Article II: On Those Things Which Regard The Mode Of Ordination

1924. As to the MODE, the following things are required:

It is required 1. That Ordination be done BY DEGREES, namely with their legitimate order preserved in the reception of Orders. If someone is ordained by leap,

he sins gravely, and is prohibited from the exercise of the Order received, as long as he has not received the Order omitted.¹ - Although an Ordination of this sort is gravely illicit, it is nevertheless valid, except in the case in which someone should receive the episcopate before the priesthood (cf. n. 1888, q. 2). - From legitimate cause, the Bishop can (from Trent, sess. 23, cap. 14) dispense in the suspension or incapacity with those promoted by leap, if they have not ministered; but if they have ministered, they now need an Apostolic dispensation (cf. n. 1372).

It is required 2. that Ordinations be received through the appointed INTERSTICES of times. On this matter many things are to be NOTED: 1) The Bishop can, when he pleases, confer first tonsure with some minor Order, because first tonsure is not an Order. 2) Between the minor Orders some interval is indeed required; but how great it ought to be, Trent did not determine, indeed it says: "Unless it should seem otherwise to the Bishop." 3) That someone ascend from minor Orders to the subdiaconate, the space of one year is required; unless necessity, or the utility of the Church to which the future subdeacon is to be assigned, in the judgment of the Bishop, demands otherwise. 4) Between the subdiaconate and the diaconate likewise the space of one year is required; but any reasonable cause excuses, according to the judgment of the Bishop. - 5) Between the diaconate and the presbyterate likewise the space of a year is required, unless on account of the utility and necessity (namely moral necessity) of the Church, it should seem otherwise to the Bishop. All these things are from Trent, sess. 23, caps. 11 and 13.²

"But if it is a question of Regulars, to whom the Apostolic See, after Trent, granted the privilege of exemption from interstices, the judgment does not pertain to Bishops, but to Regular Superiors."³

You will ask, whether several Orders can be conferred on the same person ON THE SAME DAY?

Resp. 1. Tonsure and minor Orders can licitly be conferred on the same day, where custom has obtained. 2. Major Orders cannot, without grave sin, be conferred on the same day, as is established from Trent, cited cap. 13; nor, by force of law, the subdiaconate with minor Orders. Indeed, the S. C. C., in a Cagliari case, February 21, 1728, denied that this could be introduced by custom, although Authors commonly affirmed it.⁴

It is required 3. that Orders be received ON DAYS ASSIGNED BY LAW. Now, by ordinary law, tonsure can be conferred on any day, place, and hour. - Minor Orders are legitimately conferred on one or two (or at least few), on Sundays and Feasts of precept (even those abrogated in favor of the faithful⁵), nevertheless in the morning time, provided a general Ordination does not seem to be made. From received custom they can also be conferred on Wednesday of Ember Days, or on Friday before the Saturday of general Ordination. Major Orders are to be conferred only (within the solemnities of Masses) on the Saturdays of Ember Days, the Saturday before Passion Sunday, and Holy Saturday. - The Consecration of a Bishop is made at any time of the year, yet on Sunday, or on the natal day of the Apostles.⁶

From special indult, or privilege (such as certain Institutes, missionary Bishops, etc. enjoy) sacred Orders can be conferred, outside the times, on Sundays and on Feasts of precept even abrogated:⁷ provided the days are interpolated, or not continuous, as has been declared many times by the SS. Congregations.⁸ Yet broader privileges, if certainly granted to anyone, do not seem to have been revoked⁹ (cf. n. 2187, 5, concerning the privilege of Regulars).

It is required 4. That Ordination be had IN THE DUE PLACE, namely in the cathedral Church, or the worthier church of the diocese, as Trent speaks.¹⁰ If nevertheless the Ordination is not general, but of a few, it can be done in a private chapel, as the S. C. C. declared November 20, 1592.¹¹ - By the name of due place is understood also the proper diocese; for it is not licit in another's territory, without the faculty of that Bishop, to exercise an act so solemn. Indeed from Trent,¹² one ordaining thus incurs suspension from the exercise of Pontificals, and the Ordained from the exercise of the Order received (cf. n. 1368). Yet they except Tonsure, since this is conferred without Pontificals.¹³

