Article II: On The External Conditions Required In The Ordinand

From the Tridentine law there are REQUIRED in the Ordinand:

1917. I. IMMUNITY FROM CENSURE AND IRREGULARITY. - The one to be ordained must be immune from censure and irregularity; for censure deprives of participation in the goods of the Church; and irregularity induces incapacity for Order: therefore each impedes Ordinations.

And hence it is why the Bishop, from the prescription of the Pontifical, before the Ordination has begun, commands, under penalty of excommunication, that no one bound by either impediment approach; just as neither one enrolled, or not approved, or a foreigner, protesting that he does not wish to ordain unworthy persons of this sort. If nonetheless someone of this kind should approach, his Ordination would have to be judged valid; because the aforesaid things today pertain to mere rite, or are customarily prefaced only for terror: whence it cannot be supposed that the Bishop truly wished to bind his intention to such a protestation, unless the contrary is positively established.⁴ "For the Bishop," says Benedict XIV⁵ with Navarre, Gobat, and Lugo, "lest he become guilty of grave sin, is bound to have the absolute intention of conferring Order on the man present, when he imposes hands."⁶

1918. II. CANONICAL AGE. Trent (sess. 23, cap. 12) establishes these things as to the major Orders: "No one hereafter is to be promoted to the Order of the Subdiaconate before the twenty-second year of his age, to that of the Diaconate before the twenty-third, to that of the Presbyterate before the twenty-fifth." In which law, a begun year is held for completed. - Nor indeed can one be ordained without dispensation, to whom only a few hours are lacking; because the required year can in no way be said to have been begun. - For the Episcopate it is established thus in law: "Let no one be elected Bishop, unless he has already passed, or completed, the thirtieth year of age."⁷ - For minor Orders and tonsure, no age is assigned in law; it suffices that the one to be initiated possess the use of reason, and therefore that he be at least seven years old.⁸

Dispensation over age is reserved to the Roman Pontiff, who is not accustomed to grant it, except for receiving the Priesthood, on account of the necessity or utility of the Church.⁹ He who knowingly is promoted to major Orders before the legitimate age sins gravely;¹⁰ yet he does not incur suspension (which formerly was incurred): as is drawn from the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis.

1919. III. CONFIRMATION RECEIVED. - "Let not those be initiated with first tonsure," says Trent, "who have not received the Sacrament of Confirmation." It is commonly taught that this obligation is only under light fault, because the words of the Council denote propriety rather than a formal precept.¹¹ Nevertheless, the S. C. of the Council declared (September 27, 1601) that he who received tonsure or Orders not confirmed cannot, as badly promoted, ascend to other Orders, nor retain Benefices, concerning which he was provided, without dispensation of the Pontiff; for he is held as irregular.¹²

1920. IV. EXERCISE OF THE ORDER ALREADY RECEIVED. The Council of Trent prescribes,¹³ that the one to be initiated have exercised the Order previously received, and indeed in the church to which he was assigned. - But the Salmanticenses think this is not of grave precept; since the words of the Synod are more consultative than preceptive, namely these: "let them exercise themselves in each one, according to the prescription of the Bishop."¹⁴

1921. V. TITLE OF ORDINATION, or security by which provision is made for the Ordinand in sacred Orders concerning honest and perpetual sustenance. A title is required by the Councils, and especially by Trent,¹⁵ both lest clerics, from lack of sustenance, be compelled to exercise some vile craft or to beg, and so that they may be able more freely to attend to spiritual things, without being distracted by solicitude for temporal things. And this law is so firm, that the Bishop granting Order or dimissorials without a title is himself bound, unless he was deceived, to feed the needy Ordained until he obtains a title for him.¹⁶ And if he shall have ordained someone thus, with the pact that the Ordained not seek food from him, he incurs by the law itself a three-year suspension reserved to the Pope. From the Const. Apostol. Sedis (cf. n. 1362). But if after the Subdiaconate has been received the title perishes, one cannot ascend to a higher Order without a new title.¹⁷ This is established from Trent.¹⁸

1922. Especially a THREEFOLD TITLE is given, namely of Benefice, patrimony, and religious poverty.

1. The title of ECCLESIASTICAL BENEFICE is the most powerful title of Ordination. Concerning this the Council of Trent establishes thus: "Let no secular cleric hereafter... be promoted to sacred Orders, unless first it is legitimately established that he peacefully possesses an ecclesiastical benefice which honestly suffices for his living." - Therefore there is required 1) a Benefice, or a perpetual right of receiving fruits from the goods of the Church on account of some spiritual office constituted by ecclesiastical authority.¹⁹ 2) Sufficient for living, that is, according to the tax of the diocese of origin; or of the diocese where the benefice is, if it is residential. But if the defect of the benefice is slight, someone is licitly ordained; otherwise, if it is notable, e.g., of a fifth part. It can nevertheless be supplied from other goods, provided another title, e.g., of origin or domicile, exists, conferring on the Bishop the right of ordaining (cf. n. 1907, 3). - 3) Peacefully possessed; whence, a benefice certain for the future does not suffice, nor a benefice whose possession is unjustly impeded; but that one suffices whose revenues can be received only after the priesthood has been received.

