paragraph — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
§ 3. Defect of Liberty.
148. He who lacks the liberty required by law for receiving orders is irregular.
This irregularity is not an irregularity properly so called; for it is induced because defect of liberty cannot be reconciled with the obligations of the clerical state. For he who intends to satisfy clerical obligations must necessarily neglect the duties of the state which induces the defect of liberty.
From defect of liberty the following are irregular:
Slaves or bondsmen, unless they first have obtained liberty from their master.1
Married men, upon whom not even tonsure may be conferred, unless they wish either to enter religion or to receive sacred orders.2
a. A married man can receive sacred orders if he has been released from his wife; but he is judged released from his wife: a. if divorce has been juridically effected on account of the wife's adultery, for in this case the wife has perpetually lost her right over the husband; b. if the wife freely and expressly consents that the husband receive orders or enter religion.
b. From a wife consenting to the husband's ordination or religious profession it is required by the statute of law either that she enter religion, or that she profess continence, i.e. that she emit a vow of perpetual chastity.3 That she enter religion and profess continence in religion is required in a twofold case: a. if the husband is to be promoted to the episcopate;4 b. if the wife is young or suspected of incontinence. Whether a wife is to be called young does not depend upon a determinate year of age, but must be judged from the circumstances by the prudent judgment of the bishop, namely from health, strength, the custom of her past life, etc.5
- Court officials, i.e. those who, either by an oath emitted or by a stipend accepted, are bound to serve the courts of princes as presidents, judges, advocates, or soldiers, as long as they discharge this office.6
Since today, with ecclesiastical immunity disregarded, both clerics and religious are compelled to undergo military service, the Holy See has established the following concerning their admission to sacred orders or to religious profession (for Italians):
a. Those who have served for the space of one year or a longer time in the first class (category), and have remained firm in their vocation, are not to be admitted to sacred orders or to solemn profession unless they have proved constancy in their vocation for the space of at least one year.
b. They are to bring testimonial letters from the ordinaries in whose dioceses they have lived for at least three months.7
- Those bound to reckonings or to rendering accounts, namely those who, from their office, are bound to render an account of another's money administered, whether public or private, such as magistrates, administrators, curators, and tutors, unless first they have rendered the account and have resigned the office.8
Yet those who bear offices and administrations which are not prohibited to clerics can be ordained, even if they have not rendered an account nor resigned the office; thus they licitly bear the administration of the money of their own blood relatives, of miserable persons, and of pious causes.
1 C. Instruendi 1 De servis non ordinandis (I. 18).
2 C. Nullus 4 De tempor. ordinat. in 6° (I. 9).
3 C. Coniugatus 5 De convers. coniugat. (III. 32).
4 C. Sane 6. tit. cit.
5 S. C. C. Aug. 28, 1830.
6 C. Aliquantos 2; C. Praeterea 3 Dist. 51.
7 S. C. sup. disc. reg. Nov. 27, 1892.
8 C. Magnus un. De obligatis ad ratiocinia (I. 19).