The remuneration of clerics in the 1983 Code of Canon Law : a commentary of Canons 281 and 1274 #1 and #2 in the light of the system obtaining in the Archdiocese of Malta

Abstract

Economic and financial problems play an important part in the life of man as well as in the life of the Church. We find traces of such problems already existing even at the beginning of the Church. Among such problems, the sustenance of the clergy has taken on a particular importance. The clergy, engaged in the pastoral ministry, must find in the same ministry the funds for their sustenance. The ordination of candidates to the sacred orders without a secure economic support created great difficulties for the Church. It was such an important issue that Ecumenical Councils interested themselves in the problem. The Ecumenical Council of Chalcidon, summoned by Pope St Leo the Great, between October and November 451, decreed that no one could be ordained without an incardination to a particular church. The church that asked for the ordination was obliged to provide for the sustenance of the rninister. This was the beginning of the establishment of the title required for ordination, which, through the long course of years, underwent many changes but basically aimed to guarantee the sustenance of the sacred minister. The title that was mainly imposed was what we call 'the benefice'. Although the Church authorities tolerated the benefice with vexation, it was impossible for them to eliminate it and so the Church tried to purify it from any possible aspect of deviation. But for hundreds of years it still remained the favoured institute for the sustenance of the clergy.