Chapter — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
Chapter III. On the Minister of the Sacrament of Order
- Principles. - I. The Bishop alone is the ordinary Minister of the Sacrament of Order. This is established: first, from Scripture, which attributes the right of conferring Orders to none other than the Apostles and the Bishops, their successors. - Acts of the Apostles 6:6 and 14:22. - 2 Timothy 1:6.
Second, from perpetual tradition, which innumerable Councils demonstrate, but especially those of Florence and Trent. For thus the Council of Florence in the Decree of Union: The ordinary Minister of this Sacrament (of Order) is the Bishop. And the Council of Trent, session 23, canon 7: If anyone says that Bishops are not superior to Priests, or do not have the power of confirming and ordaining, or that the power which they have is common to them with Priests..., let him be anathema.
II. A simple Priest, by commission of the Supreme Pontiff, can be the extraordinary Minister of tonsure and the four minor Orders.
This is proved from the Councils, especially from the Council of Trent, session 23, chapter 10, On Reformation, where it is said: It is not lawful hereafter for Abbots or any others whatsoever, however exempt and privileged, to confer tonsure or minor Orders upon anyone who is not a Regular subject to them. Therefore, the Council of Trent supposes that they can confer Orders upon their own Religious. - Thus most commonly. - St. Ligorius, no. 762.
- III. A Bishop can licitly ordain only his own subjects, but cannot licitly ordain others without the faculty of their Bishop.
This is gathered from the Council of Trent, session 23, chapter 8, On Reformation: Let each one be ordained by his own Bishop; but if anyone asks to be promoted by another, let this in no way be permitted to him unless his probity and morals are commended by the testimony of his own Ordinary.... If it is done otherwise, let the one ordaining be suspended from the conferral of Orders for a year, and the one ordained from the exercise of the Orders received for as long as shall appear expedient to his own Ordinary 1.
1 The Constitution of Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, Apostolicae Sedis, October 12, 1869, reserves this latae sententiae suspension to the Supreme Pontiff in these words: Those ordaining the subject of another, even under the pretext of a Benefice to be conferred immediately or already conferred but by no means sufficient, without dimissorial letters of his Bishop, or even their own subject who has remained elsewhere for so long a time that he could have contracted a canonical impediment there, without testimonial letters of the Ordinary of that place, incur by the law itself suspension for a year from the administration of Orders.
The following suspension is likewise reserved to the Apostolic See: Secular Clerics from outside, residing in the City for more than four months, ordained by someone other than their own Ordinary without the permission of the Cardinal Vicar of the City, or without a previous examination conducted before him, or even by their own Ordinary after they have been rejected in the aforesaid examination; likewise Clerics belonging to any of the six suburbicarian Episcopal sees, if they are ordained outside their own diocese with the dimissorial letters of their Ordinary directed to someone other than the Cardinal Vicar of the City... incur by the law itself suspension from the Orders thus received at the good pleasure of the Holy See; but the Bishops ordaining them incur suspension from the use of Pontificals for a year.
- Questions. - QUESTION 1. Who is considered the proper Bishop of the one to be ordained?
Reply. A Bishop can be proper by a threefold title, namely: first, by title of the nativity of the one to be ordained, or when the one to be ordained was born in his diocese, though not by chance; second, by title of domicile, or when the one to be ordained has a true and proper domicile in that diocese, and not merely a quasi-domicile; third, by title of benefice, or when the one to be ordained possesses a benefice in the Bishop's diocese. - Thus Boniface VIII, chapter Cum nullus ordinandorum.
To the threefold title which we have mentioned, a fourth is added, namely, the title of familiarity, by force of which a Bishop can ordain his familiar who is not his subject if he has had him with himself for three years and, with all fraud removed, immediately confers a benefice upon him. - Thus the Council of Trent, session 23, chapter 9, On Reformation. - St. Ligorius, no. 780.
In France, by general practice, the Bishop of origin alone is accustomed to ordain; nevertheless, such a custom is not considered to have the force of law. Therefore, a Bishop ordaining someone by reason of domicile would not sin. - Bouvier, chapter 4, article 3. - Gousset, no. 648.
- QUESTION 2. Who can grant dimissorial letters?
Reply 1. When the see is not vacant, the Bishop of the one to be ordained alone can give dimissorial letters, either by himself or through his Vicars General, upon whom Bishops ordinarily confer this faculty. For it belongs to the Bishop alone to govern the diocese and by ordinary right to confer Orders. Reply 2. When the See is vacant, the Chapter indeed has the faculty of granting dimissorial letters, but not within one year from the day of the vacancy. - Thus from the Council of Trent, session 7, chapter 10, On Reformation.
- QUESTION 3. By which Bishop are Regulars to be ordained?
Reply. Regulars are to be ordained by the Bishop in whose diocese is the monastery where they then reside. - Thus from the chapter Cum nullus.
If, however, the Bishop is absent or cannot hold an ordination, the Superior, after delivering dimissorial letters, can send his subjects to any Bishop to be ordained, provided that they show this Bishop the testimony of the Vicar General, chancellor, or secretary of their own Bishop. - See St. Ligorius, no. 788.
In the ordination of Regulars, however, the provision of the Roman Pontifical is to be observed as regards the formula: Do you promise obedience to your Ordinary?, etc. - Thus the Sacred Congregation of Rites, July 22, 1848, in a case from Ghent.
QUESTION 4. What Mass is to be said by the Bishop in a general conferral of Orders when some feast occurs on an Ember Saturday or on the Saturday before Passion Sunday, namely, the Mass of the feria or of the feast?
Reply. He must celebrate the Mass of the feria. - Thus the Sacred Congregation of Rites has declared many times. - See Cases, no. 821 and following.