Canon 278. §1 The secular clergy have the right of association with others for the achievement of purposes befitting the clerical state.

§2 The secular clergy are to hold in high esteem those associations especially whose statutes are recognised by the competent authority and which, by a suitable and well tried rule of life and by fraternal support, promote holiness in the exercise of their ministry and foster the unity of the clergy with one another and with their Bishop.

§3 Clerics are to refrain from establishing or joining associations whose purpose or activity cannot be reconciled with the obligations proper to the clerical state, or which can hinder the diligent fulfilment of the office entrusted to them by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

§1. Ius est clericis saecularibus sese consociandi cum aliis ad fines statui clericali congruentes prosequendos.

§2. Magni habeant clerici saeculares praesertim illas consociationes quae, statutis a competenti auctoritate recognitis, per aptam et convenienter approbatam vitae ordinationem et fraternum iuvamen, sanctitatem suam in ministerii exercitio fovent, quaeque clericorum inter se et cum proprio Episcopo unioni favent.

§3. Clerici abstineant a constituendis aut participandis consociationibus, quarum finis aut actio cum obligationibus statui clericali propriis componi nequeunt vel diligentem muneris ipsis ab auctoritate ecclesiastica competenti commissi adimpletionem praepedire possunt.