Article Four. Concerning Simple Impediments.

498. Irregularities differ from simple impediments in this, that irregularities are perpetual impediments, but simple impediments are temporary. Seven are established by the new Code.¹ Simply impeded are:

1. Children of acatholics, as long as the parents remain in their error.

a. They are equally impeded whether born from an acatholic father or from an acatholic mother.

The Commission for interpretation of the Code declared on October 16, 1919, that one whose father or mother only is acatholic, even in that case in which matrimony had been contracted mixed with ecclesiastical dispensation, is to be counted among the impeded.

b. By acatholics are understood not only heretics but also schismatics, indeed even the non-baptized, such as infidels, Jews, Muslims.

c. It does not matter whether the parents persist in error in good or bad faith.

d. The impediment ceases if both parents recede from error through conversion. After the death of parents who died in error, the impediment still seems to remain.

e. The illegitimate son of an acatholic father is impeded. But if the father is unknown, or if it is doubtful whether he was acatholic, the son needs dispensation because of defect of birth; but from a doubtful impediment the ordinary can dispense.

2. Men having a wife. Therefore a husband can be ordained if the marriage has been dissolved either by the death of the wife, or by solemn profession, or by marriage of the wife in the case of the Pauline privilege, or by dispensation of the Roman pontiff. Otherwise he always needs apostolic dispensation in order to be ordained, even if, as it seems, perpetual separation from the wife has intervened; for he is always one having a wife.

3. Those who exercise an office or administration which clerics are forbidden to exercise, until, after the office and administration have been laid down and accounts have been rendered, they have become free.

Those bound to render accounts or reckoning are said to be those who from their office are bound to render account of money administered for another, whether public or private, such as magistrates, administrators, curators, tutors.

Those, however, who manage offices and administrations which are not forbidden to clerics can be ordained, even if they do not yet resign the office, provided they do not render account; thus they licitly manage the administration of money of their blood-relatives, of miserable persons, and of pious causes.

4. Servants in servitude properly so called before accepted liberty.

Servants properly so called, or slaves, subject contrary to nature to another's dominion, are impeded by defect of liberty.

5. Those who are bound by civil law to ordinary military service before they have completed it.

The canon regards those republics which by a law made compel all young men, even clerics, to military service, even in time of peace.

6. Neophytes, until in the judgment of the ordinary they have been sufficiently proved.

Neophytes are understood as those who from pagans, Jews, or other sects are converted to the faith in adult age and recently baptized,² until there is certainty concerning their firm faith from the declaration of the bishop.

7. Those who labor under infamy of fact, while by the judgment of the ordinary it endures. Infamy of fact arises not only from delicts determined in law, but from any enormous delict, such as homicide, perjury in court, adultery, sodomy, simony, public exercise of usury, etc. Good reputation can be restored by serious amendment of life or by divulgation of innocence, and it can cease by stay in a place to which the bad reputation has not come. Judgment concerning cessation of bad reputation is committed to the ordinary.

But if a cleric is condemned by a civil judge because of a crime of this kind, this condemnatory sentence itself is not yet of itself infamy, but the ordinary, after the cause has been examined in the ecclesiastical forum, ought either to absolve the cleric or to condemn him. By the fact that he condemns him, the cleric becomes infamous. Nevertheless, even by the sentence of a civil judge, at least because of actual divulgation of the crime, he is already held infamous.

Article Five.. Concerning Dispensation from Impediments of Ordination.

1. Impediments of ordination can cease in several ways: a. by removal of the cause, a temporal irregularity ceases; thus an irregularity from defect of liberty or reputation ceases when liberty or reputation has been recovered; b. by religious profession, irregularity from defect of birth ceases.

2. Nevertheless, irregularity properly so called is removed only through dispensation; for irregularity is established by law, and a law in force can be removed only by relaxation of the law or dispensation.

Not only religious profession but also dispensation removes irregularity by itself only for receiving orders, but not also for obtaining dignities and prelacies.

¹ Cn. 987.

² Cf. instruction of S. C. Ep. et Reg., January 11, 1908.

499. Who Can Dispense. 1. The supreme pontiff can dispense in every irregularity; for since every irregularity arises from the law of the supreme pontiff, it can also be removed by him. Yet there are irregularities in which the supreme pontiff is accustomed to dispense very rarely, such as: a. irregularity from true bigamy; b. irregularity from voluntary homicide, unless it is so hidden that it cannot be proved in court; c. irregularity from defect of body which is very deformed.

To obtain this dispensation, recourse must be had to the Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments if the irregularity is public and the dispensation is sought for the external forum; but to the Penitentiary if the irregularity is hidden and the dispensation is sought for the internal forum only.

2. The ordinary can dispense: a. his own subjects from all irregularities coming from hidden delict, except those which are contracted from homicide, procurement of abortion and cooperation in these delicts, or other delicts brought to the judicial forum;

b. both for receiving and for exercising orders;

c. either by himself or through another;¹

d. for the internal forum, whether sacramental or non-sacramental;

e. in all doubtful irregularities when there is doubt of fact.

3. The confessor can dispense: a. his penitents, e.g., priests or clerics indiscriminately, whether seculars or regulars of any diocese;

b. in hidden and urgent cases in which the ordinary cannot be approached and danger of grave harm or infamy is imminent;

c. only in irregularities from delict, except that which comes from voluntary homicide, from procurement of abortion and cooperation in these delicts, or others brought to the judicial forum;

d. but only to this extent, that the penitent can exercise orders already received;²

e. both within and outside confession.

A determined form by which the dispensation is granted is not prescribed. This or a similar one can be used: I dispense thee in the irregularity which thou hast incurred from this cause, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹ Cn. 990, 1.

² Cn. 990, 2.

500. Supplicatory Petitions for obtaining dispensation from irregularities or impediments are drawn up for the external forum under the true names of the petitioner.

a. All irregularities and impediments are to be indicated, and if there is question of irregularity from voluntary homicide, also the number of delicts must be expressed under penalty of nullity of the dispensation to be granted;

b. The causes of dispensation are to be reviewed;

c. The commendatory letters of the ordinary are to be added;

d. If irregularities or impediments are concealed in bad faith, the dispensation, even a general one, is not valid for those concealed, though whether it is valid for those not concealed is not clear from the text. But if they are concealed in good faith, a general dispensation, from all irregularities and impediments, is valid also for those concealed.

e. But if, although in good faith, an irregularity coming from voluntary homicide, procurement of abortion or cooperation in these delicts is concealed, or if the number of delicts is not indicated, or another delict brought to the judicial forum is concealed, the dispensation, even a general one, is not valid.

f. A general dispensation for receiving orders is valid also for major orders;

g. Dispensation granted in the internal non-sacramental forum must be consigned in writing, and there must be record of it in a secret book of the episcopal curia.¹

¹ Cn. 991.