Chancery OFFICE

The Chancery Office deals with issues relating to the law of the Church. It is a resource for people—lay people as well as priests-- who require or seek information about Church laws or regulations.  

The Chancery also has a role that relates to marriages celebrated in the Archdiocese. For example, when a Catholic wishes to marry a person who is not baptized, or when a Catholic person seeks permission to celebrate his/her marriage in a church other than a Catholic church, the priest who is preparing that couple for marriage will apply to the Chancery Office for the necessary permission.
 

VICARS GENERAL AND EPISCOPAL VICARS

Can. 475 §1. In each diocese the diocesan bishop must appoint a vicar general who is provided with ordinary power according to the norm of the following canons and who is to assist him in the governance of the whole diocese.

§2. As a general rule, one vicar general is to be appointed unless the size of the diocese, the number of inhabitants, or other pastoral reasons suggest otherwise.

Can. 476 Whenever the correct governance of a diocese requires it, the diocesan bishop can also appoint one or more episcopal vicars, namely, those who in a specific part of the diocese or in a certain type of affairs or over the faithful of a specific rite or over certain groups of persons possess the same ordinary power which a vicar general has by universal law, according to the norm of the following canons.

Can. 477 §1. The diocesan bishop freely appoints a vicar general and an episcopal vicar and can freely remove them, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 406. An episcopal vicar who is not an auxiliary bishop is to be appointed only for a time to be determined in the act of appointment.

§2. When a vicar general is absent or legitimately impeded, a diocesan bishop can appoint another to take his place; the same norm applies to an episcopal vicar.

Can. 478 §1. A vicar general and an episcopal vicar are to be priests not less than thirty years old, doctors or licensed in canon law or theology or at least truly expert in these disciplines, and recommended by sound doctrine, integrity, prudence, and experience in handling matters.

§2. The function of vicar general and episcopal vicar can neither be coupled with the function of canon penitentiary nor be entrusted to blood relatives of the bishop up to the fourth degree.

Can. 479 §1. By virtue of office, the vicar general has the executive power over the whole diocese which belongs to the diocesan bishop by law, namely, the power to place all administrative acts except those, however, which the bishop has reserved to himself or which require a special mandate of the bishop by law.

§2. By the law itself an episcopal vicar has the same power mentioned in §1 but only over the specific part of the territory or the type of affairs or the faithful of a specific rite or group for which he was appointed, except those cases which the bishop has reserved to himself or to a vicar general or which require a special mandate of the bishop by law.

§3. Within the limit of their competence, the habitual faculties granted by the Apostolic See to the bishop and the execution of rescripts also pertain to a vicar general and an episcopal vicar, unless it has been expressly provided otherwise or the personal qualifications of the diocesan bishop were chosen.

Can. 480 A vicar general and an episcopal vicar must report to the diocesan bishop concerning the more important affairs which are to be handled or have been handled, and they are never to act contrary to the intention and mind of the diocesan bishop.

Can. 481 §1. The power of a vicar general and an episcopal vicar ceases at the expiration of the time of the mandate, by resignation, by removal made known to them by the diocesan bishop, without prejudice to cann. 406 and 409, and at the vacancy of the episcopal see.

§2. When the function of the diocesan bishop is suspended, the power of a vicar general and an episcopal vicar is suspended also unless they are bishops. 

THE CHANCELLOR and OTHER NOTARIES

Can. 482 §1. In every curia a chancellor is to be appointed whose principal function, unless particular law establishes otherwise, is to take care that acts of the curia are gathered, arranged, and safeguarded in the archive of the curia.

§2. If it seems necessary, the chancellor can be given an assistant whose title is to be vice-chancellor.

§3. By reason of being chancellor and vice-chancellor they are notaries and secretaries of the curia.

Can. 483 §1. Besides the chancellor, other notaries can be appointed whose writing or signature establishes authenticity for any acts, for judicial acts only, or for acts of a certain case or affair only.

§2. The chancellor and notaries must be of unimpaired reputation and above all suspicion. In cases in which the reputation of a priest can be called into question, the notary must be a priest.

Can. 484 It is the duty of notaries:

1/ to draw up the acts and instruments regarding decrees, dispositions, obligations, or other things which require their action;

2/ to record faithfully in writing what has taken place and to sign it with a notation of the place, day, month, and year;

3/ having observed what is required, to furnish acts or instruments to one who legitimately requests them from the records and to declare copies of them to be in conformity with the original.

Can. 485 The chancellor and other notaries can be freely removed from office by the diocesan bishop, but not by a diocesan administrator except with the consent of the college of consultors.

Can. 486 §1. All documents which regard the diocese or parishes must be protected with the greatest care.

ARCHIVES

§2. In every curia there is to be erected in a safe place a diocesan archive, or record storage area, in which instruments and written documents which pertain to the spiritual and temporal affairs of the diocese are to be safeguarded after being properly filled and diligently secured.

§3. An inventory, or catalog, of the documents which are contained in the archive is to be kept with a brief synopsis of each written document.

Can. 487 §1. The archive must be locked and only the bishop and chancellor are to have its key. No one is permitted to enter except with the permission either of the bishop or of both the moderator of the curia and the chancellor.

§2. Interested parties have the right to obtain personally or through a proxy an authentic written copy or photocopy of documents which by their nature are public and which pertain to their personal status.

Can. 488 It is not permitted to remove documents from the archive except for a brief time only and with the consent either 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 common archive there is to be a safe or cabinet, completely closed and locked, which cannot be removed; in it documents to be kept secret are to be protected most securely.

§2. Each year documents of criminal cases in matters of morals, in which the accused parties have died or ten years have elapsed from the condemnatory sentence, are to be destroyed. A brief summary of what occurred along with the text of the definitive sentence is to be retained.

Can. 490 §1. Only the bishop is to have the key to the secret archive.

§2. When a see is vacant, the secret archive or safe is not to be opened except in a case of true necessity by the diocesan administrator himself.

§3. Documents are not to be removed from the secret archive or safe.

Can. 491 §1. A diocesan bishop is to take care that the acts and documents of the archives of cathedral, collegiate, parochial, and other churches in his territory are also diligently preserved and that inventories or catalogs are made in duplicate, one of which is to be preserved in the archive of the church and the other in the diocesan archive.

§2. A diocesan bishop is also to take care that there is an historical archive in the diocese and that documents having historical value are diligently protected and systematically ordered in it.

§3. In order to inspect or remove the acts and documents mentioned in §§1 and 2, the norms established by the diocesan bishop are to be observed.