Constitution

Unless otherwise determined by a provincial chapter, the following belong to a province:

1. income earned by the prior provincial;
2. gifts made to the province;
3. donations made for the education of postulants, novices, and students, as well as for the support of the missions or for other projects committed to the province’s direction;
4. income from projects and institutes for which the province has accepted financial responsibility;
5. income earned by brothers assigned outside their own province, or working outside it, in accordance with n. 600;
6. goods of any kind inherited by members of the province and also free bequests – bequests, that is, left to brothers but without any previous indication of the benefactor’s intention in their regard in writing or before witnesses, without prejudice to n. 200;
7. immovable, movable, or capital goods acquired by a province in the course of time, and their accruals;
8. taxes imposed on the convents by the provincial chapter.

Unless otherwise determined by a provincial chapter, the following belong to a convent:

1. whatever the brothers assigned there acquire by their own work or activity, either as individuals or as members of the convent, and also personal income of any kind, without prejudice to nn. 174 and 200, § IV;
2. gifts made to the convent;
3. all goods legitimately acquired in the course of time, whether immovable, movable, or capital, and their accruals.

1. If through its superiors, or its ordinary or delegated administrators, a convent, province or the Order incurs debts and obligations within the limits of their office, the moral juridical person itself is responsible for them.
2. Similarly, if a deputed administrator contracts debts and obligations, the moral juridical person in whose name the transactions took place is responsible for them.
3. If a brother contracts debts and obligations without a superior’s permission, he himself is responsible for them, not the Order, province or convent.

Delegated or appointed administrators, as well as superiors and bursars, may also validly incur expenses and perform juridical acts of ordinary or extraordinary administration, provided they have the requisite approval.

1. Institutes and undertakings which pertain to a convent, a province, or the Order, and which are placed under the jurisdiction of the respective superior, may enjoy certain rights according to the statute of administration of the province or of the Order.
2. Similarly, personal administration may be conceded to designated officials of a convent, a province, or the Order: they are considered delegated administrators.
3. Within the limits of the statute of administration of a province or of the Order, superiors may depute individual brothers to carry out particular tasks.

The Order may acquire, possess and administer temporal goods, and so too may each province and convent.

1. Economic administration has to do, first of all, with whatever is needed for the daily life of the brothers and their apostolate. It has to do too with the buildings in which the brothers live and pray, with their furnishings and their maintenance. Prudent administration also requires the accumulation, in due time, of a capital reserve for unforeseen expenses.
2. While we gratefully accept donations from benefactors, the primary source of all of this property is the constant work of the brothers, and their moderation in its use and disposal.

For someone to be eligible as a diffinitor of a general chapter or a socius of a diffinitor or of a prior provincial, it is required that:

1. he is a member of the province or, if he is not a member of the province, he has been assigned there for at least six years;
2. he has not served as diffinitor, nor as an elector, under the same title in the immediately preceding general chapter.
3. he is not directly assigned in a house convent under the immediate jurisdiction of the Master of the Order.

1. A diffinitor of a general chapter is a brother elected in a provincial chapter of any province, to whom active voting rights in a general chapter are conferred by law.
2. The socius of a diffinitor, elected in the same manner, has the right to take his place in case of necessity.
3. The socius of a prior provincial going to a general chapter is elected in the same way, and with the same right to take his place.
4. In an elective general chapter, the socius of a diffinitor, as in n. 407, § I, 5, and the socius of a prior provincial, as in n. 407, § I, 6, have voting rights.

The election of diffinitors needs no confirmation; thus their authority begins immediately after their election and acceptance.