Decree 43: The Vicar-General after the Death of the General, General Congregation 31 (1966)

1.     The right and duty of the Vicar-General, after the death of the General, to convoke and prepare for a General Congregation in accordance with norms laid down by the General Congregation is explicitly asserted.

2.     The rules for the office of the Vicar-General are to be revised so that, where mention is made of a vote of the Assistants, this is to be understood to refer to the General Assistants.

3.     In the rules for the office of the Vicar-General, No. 7 is to be revised to state that the Vicar-General must have four consultors (in the strict sense, i.e., the General Assistants) appointed by the Society; if one of them is lacking, a substitute shall be designated according to the norm of No. 12 in the rules for the office of Vicar-General.

4.     The last clause of decree 274 in the Collection of Decrees is to be revised to state that the office of Visitors, after a General dies, continues until such time as either the Vicar-General, after consultation with the General Assistants, or the new General shall have decided otherwise.

5.     Concerning the deliberative vote of the General Assistants (No. 12) and affairs which are not to be brought to a conclusion (Nos. 8–9), it seems better to make no change, especially since (see No. 3 above) a Substitute Assistant can now be appointed in place of that General Assistant who might be named or elected as Vicar.