Protip for Election 2013

It's Election Year once more. This time, it's the midterm elections that we focus on. During this set, half of the current Senate will be replaced, as will elected officials from Congressman down to Municipal Councilor...or re-elected. Considering this, I only have one real pro tip for we who are about to vote: SUBSTANCE, FOR FUCK'S SAKE! Do not vote for someone because he/she/it/hermaphrodite is popular, vote because that person has a platform you understand. Vote for people with concrete plans...or those who have proven themselves, if that is the case, surveys be damned.

Remember: THIS IS AN ELECTION, NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST!

Yours truly,
Alistair Jephte Cabugsa-Migriño (Pe) Caseñas de Cebu

CIC Cann. 85-93

CHAPTER V.

DISPENSATIONS

Can. 85 A dispensation, or the relaxation of a merely ecclesiastical law in a particular case, can be granted by those who possess executive power within the limits of their competence, as well as by those who have the power to dispense explicitly or implicitly either by the law itself or by legitimate delegation.

Can. 86 Laws are not subject to dispensation to the extent that they define those things which are essentially constitutive of juridic institutes or acts.

Can. 87 §1. A diocesan bishop, whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good, is able to dispense the faithful from universal and particular disciplinary laws issued for his territory or his subjects by the supreme authority of the Church. He is not able to dispense, however, from procedural or penal laws nor from those whose dispensation is specially reserved to the Apostolic See or some other authority.

§2. If recourse to the Holy See is difficult and, at the same time, there is danger of grave harm in delay, any ordinary is able to dispense from these same laws even if dispensation is reserved to the Holy See, provided that it concerns a dispensation which the Holy See is accustomed to grant under the same circumstances, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 291.

Can. 88 A local ordinary is able to dispense from diocesan laws and, whenever he judges that it contributes to the good of the faithful, from laws issued by a plenary or provincial council or by the conference of bishops.

Can. 89 A pastor and other presbyters or deacons are not able to dispense from universal and particular law unless this power has been expressly granted to them.

Can. 90 §1. One is not to be dispensed from an ecclesiastical law without a just and reasonable cause, after taking into account the circumstances of the case and the gravity of the law from which dispensation is given; otherwise the dispensation is illicit and, unless it is given by the legislator himself or his superior, also invalid.

§2. In a case of doubt concerning the sufficiency of the cause, a dispensation is granted validly and licitly.

Can. 91 Even when outside his territory, one who possesses the power to dispense is able to exercise it with respect to his subjects even though they are absent from the territory, and, unless the contrary is expressly established, also with respect to travelers actually present in the territory, as well as with respect to himself.

Can. 92 A dispensation is subject to a strict interpretation according to the norm of can. 36, §1, as is the very power to dispense granted for a particular case.

Can. 93 A dispensation which has successive application ceases in the same ways as a privilege as well as by the certain and total cessation of the motivating cause.

CIC Cann. 76-84

CHAPTER IV.

PRIVILEGES

Can. 76 §1. A privilege is a favor given through a particular act to the benefit of certain physical or juridic persons; it can be granted by the legislator as well as by an executive authority to whom the legislator has granted this power.

§2. Centenary or immemorial possession induces the presumption that a privilege has been granted.

Can. 77 A privilege must be interpreted according to the norm of can. 36, §1, but that interpretation must always be used by which the beneficiaries of a privilege actually obtain some favor.

Can. 78 §1. A privilege is presumed to be perpetual unless the contrary is proved.

§2. A personal privilege, namely one which follows the person, is extinguished with that person’s death.

§3. A real privilege ceases through the complete destruction of the thing or place; a local privilege, however, revives if the place is restored within fifty years.

Can. 79 A privilege ceases through revocation by the competent authority according to the norm of can. 47, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 81.

Can. 80 §1. No privilege ceases through renunciation unless the competent authority has accepted the renunciation.

§2. Any physical person can renounce a privilege granted only in that person’s favor.

§3. Individual persons cannot renounce a privilege granted to some juridic person or granted in consideration of the dignity of a place or of a thing, nor is a juridic person free to renounce a privilege granted to it if the renunciation brings disadvantage to the Church or to others.

Can. 81 A privilege is not extinguished when the authority of the one who granted it expires unless it has been given with the clause, at our good pleasure (ad beneplacitum nostrum), or some other equivalent expression.

Can. 82 A privilege which is not burdensome to others does not cease through non-use or contrary use. If it is to the disadvantage of others, however, it is lost if legitimate prescription takes place.

Can. 83 §1. A privilege ceases through the lapse of the time period or through the completion of the number of cases for which it had been granted, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 142, §2.

§2. It also ceases if, in the judgment of the competent authority, circumstances are so changed in the course of time that it becomes harmful or its use illicit.

Can. 84 One who abuses the power given by a privilege deserves to be deprived of that privilege.

Therefore, when the holder of a privilege has been warned in vain, an ordinary is to deprive the one who gravely abuses it of a privilege which he himself has granted. If the privilege was granted by the Apostolic See, however, an ordinary is bound to notify the Apostolic See.