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PERMISSION
Permission prevents the fault against the Vow,
because it excludes the act of proprietorship forbidden by the Vow:
the Religious no longer acting as mistress, or possessor of the thing, but as
the instrument and simple executor of the Superior's will.
The permission, however, must be lawful. A lawful permission is one which is at the same
time valid and licit.
There are many kinds of permission: valid or
invalid permission; licit or illicit; express or tacit:
particular or general, and presumptive permission.
A valid permission is that which the Superior
has the right to grant; a null or invalid permission
is that which exceeds her power.
In matter of Poverty, the Superior who gives
an invalid permission, sins herself against the
Vow; and the inferior sins also, if she knows that
the permission is invalid.
A permission obtained by fraud or on false reasons is null, nor does it excuse the inferior from
sin against the Vow.
A permission is licit when it is given for just
motives; it is illicit when given without sufficient
motive, even by competent authority.
The illicit permission saves both Superior and
inferior from sin against the Vow, but not from
a sin against the virtue of poverty; for what is
valid can still be illicit or forbidden; and power,
says St. Paul, has been entrusted to Superiors for
edification and not for destruction.
In general, it is not permitted Superiors, to
make themselves, or allow their subjects to make
expenses in objects of luxury, superfluities, and
purchases contrary to the spirit of the Rule, for
their support or for furniture, even under pretext of economy. For Religious make profession
not of economy precisely, but of poverty. A permission is express or formal when the
Superior formally gives permission.
Evidently, such a permission is the most secure
of all, when it is at the same time valid and licit.
Tacit or implicit permission is that which the
Superior gives by her very silence, or which is comprised within an
express permission; for example, if you are told to buy an object, you have
the tacit or implicit permission to make the expense necessary for the purchase.
Such permission is enough if one has good reasons for thinking that it exists and if she does not
give it a false interpretation.
A particular permission is that which a Superior gives to an individual, and for a single
case; a general permission is that which is given
to many for the same case, or to one for many
cases.
The general permission is certainly lawful, but
it would become unlawful if it tended to weaken
religious discipline.
A presumptive permission is that which is supposed to exist in the will of the Superior, because
we judge it reasonable that it would be granted
if asked.
This permission is often to be suspected. It
is even worth nothing when an irregular affection makes us falsely suppose it, or when we
know that the Superior wishes to grant a thing
only when she is asked for it. But permission
presumed in good faith can rigorously be sufficient, at least in cases where it is impossible or
difficult to have recourse to the Superior. We even should use it if
we be persuaded that the Superior wishes us to suppose it; for example, not
to let a favorable occasion escape us.
A good presumptive permission is that in which
the inferior without any self-love, places herself frankly in the presence of the Superior's will
and does exactly what she thinks the Superior
would tell her to do. Should it happen that she
has been deceived, she will not have offended
God.
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