The priest must have permission from the diocesan bishop to forgive sins. This is a given for a diocesan priest. But a visiting priest or an ordered priest that is in another bishop’s jurisdiction must get permission from the bishop to forgive sins. It is just a courtesy so a priest does not move into a bishop’s diocese and set up his own church without approval of a bishop or start circumventing bishop authority.
I don’t think this has ever been a problem in the USA except for some defrocked rogue priests setting up their own chapels as independents and advertising themselves as Catholic. I know of one priest doing this in my area who advertises a traditional Latin mass but he has not authority from the bishop and is conning a lot of Catholics who think its a legitimate mass. His orders are valid since these are for life/eternity but without the sanction of a bishop its illicit.
If a visiting or retired priest wanted to help out a parish he would simply notify the bishop that he wants to help out and conduct confessions, morning masses etc. and get permission/coordinate with the parish priest. I suspect its just a verbal “OK” in most instances and the bishop would authorize a parish priest to attach him informally under his pastoral staff and be on call as time and circumstances permitted.
The same is true for a visiting priest of a relative who wants him to marry their family members. I believe protocol requires that the out of area priest get permission even for a single ceremony from the bishop or ask the parish priest to get the OK on his behalf.
James
It’s worse than you think:
Can. 966 §1. The valid absolution of sins requires that the minister have, in addition to the power of orders, **the faculty of exercising it **for the faithful to whom he imparts absolution.
§2. A priest can be given this faculty either by the law itself or by a grant made by the competent authority according to the norm of can. 969.
Can. 969 §1. The local ordinary alone is competent to confer upon any presbyters whatsoever the faculty to hear the confessions of any of the faithful. Presbyters who are members of religious institutes, however, are not to use the faculty without at least the presumed permission of their superior.
§2. The superior of a religious institute or society of apostolic life mentioned in can. 968, §2 is competent to confer upon any presbyters whatsoever the faculty to hear the confessions of their subjects and of others living day and night in the house.
Code of Canon Law 1983 canons 966, 969.
Can. 1108 §1. Only those marriages are valid which are contracted before the local ordinary, pastor, or a priest or deacon delegated by either of them, who assist, and before two witnesses according to the rules expressed in the following canons and without prejudice to the exceptions mentioned in cann. 144, 1112, §1, 1116, and 1127, §§1-2.
Can. 1111 §1. As long as they hold office validly, the local ordinary and the pastor can delegate to priests and deacons the faculty, even a general one, of assisting at marriages within the limits of their territory.
§2. To be valid, the delegation of the faculty to assist at marriages must be given to specific persons expressly.
Code of Canon Law 1983 canons 1108, 1111.
If the priest in question has not been granted the faculty to hear the confession or to assist at the marriage, it’s
invalid – not just illicit – under canon law. There is a parish near me that has this same problem: a renegade priest from outside the diocese attracted some followers, bought some land, erected a church, and advertises as “St. _____ Roman Catholic Church Traditional Latin Rite.” To all appearances, it’s a traditional (as in, pre-Vatican II) parish that – you would think – is part of the Catholic Church.
But it isn’t. The priest always retains the power to confect the Eucharist, so if you go there on Sundays, you are receiving our Lord. But the priest
lacks the faculty to hear confessions or to assist at marriages, so there are a few people running around who think they’re married but aren’t.
(Side note: Under Catholic theology, where the penitent lacks knowledge of the priest’s lack of faculties, the law itself supplies the faculty; so an ignorant penitent is validly absolved despite the priest’s lack of faculty, while a penitent who knows better is not – but this is not true of the Sacrament of Matrimony).
