Folia Canonica 12. (2009)
STUDIES - Péter Artner: The remuneration of diocesan clerics
14 PÉTER ARTNER 6.1. Ecclesiastical Duties The remuneration of a cleric is to be compared with others of the same level of schooling.4' According to this, if the minimum wage connected to special academic qualifications is determined by state law in a country, the salary of the cleric with such a degree has to fit these requirements, not only to fulfill the civil law, because the Church may not even be subject of such laws, but to appreciate those clerics who have higher academic qualification in this way, too. On the other hand, a cleric with higher academic degree usually has more important or complicated work to do, than those without such degree. The support has to fit to the dimension of the office. A bishop needs to maintain a higher standard of living than a pastor. For the same reason, a pastor needs to receive more than an assistant pastor.42 The support has to fit to the age of the cleric and to the period he has spent in his position.43 If a priest has an extra duty (e.g. extra work besides the work at the parish as pastor, e.g. a teacher at a school) and receives remuneration for this extra job, he has the right to keep it, and the bishop cannot oblige him to give it to the diocesan fund or to use it as an ecclesiastical good. The Holy See wrote in a response: " This [c. 281 §1] likewise applies to all clerics who are in the same condition and variations are to be allowed by reason of length of service, of responsibility connected with the office held, etc. It should not be forgotten that a true and authentic equality (aequalitas) is also to be fair, otherwise it becomes unjust: “Summum ius summa iniuria." Therefore care is to be taken that the fair financial distribution requested from the bishop (which is desired by Vatican Council II and various post-conciliary documents) be applied in such a way so as not to produce and excessive “equalization ” which, with its cover, would be contrary to not only to the principles of justice and equity, but also to the very practical aims which they are intended to attain.,M This is to be taken into consideration in case of those duties which are paid e.g., by the State or other non-ecclesiastical institutes. 6.2. Conditions of Time and Place The remuneration has to fit to the circumstances of time and place, where the cleric lives, and it has to be basically the same for all working under the same conditions.45 The income of clerics should differ according to the varied 41 42 43 44 45 41 V. POSPISHIL, Eastern Catholic Church Law, Brooklyn [N.Y.] 1993, 218. 42 Okoh 104. 43 Cappellini 17. 44 Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Observations Regarding the decree of the bishop of Mangalore Concerning the Financial Income of the Priests Engaged in Scholastic Teaching, Private Response, 4 June 1990. 45 Woestman 190.
