(a) Jurisdiction in general is treated in Canons 872 sqq. of the Code. Ordinary jurisdiction is had by the Pope for the whole Church, and by Ordinaries, parish-priests, exempt religious superiors, etc., for their own subjects. Delegated jurisdiction comes from the law itself in favor of penitents who are dying (Canon 882), or who are making a sea voyage (Canon 883), a privilege extended recently also to those who are making air journeys, or who are outside their domicile (Canon 881), etc.; while delegated jurisdiction from man is had by those priests who have obtained faculties orally or in writing from the competent superior (Canon 879).
(b) Jurisdiction in special cases is treated in Canons 874, 875, 876, 519 sqq. Religious women living in community should have for each house one ordinary confessor and one extraordinary confessor who comes four times a year. Further, the bishop should appoint supplementary confessors to whom the Religious may freely make their confessions, and special confessors for individual Sisters when spiritual progress is aided by such an arrangement.
2752. When the Church Supplies Jurisdiction.—In certain cases the Church, for the good of souls, supplies jurisdiction for the time being to priests who lack it:
(a) in case of common error, that is, when all or many of the faithful in a place think that a priest has jurisdiction, as when he is seated in the confessional of a public church hearing or waiting to hear those who are going to confession. The common error is not of law, but of fact;
(b) in case of uncertainty of law (e.g., whether a certain sin is reserved) or of fact (e.g., whether the confessor’s jurisdiction has expired) about the confessor’s jurisdiction, if the confessor has a positive or probable reason in favor of his right to absolve. The Church supplies jurisdiction in the absolution of a reserved censure whose reservation was not known to the priest, unless it be _ab homine_ or most specially reserved to the Holy See (Canon 2247, n. 3);
(c) in case of danger of death, when full jurisdiction is granted to every priest (Canon 882).
2753. Limitation of jurisdiction.—(a) Reserved Sins or Cases.—For the sake of discipline and the good of souls the absolution of certain more atrocious or pernicious crimes is reserved to higher superiors, namely, to the Pope or the Ordinary. Reservation is not incurred in a case reserved on account of censure, if the penitent’s act was not gravely imputable; nor probably in a case reserved for its own sake (unless the reserving authority willed otherwise), if the penitent was ignorant (though not crassly or supinely) of the reservation (Canon 2229). To fall under reservation, a sin must be mortal, consummated (i.e. not merely attempted) certain and formal (i.e., perpetrated with knowledge of the special malice that caused reservation). Reservation ceases when confession is made by the sick who are unable to leave the house or by those who are about to be married; when the Superior has refused the request for faculties to absolve a reserved case, or the confessor prudently decides that the request for faculties cannot be made without grave detriment to the penitent or danger to the seal; when confession is made outside the territory of the Superior who reserves the sin (Canon 900).
(b) Reserved Persons.—Those who have not special faculties cannot validly hear the confessions of nuns (Canon 876), for the director of consciences of these Religious should be endowed with special virtue, knowledge and prudence. Religious Superiors, novice-masters, and rectors of seminaries or colleges should not act habitually as confessors of their subjects (Canons 518, n. 2, 891), lest the distinction between the internal and the external forum be forgotten. Finally, to prevent abuse of the Sacrament and occasions of relapse, a confessor cannot validly absolve his accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment, consummated or unconsummated, or from the sin of complicity itself, as necessary matter of the Sacrament, if the sin was on both sides external, certain, and both internally and externally grave (Canons 884, 2367).
2754. Absolution from Reserved Cases.—(a) In danger of death, any priest can absolve every reserved sin and censure, but, should the penitent recover, there is a duty in certain specified cases of having recourse to the lawful superior (Canons 882, 2252). The latter Canon specifies two cases in which recourse is necessary after the person recovers, namely, a censure _ab homine_ and one most specially reserved to the Holy See. A third case has been added by the Sacred Penitentiary, namely, when a priest who has attempted marriage and is unable to separate asks for absolution from the censure of Canon 2388, Sec.1, in danger of death.
(b) In urgent cases, namely, if censures _latae sententiae_ cannot be observed externally without grave danger of scandal or infamy, or if it is hard for the penitent to remain in the state of grave sin for such time as may be necessary in order that the competent superior may provide, then any confessor can, in the sacramental forum, absolve from these censures, no matter how they are reserved, imposing, under pain of falling back into the censure, the obligation of having recourse within a month (at least by letter and through the confessor, if it can be done without grave inconvenience), without mentioning the name, to the Sacred Penitentiary or to a Bishop or other superior who has the faculty. The confessor imposes also the obligation of fulfilling his injunctions (Canon 2254, Sec.1). It is to be noted: