Delegated Executive Power

Ordinary power belongs to an office by law; delegated power is granted to a person. Ordinary power is proper when exercised in the officeholder's own name and vicarious when exercised in the name of another. Delegation therefore describes the source of authority, not whether the delegate is a cleric, employee, or permanent officeholder.^[1]

Executive power can be delegated for a single act, a defined class of cases, or more broadly within the delegator's competence. Legislative power must be exercised as law prescribes and cannot validly be delegated unless law explicitly provides; judicial power is governed by the law of tribunals. A vague request to help is not necessarily a canonical delegation.

A delegate must prove the delegation when legitimately asked and may not exceed its limits concerning persons, matters, territory, conditions, or time. A delegation for a particular act is interpreted strictly; one for all cases is interpreted broadly according to the words of the grant. Error about a circumstance can affect the act as the law provides.

The person claiming delegated faculty to assist at a marriage, dispense from an impediment, perform an administrative act, or exercise another power should establish the grant before acting. Apparent pastoral convenience does not create authority. Canon 144 can supply executive power in common error or positive and probable doubt of law or fact, but supplied jurisdiction is a legal remedy with defined conditions, not a substitute for routine delegation.^[2]

Power delegated by the Apostolic See can ordinarily be subdelegated for an individual case unless the delegate was chosen for personal qualifications or subdelegation was prohibited. Power delegated by another authority for all cases can be subdelegated only in individual cases; power delegated for a single act or determinate acts cannot be subdelegated without an express grant.

Delegated power ceases by fulfillment of the mandate, expiration of time or cases, cessation of the purpose, revocation communicated to the delegate, or renunciation accepted by the delegator. It ordinarily does not cease merely because the delegator's authority expires unless the grant says so or the law provides otherwise.