Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila

• Decision Date: 14 October 1929
• Docket Number: No. 6,6
• Parties: GONZALEZ v. ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

280 U.S. 1

50 S.Ct. 5

74 L.Ed. 131

GONZALEZ

v ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA.

No. 6.

Argued April 8, 9, 1929.

Decided Oct. 14, 1929.

[Syllabus from pages 1-3 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Howard Thayer Kingsbury and Frederic R. Coudert, both of New York City, for petitioner.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 3-5 intentionally omitted] Messrs. William D. Guthrie and George J. Gillespie, both of New York City, for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 6-10 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case is here on certiorari to the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands. 278 U. S. 588, 49 S. Ct. 17, 73 L. Ed. 522. The subject-matter is a collative chaplaincy in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila, which has been vacant since December 1910.¹ The main questions for decision are whether the petitioner is legally entitled to be appointed the chaplain, and whether he shall recover the surplus income accrued during the vacancy.

Raul Rogerio Gonzalez, by his guardian ad litem, brought the suit against the archbishop in the court of first instance of Manila, on August 5, 1924. He prayed for judgment declaring the petitioner the lawful heir to the chaplaincy and its income; establishing the right of the petitioner and his successors to be appointed to and receive the income of the chaplaincy during their infancy whenever it may be vacant and, pending such appointment, to receive the income for their maintenance and support; declaring the trust character of the property and ordering it to be so recorded; directing the archbishop to appoint the petitioner chaplain and to account to him for the income of the property from 1910 on; and directing the defendant to pay the petitioner 1,000 pesos a month pending the final determination of the case. The trial court directed the archbishop to appoint the petitioner chaplain; and ordered payment to him of 173,725 pesos ($86,862.50), that sum being the aggregate net income of the chaplaincy during the vacancy, less the expense of having the prescribed masses celebrated in each year. It reserved to the petitioner any legal right he may have to proceed in the proper court for cancellation of the certificate of registration of the property in the name of the archbishop. The Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands reversed the judgment on February 4, 1928, and absolved the archbishop from the complaint, 'without prejudice to the right of proper persons in interest to proceed for independent relief,' in respect to the income accrued during the vacancy, or in respect to the reformation of the certificate of registration so as to show the fiduciary character of the title. As the amount in controversy exceeds $25,000, this court has jurisdiction on certiorari. Act Feb. 13, 1925, c. 229, § 7, 43 Stat. 936, 940 (28 USCA § 349).

The chaplaincy was founded in 1820, under the will of Don a Petronila de Guzman. By it, she requested 'the father chaplain to celebrate sixty masses annually' in behalf of the souls of her parents, brothers, sisters, and herself. The deed of foundation, which was executed by the testamentary executor of Don a Petronila, provided that 'said property is segregated from temporal properties and transferred to the spiritual properties of this archbishopric, without its being possible to alienate or convert the property as such into any other estate for any cause, even though it be of a more pious character, * * * so that by virtue of this deed of foundation canonical collation may be conferred on the said appointed chaplain.' By appropriate proceedings an ecclesiastical decree approved 'the foundation of the chaplaincy with all the circumstances and conditions provided for in said clause (of the wall) and in the deed of said clause (of the will) and in the deed of of seventeen hundred pesos against said building, converting said sum into spiritual property of a perpetual character subject to the ecclesiastical forum and jurisdiction.'

The will provided that the foundation should effect the immediate appointment as chaplain of D. Esteban de Guzman, the great-grandson of the testatrix, and 'in his default the nearest relative, and in default of the latter a collegian (colegial) of San Juan de Letran, who should be an orphan mestizo, native of this said town.' It named the president of that college as the patron of the chaplaincy. Esteban was appointed chaplain in 1820. From time to time thereafter four other descendants of the testatrix were successively appointed. The latest of these renounced the chaplaincy in December, 1910, married soon thereafter, and in 1912 became the father of the petitioner, Raul Rogerio Gonzalez, who is a legitimate son of the fifth chaplain, and claims to be the nearest relative in descent from the first chaplain and the foundress.

Raul was presented to the archbishop for appointment in 1922. The archbishop refused to appoint him, on the ground that he did not then have 'the qualifications required for chaplain of the said chaplaincy.' He added 'The grounds of my conclusion are the very canons of the new Code of Canon Law. Among others, I can mention canon 1442, which says: 'Simple chaplaincies or benefices are conferred upon clergymen of the secular clergy,' in connection with canon 108, paragraph 1, 'Clergymen are those already initiated in the first tonsure,' and canon 976, paragraph 1, 'No one can be promoted to first tonsure before he has begun the course in theology.' In view of the canon as above mentioned, and other reasons which may be adduced, I believe that the boy, Raul Gonzalez, is not legally (ecclesiastically speaking) capacitated to the enjoyment of a chaplaincy.'

Ever since the Council of Trent (1545-1563), it has been the law of the church that no one can be appointed to a collative chaplaincy before his fourteenth year. When Raul was presented for appointment, he was in his tenth year. He was less than 12 when this suit was begun. He was 14 when the trial court entered its judgment. It is also urged on behalf of the archbishop that at no time since that Council could one be lawfully appointed who lacked elementary knowledge of Christian doctrine.

The new Codex Juris Canonici, which was adopted in Rome in 1917 and was promulgated by the church, to become effective in 1918, provides that no one shall be appointed to a collative chaplaincy who is not a cleric. Canon 1442. It requires students for the priesthood to attend a seminary; and prescribes their studies. Canons 1354, 1364. It provides that in order to be a cleric one must have had 'prima tonsura' (Canon 108, par. 1); that in order to have 'prima tonsura' one must have begun the study of theology (Canon 976, par. 1); and that in order to study theology one must be a 'bachiller'-that is, must have obtained the first degree in the sciences and liberal arts (Canon 1365). It also provides that no one may validly receive ordination, unless in the opinion of the ordinary he has the necessary qualifications. Canon 968, par. 1, 1464. Petitioner concedes that the chaplaincy here involved is a collative one, and that Raul lacked, at the time of his presentment and of the commencement of the suit, the age qualification required by the canon law in force when the chaplaincy was founded.² It is also conceded that he lacked, then and at the time of the entry of the judgment, other qualifications of a candidate for a collative chaplaincy essential, if the new Codex was applicable.

Raul's contention, in effect, is that the nearest male relative in descent from the foundress and the first chaplain, willing to be appointed chaplain, is entitled to enjoy the revenues of the foundation, subject only to the duty of saying himself the sixty masses in each year, if he is qualified so to do, or of causing them to be said by a qualified priest and paying the customary charge therefor out of the income. He claims that the provisions of the new Codex are not applicable, and that his rights are to be determined by the canon law in force at the time the chaplaincy was founded, and that the judgment of the trial court should be reinstated, because he possessed at the time of the entry of the judgment all the qualifications required by the canon law in force in 1820. Raul argues that contemporaneous construction and long usage have removed any doubt as to what these qualifications were; that when the foundation was established, and for a long time thereafter, the ecclesiastical character of the incumbent was a minor consideration; that this is shown by the administration of this chaplaincy; and that his own ecclesiastical qualifications, at the time of the entry of the judgment in the trial court, were not inferior to those of the prior incumbents. He asserts that, although chaplaincies were disamortized in Spain prior to 1867 (Alcubilla, Diccionario, Vol. II, p. 118), they had in the Philippines remained undisturbed by any legislation of Spain, and that the rights of the church were preserved by article 8, of the Treaty of Paris. 30 Stat. 1754, 1758; Ponce v. Roman Catholic Church, 210 U. S. 296, 315-322, 28 S. Ct. 737, 52...