It is required 5. that the Ordinands, as the Pontifical prescribes, receive the EUCHARIST. This prescription nevertheless does not oblige under grave fault except priests alone who concelebrate with the Bishop. "Indeed those to be initiated to minor Orders are not bound to communicate even under light fault, as is commonly taught."¹⁴

It is required 6. that the same Bishop who ordains ALSO CELEBRATE MASS; otherwise the mystery of unity would be divided, as Innocent III¹⁵ and Benedict XIV¹⁶ say. Nevertheless, the Ordination would be valid if one celebrated and another ordained, as the S. C. C. declared, since Mass is not of the essence for the validity of Orders.¹⁷

Let it be noted besides: 1) "The newly ordained presbyters must, together with the ordaining Bishop, read Mass, beginning from the prayer Suscipe sancte Pater." Thus the Roman Pontifical.¹⁸ They truly consecrate with the Bishop, although only one Sacrifice is made; wherefore they must attend to this, that they pronounce the words of consecration at the same point of time as the Bishop, and, as far as can be done, complete the form together with him.¹⁹ Thus the Roman Pontifical. 2) They must also say the Gospel with the same Bishop at the end of Mass (S. R. C., November 12, 1831, in a Marsi case, ad 12).²⁰ But if Ordination is made with chant, they are bound to read without chant the Preface and the other things which are chanted by the Bishop (S. R. C., ibid., ad 11). - 3) They must read Mass, not standing, but kneeling on the ground; and therefore they must not perform during the Sacrifice all the actions which the Bishop himself performs, for example make crosses with the hand over the Oblata, genuflect, etc. (S. R. C., September 20, 1749²¹). - See more among the expositors of the Rubrics.²²

1925. Questions. Q. 1. How do the PRAYERS oblige, which the Bishop imposes on the Ordained by way of penance?

Resp. It is more probable that they oblige only under light fault, from the more common interpretation.²³ - Now 1) "The words of the Roman Pontifical: Nocturnum talis diei, understand of the single Nocturn on a ferial day, or of the first on Sunday, as in the Psalter (i.e., of twelve Psalms with their antiphons of the time), which the ordaining Bishop can designate, either of the day itself on which he has the Ordination, or of another at his discretion." Thus the S. R. C., August 11, 1860, in Granada.²⁴ But when the Bishop expresses nothing else than that which the words of the Pontifical report, it is to be said to be the Nocturn of the feria which corresponds to that day on which the Ordination was made.²⁵ 2) The three Masses imposed on new priests (under venial fault) are to be celebrated on the first days on which it is licit to celebrate votive Masses; yet they are not to be applied for the Bishop, since that is not expressed, and the Bishop adds: And also pray for me.²⁶

Q. 2. To what are priests bound by force of the OBEDIENCE which they promised to the Bishop in Ordination?

Benedict XIV responded, writing in the Bull Ex quo dilectus: "We acknowledge that a presbyter, by force of this sort of promise, is held bound, among other things, by this law, that he cannot depart from the service of the Church to which he shall have been assigned without the license of the Bishop." Except, if he is an exempt Religious, or wishes to embrace the religious state, as will be said below (n. 2138). But in the Ordination of Regulars the disposition of the Roman Pontifical is to be observed as to the formula itself: Promittis Ordinario tuo obedientiam etc. Thus the S. R. C., July 22, 1848.²⁷

1926. Note. The penalties which those badly Ordaining and those badly Ordained incur, we have sufficiently explained in the Treatise on Censures (n. 1362 sqq.). Yet it is helpful to collect them here in a few words:

1. Those badly Ordaining are punished with penalties: on account of defect of title in the Ordained (nn. 1362 and 1364); on account of illicit Ordination of another's subject (nn. 1363, 1367, 1370, 1371, and 1372); on account of Ordination of one's own subject without due testimonial Letters (nn. 1363 and 1367); and finally on account of illicit exercise of Pontificals in another's diocese (n. 1368).

2. Those badly Ordained incur penalties: on account of the unworthiness of the one Ordaining (n. 1366); on account of dimissorial Letters, when the See is vacant, illegitimately accepted (n. 1369); on account of reception of Orders from a titular Bishop without dimissorials (n. 1370); on account of defect of testimonial Letters (n. 1371); and, if they have been in Rome for four months, on account of the special conditions omitted there (n. 1367). - Concerning those cooperating in an illicit Ordination, and concerning those Ordained by leap, see n. 1372, question.