Moreover, no one initiated in sacred Orders can resign his benefice, "unless mention has been made that he was promoted to the title of that benefice; nor is that resignation to be admitted, unless it is established that he can live comfortably from elsewhere; and a resignation otherwise made is null." Thus Trent, in the cited place.²⁰

2. The title of PATRIMONY "obtains, when the Ordinand is furnished with such goods, certain, stable, and fruitful, coming from elsewhere than from the Church, as are judged, in the judgment of the Bishop, to suffice for his congruous sustenance."²¹ But that this title may be valid, from Trent, the patrimony must be: 1) perpetual, e.g., a perpetual census, although it can be redeemable; 2) constituted over a certain and immovable thing, and one by its nature fruitful, peacefully possessed,²² and not burdened by debt or mortgage; 3) approved in the episcopal Curia, and set out to the synodal tax by a legitimate instrument; 4) firm and inalienable unless, from a just cause, the license of the Bishop intervenes.²³ - It can be constituted under the clause: until the cleric is provided for or obtains other goods; but the prior title is not extinguished, unless a new one has been subrogated by the Bishop. Thus from the S. C. C., July 12, 1687. It can likewise be constituted in nominative bonds of public debt, provided they are supposed to mortgages, as commonly happens.²⁴

To patrimonies are reckoned perpetual pensions, perpetual legacies of Masses; indeed also manual, or lay, Chaplaincies, provided they are conferred under the condition until the ordained one is provided for, and in legal form, recognized in the episcopal Curia.²⁵

3. The title of POVERTY, instituted by St. Pius V, "is placed in religious profession, by virtue of which, those who have emitted solemn vows in an approved Religion; either from the revenues of goods, if the Religion itself possesses any; or from the pious largesses of the faithful, have all things in common, of which they need for sustaining life."²⁶ But Religious of simple vows, or not yet solemnly professed, cannot receive sacred Orders, unless they have a patrimony or another title. - Except the Religious of the Society of Jesus, who after simple vows can be ordained, from the concession of Gregory XIII; and if they are dismissed from the Society, it is not bound to the supplying of congruous sustenance, as Benedict XIII declared in perpetuity.²⁷

1923. Besides these titles, others are commonly admitted from Pontifical Indult, especially in regions where no benefices, or only slight ones, exist, or where civil law prevents sacred patrimonies from being constituted. Of this sort are:

1. The title of service of a Church. This title, formerly ordinary, but now extraordinary, is granted under this law, that the Ordinands be bound perpetually to some Church, from whose service they can be sustained. - We say perpetually; for they can never be removed from that church; but neither can they themselves depart from it, unless otherwise provision has been made for them.²⁸

2. The title of common table, which is customarily granted to clerics living in a common discipline of life, although they emit only simple vows, or even none. - Akin to this is the title of a College, Seminary, etc. Nay more, in Germany, with the Holy See permitting or tolerating, the title of table is admitted, i.e., the promise of a pension to be paid to the ordained, if on account of old age or sickness they should become unable to undergo sacred duties.²⁹

3. The title of Mission. This title is granted to alumni of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide and to others who devote themselves to apostolic Missions. - But it is granted under this pact, that the Ordinands promise with an oath that they will devote their labor to the Missions for which they have already been destined, or will afterwards be destined.³⁰

Let the following things be NOTED, for practice: 1. The sin "is grave, unless a dispensation is obtained from the Holy See, to ordain or be ordained without a title, or with a false title (i.e., one which does not exist); or, if the matter is about patrimony, with a fictitious or fiduciary title, or with none, or an unjust one, or one liable to restitution or resolution.³¹"

2. "If, when the title generally has been lost, or even the title of Mission, another is not substituted for it, the Priest does not on that account remain suspended; but Ordinaries are bound to compel the Ordained to the subrogation of another title, as has been provided by the sacred Canons." - Thus the S. C. DE PROP. FIDE, September 1, 1856.

3. "Likewise Regular Priests, who have pronounced solemn vows, and by Apostolic indulgence are permitted to live in the world; or who have emitted simple vows, and have departed from their Congregations or Institutes, lest they be compelled, with disgrace to their proper grade, to beg, are bound to provide for themselves concerning a canonical title. - But in places of Missions they are at least bound to prove that means are supplied to them, by which, as is fitting, they may provide for their own sustenance.³²"