either serve as
secretaries of the episcopal commissions for the spiritual care of immigrants
or are otherwise engaged, at the direction of their bishops, in this type of
spiritual care.
2. Those priests, whether secular or regular, resident in Rome who seem
outstanding because of their knowledge of this field and their zeal for souls.
8. a) We
also establish within the Consistorial Congregation another agency, the
General International Secretariate, to direct the work of the Apostolate of the
Sea. The chief work of this Apostolate is to promote the spiritual and moral
welfare of maritime people, that is, of both those who board ships as officers
and those who go as crew members, together with those who are employed in ports
to prepare railings.
b) The Assessor of the Consistorial Congregation shall direct this Secretariate
as its president. The Delegate for Migration Affairs shall be its secretary.
c) The following may be chosen as members of the Seeretariate:
1. Those ecclesiastics who in each country have been appointed as Directors of
such work by the bishops.
2. Other priests who, having worked notably in the development of this work,
are recommended by proper testimonials.
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