§ 62. The General Rights and Duties of Members of the Hierarchy

To members of the hierarchy, according to the importance and sanctity of their sacred order, belong certain rights distinct from those enjoyed by the other members of the Church; and, as servants of the altar of God, and as such who are bound to be an example to all in everything, they are obliged to certain special duties which do not bind the rest of the faithful in general.

I. The general rights belonging to members of the hierarchy, or of the clergy, in the Church proceed from that power which they received by divine right. Of these rights we have already spoken.[1] Beside these rights, members of the hierarchy, by virtue of their order itself, enjoy in society still further special rights and privileges guaranteed to them by law. Among these rights and privileges, the chief are the following:

1. Personal immunity, by which one who offends a sacred person is subjected, by the canons, to the highest degree of ecclesiastical punishment, namely anathema;[2] and he is likewise punished severely under the civil laws.[3]

2. Members of the clergy are free from civil service obligations. This rests on the thought that the priestly order requires of the one who holds it that he devote all his time and strength to the service of the Church, and the state, which recognizes the Church, cannot demand of the clergy, as regards civil service obligations, what it has the right to demand of other subjects. The Greco-Roman laws recognized this privilege of the clergy to the fullest extent, freeing it not only from all the various extra-ecclesiastical duties, but also from the payment of tribute.[4] Of these privileges the clergy today enjoys only some, namely: a) that it is free from military service,[5] b) that priests’ houses are free from the obligation of being ceded for the needs of the army,[6] c) that priests are free from jury duty,[7] d) that they are likewise free from having to accept, against their will, various guardianships,[8] and e) that they cannot be summoned before judicial or political authority on Sundays and feast days.[9]

3. Judicial privilege, by which all members of the clergy, in all civil and criminal matters, fall only under ecclesiastical jurisdiction and not the secular;[10] and besides that, in matters of civil judicial competence no bishop can be summoned to court as a witness,[11] nor can a priest be compelled to take an oath before a civil court as a witness.[12] Today in all Christian states it is accepted that members of the clergy are subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction only for those offenses which concern their particular church service and which are not determined by the state laws but by the church laws.[13]

4. The right of honor in the Church belongs to the priesthood by divine right,[14] and likewise also by positive law.[15]

II. The general duties of members of the hierarchy consist in this: that they must, more than others, avoid every transgression, even a minor one, and further certain occupations which do not accord with their priestly order, and besides, they must order their outward bearing in accordance with that order. Thus: 1, the canons forbid to sacred persons, under threat of deposition, drunkenness,[16] gambling,[17] usury,[18] all worldly amusements and merrymaking—namely attendance at taverns, theaters, being present at balls and the like[19] — and this even when such amusements take place in private houses, for example at weddings;[20] further, everything contrary to bodily continence, namely adultery,[21] fornication,[22] a second marriage,[23] keeping in the house a woman who is not in the closest degree of kinship,[24] living with one’s own wife who has committed adultery,[25] and so forth. A priest is forbidden also such occupations as are otherwise in themselves innocent, for example hunting.[26] 2. As regards various social occupations, the canons forbid a priest: to keep a tavern,[27] to engage in trade,[28] in surgery,[29] to give surety for others in judicial matters,[30] to represent someone in private matters before a court,[31] to engage in secular[32] or military affairs,[33] and finally to take part in political matters.[34] 3. As regards outward bearing, the canons prescribe that a priest must in all things be modest and humble,[35] must distribute alms,[36] and must always wear the priestly garb, and one befitting his order.[37]