Article V: Sacred Order

124. • I. Notion of the impediment.

"Clerics constituted in sacred orders invalidly attempt matrimony." (Can. 1072.)

125. • II. Whom this impediment holds.

a) Every cleric of the Latin Church who has received at least the order of subdiaconate can neither validly contract matrimony nor use matrimony contracted before the order was received.

b) There is excepted: 1. he whose ordination is invalid.

2. He who, compelled by force or grave fear, received sacred order, unless afterward, fear having been removed, he ratified the ordination expressly or tacitly.

3. He who received order before puberty, unless after the years of puberty he freely ratified the ordination.

4. He who was not sufficiently instructed concerning the obligation of observing chastity.

126. • III. Quality of this impediment.

Without any doubt it is of merely ecclesiastical law.

127. • IV. What is the obligation of observing chastity for clerics in major orders.

Although several think otherwise, nevertheless that obligation seems to arise not from ecclesiastical law alone, but from a vow annexed to the subdiaconate by the will of the Church. And therefore a cleric in major orders, sinning internally against chastity, commits true sacrilege. But in the opposite opinion it is not explained how an internal violation of chastity is sacrilegious.

128. • V. Dispensation.

The Holy See, by its undoubted power of dispensing from this impediment, never uses it with Bishops, very rarely with presbyters, more rarely with deacons, and rarely with a subdeacon, although for these two last orders modern praxis is easier.

129. • VI. Penalties against transgressors.

a) Excommunication latae sententiae and simply reserved to the Apostolic See, both for the cleric himself and for the person with whom he attempts to contract matrimony, even civilly only. (Can. 2388, § 1.)

b) If, after being warned, within a time determined beforehand by the Ordinary according to the diversity of circumstances, they have not come to their senses, let them be degraded (ibid.).

c) Loss by the fact itself and without any declaration of all ecclesiastical offices. (Can. 188, 5°.)

d) Irregularity from delict. (Can. 985, 3°.)

130. • VII. Discipline of the Eastern Church.

a) One constituted in major orders cannot contract matrimony. Among certain Churches, however, the custom is to permit matrimony to subdeacons.

b) A married man can receive the subdiaconate, diaconate, and presbyterate, and use matrimony as before the order was received.

c) A married man cannot be assumed into the episcopate except by dispensation, and with the obligation of observing perfect chastity.

d) Whether matrimony attempted by a cleric in major orders of the Eastern Church is not only illicit, but also invalid as in the Latin Church, up to this time has not been defined by the Apostolic See by a decree binding all the Oriental Churches.

It is invalid: 1) for Italo-Greeks and Romanians as to the subdeacon.

2. for Maronites as to the deacon.

3. for Ruthenians as to the presbyter.

For the other Orientals, authors commonly and more probably hold, even for schismatics, with few exceptions, that matrimony is invalid.

e) Not from a vow, but from ecclesiastical law alone, sacred order impedes one from contracting matrimony.¹

¹ Cf. Capello, op. cit., n. 436.