InCatholic canon law,Right of Option is a way of obtaining abenefice or atitle, by the choice of the new titulary himself.
Many chapters enjoyed this right formerly and it is still the privilege of some: thecanon, who has held his office for the longest time may, in conformity with the statutory regulation, resign theprebend he enjoys to accept another that has become vacant.
A second right of option existed inFrance before 1789: by virtue of a custom a prebendary, who was appointed to and had entered into possession of a benefice incompatible with one he already held, was entitled to select whichever of the two he preferred, when, according to thecommon law, he had already lost the incompatible benefice which he had previously held. The right of option still exists with regard tocardinalitial titles.
In this way the Catholic canon law first established an "incompatibility", giving life to the prohibition of the simultaneous possession of two ecclesiastical benefices. Since this sanction forward, also public law enshrined the same solution[1] in order to prevent the conflict of interests (for example between electoral mandates or different public offices) in a way less drastic than anineligibility[2] or adisfranchisement.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Right of Option".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. | ThisCatholic canon law–related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
