Vice-Postulator

The petitioner, called the actor of the cause, names the postulator. The postulator may appoint one or more substitutes called vice-postulators through a written mandate made according to law and with the actor's prior consent. The mandate belongs among the acts of the inquiry. The arrangement permits a postulator responsible for several causes or resident elsewhere to have a competent collaborator present where testimony and documents are gathered.^[1]

A vice-postulator acts within delegated authority and does not become an independent petitioner or second postulator. The mandate should identify the cause, scope, duration, reporting relationship, and any power to incur expenses or receive documentation. Because the office handles testimony, reputational claims, personal data, and devotional funds, professional competence and transparent accountability are indispensable.

The vice-postulator can help investigate the life, virtues, martyrdom, offering of life, reputation of holiness, and alleged signs; identify documentary repositories and witnesses; prepare materials for the postulator; and attend sessions where the norms permit. The vice-postulator may supply witnesses with biographical data but cannot reveal the interrogatories in advance or coach testimony. The inquiry exists to discover truth, not to conduct a publicity campaign for a predetermined result.^[2]

The postulator or vice-postulator is not a tribunal official and may not control the episcopal delegate, promoter of justice, notary, historical commission, or medical expert. While holding office in the cause, the postulator or vice-postulator must not be called as a witness. At the opening and closing sessions the required oaths bind the officeholder to faithful service and secrecy.

Sanctorum Mater requires the diocesan or eparchial postulator or vice-postulator to reside in the place where the inquiry is conducted. In the Roman phase the postulator must be newly and lawfully mandated where required, approved by the Dicastery, and resident in Rome. That Roman postulator has no right to substitute a vice-postulator for dealings with the Dicastery. Local collaborators may continue useful research, but they do not acquire Roman standing by informal custom.^[3]

A vice-postulator does not certify sanctity, authorize public cult, authenticate every alleged relic, or promise success. Opening an inquiry means only that the Church has accepted a question for disciplined investigation. The vice-postulator serves the cause best by preserving evidence, correcting exaggeration, distinguishing private devotion from public ecclesiastical cult, and accepting an adverse result when the proof does not establish what is alleged.