Juridic Person is a subject of canonical rights and obligations constituted by law or by a decree of competent ecclesiastical authority for a purpose consonant with the Church's mission.
Personality in canon law
A juridic person is not a human being but a stable canonical subject capable of possessing rights, assuming obligations, owning ecclesiastical goods, and acting through representatives. Canon law distinguishes juridic persons from physical persons. The Catholic Church and the Apostolic See possess moral personality by divine ordinance; other juridic persons arise by the law itself or by a special decree of competent authority.[1]
The entity must be ordered to a purpose consistent with the Church's mission and transcending the merely private purpose of its individual members. Works of piety, apostolate, or charity—spiritual or temporal—are the characteristic purposes named by the Code of Canon Law. A parish, diocese, seminary, religious institute, or public association can therefore act as one enduring legal subject even as its officeholders and members change.
Aggregates of persons and things
An aggregate of persons is constituted by a body of persons and ordinarily requires at least three. It is collegial when the members determine its action by participating in decisions, whether with equal rights or according to law and statutes; otherwise it is non-collegial. An aggregate of things is an autonomous foundation composed of goods or things, spiritual or material, directed by persons or a college according to law and statutes.
Public and private persons
A public juridic person is constituted by competent authority to fulfill an entrusted function in the name of the Church for the public good. Its goods are ecclesiastical goods and are governed by Book V of the Code. A private juridic person acts in its own name within its approved purposes; recognition as a private association does not by itself confer juridic personality, which requires an express decree when it is not supplied by law.[2]
Statutes, representation, and extinction
Every juridic person requires statutes approved by competent authority. Those statutes define its purpose, constitution, government, manner of acting, and designation of administrators. Representatives do not own the entity's assets personally: they administer and bind the juridic person only within the authority conferred by universal law, particular law, and the statutes.
A juridic person is perpetual by its nature unless law or its statutes provide otherwise. It can be suppressed by competent authority or cease after a hundred years of inactivity. The allocation of its goods and liabilities then follows law and statutes, with due regard for founders, donors, acquired rights, and the destination of ecclesiastical goods.
References
- 1.Code of Canon Law, canons 96–123 — Physical and juridic persons in the Latin Church
- 2.Code of Canon Law, canons 1254–1310 — Ecclesiastical goods, alienation, pious wills, and pious foundations