Warunki wymagane do ważności rezygnacji z urzędu kościelnego

Abstract

The author of the presented article focused on the issue of the conditions required to validate a resignation from ecclesiastical office. In his inquiry, he carried out detailed analysis of the regulations included in canons 187-189 CIC. The research performed shows that the requirements which need to be fulfilled for a resignation form ecclesiastical office to be valid, as presented in canons 187-189 CIC, are closely connected with the application of basic assumptions of the theory of a legal act codified in canons 124-126 CIC. The requirement for a person resigning from an office to have legal capacity else than a declaration of natural law. The regulations concerning the impact of fear and deceit on the invalidity of a decision being made should be seen as an exception from general rules included in canon 125 § 2 CIC. Therefore a different approach in this case results from a decision of an ecclesiastical legislator. The argument for introducing this solution is the need for guaranteeing that a person holding an office has full freedom of decision. Formal requirements (as codified in canon 189 § 1 CIC), concerning the necessity to make a decision before a competent authority and to hand it in a written from or to make it in the presence of two witnesses are aimed at increasing the credibility of one’s decision about a resignation.