Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Four. Concerning the Requisites in Ordination.
474. That It Be Done at the Due Time.1 1. The episcopate ought to be conferred on a Sunday or on the feasts of the Apostles within the solemnities of Mass.
- Ordinations in sacred orders are celebrated on the Saturdays of the four seasons, on the Saturday before Passion Sunday, Sitientes, and on Holy Saturday within the solemnities of Mass. When a grave intervening cause exists, they can also be done on any Sunday or feast of precept.
In several places of Germany a custom has been introduced that sacred orders are conferred also on public feast days which are not days of precept. In the new law a custom against the times for ordination prescribed by the same law is expressly reprobated.
Minor orders can be conferred on individual Sundays and double feasts, but only in the morning.
First tonsure can be conferred on any day and hour, even in the evening.
a. The faculty of ordaining outside the times, which is sometimes granted to bishops, is to be understood of feast days not continuous but interpolated. The faculty of ordaining outside the times and without intervals to be observed is to be understood in such a way that three continuous feast days do not suffice for conferring three sacred orders, unless from the words of the indult something else is established.2
b. The faculty of ordaining outside the times is so personal that the bishop: alpha. can ordain outside the times all dismissed to him from elsewhere, even from bishops lacking this faculty, provided they are furnished with the necessary documents; and beta. can dismiss his own subjects to other bishops lacking this faculty, in order to receive orders outside the times.
- If an ordination is to be repeated, or if some rite is to be supplied, whether absolutely or conditionally, this can be done even outside the times and secretly.
1 Cf. Pontificale rom., De ordinibus conferendis. Cn. 1006, 1007.
2 Gasparri I, n. 509.
475. That It Be Done at the Due Place. 1. If the consecration of a bishop is done outside the Roman Curia, it is to be held in the church to which the bishop promoted as residential has been advanced. Nevertheless, in the bull of promotion there is usually granted the faculty of receiving consecration from the bishop whom the promoted one shall have chosen.
Sacred orders in general ordinations are to be conferred in the cathedral church with the canons present. If ordinations are held in another place of the diocese, as far as can be done the worthier church is to be approached, with the clergy of the place present. Particular ordinations from a just cause can also be held in other churches, or even in the oratory of the episcopal house, seminary, or religious house.
First tonsure and minor orders can be conferred even in private oratories.1
Outside their own territory, orders in whose conferral pontificalia are exercised cannot be conferred without the permission of the ordinary of the place.2
a. Bishops are not permitted to exercise pontificalia in another diocese without the express consent of the ordinary of the place. Therefore a bishop can confer tonsure on his subjects outside the diocese because it can be conferred privately without pontificalia.
b. Cardinals do not need this permission; nevertheless, if a cardinal performs an ordination in the cathedral church, the ordinary must be forewarned about this matter.3
1 Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 8, De reform.; Pontificale rom., De ordinibus conferendis. Cn. 1009.
2 Cn. 1008.
3 Cn. 239, 1, n. 15.
476. That the Interstices Be Observed by which those promoted can exercise themselves in the orders received.1
a. It is not licit, except from a peculiar faculty of the Roman pontiff, to confer minor orders with the subdiaconate, nor two sacred orders on the same day, any contrary custom being reprobated.
b. It is not licit to confer first tonsure together with some minor order, nor all the minor orders, but only two or three, at the same time.
c. The interstices to be observed between first tonsure and the ostiariate, and likewise between the individual minor orders, are committed to the prudent judgment of the bishop.
d. Between the minor orders and the subdiaconate an interstice of one year is to be observed; between the subdiaconate and the diaconate, and likewise between the diaconate and the presbyterate, an interstice of three months is to be observed, unless necessity or utility of the Church by judgment of the bishop demands otherwise.
Therefore bishops are granted together the faculty of dispensing from interstices, but they can never dispense without cause in the superior law. From the statute of the law, however, it is clear that a lesser cause suffices so that he can dispense from the interstices between subdiaconate and diaconate, but a greater cause is required for dispensing between the acolyte and subdiaconate or between the diaconate and presbyterate.
1 Cn. 978, which adapts the Tridentine dispositions, sess. 23, c. 13, De reform., to the circumstances of our times.
477. That It Not Be Done by Leap, that is, that a superior order not be conferred when an inferior order has not yet been conferred; for orders are to be conferred gradually, so that ordinations by leap are altogether forbidden.1
a. Orders conferred with the inferior orders omitted are valid, except the episcopate, because the individual orders are complete and produce an effect independent from the others. Indeed in a superior order, e.g., in the presbyterate, the inferior order, diaconate, is eminently contained and is conferred with it. Nevertheless the Church does not permit one to ascend to a superior order or to exercise the order received unless the omitted or passed-over order has first been conferred.
b. Most theologians teach that the episcopate conferred before priesthood is null, because the complement of the priesthood cannot be conferred without the priesthood. Yet some, relying also on the ancient Pontifical, try to demonstrate that the sacerdotal order is contained eminently in the episcopate and is conferred with it, just as in other orders the inferior orders are contained and conferred.2
Note. Those who receive minor orders are not bound to receive holy communion; but those who are promoted to a sacramental order are bound under light obligation, and priests, who concelebrate with the bishop, under grave obligation.
1 Cn. 977.
2 Cf. Gasparri I, n. 23 ss.
478. Concerning Obligations Imposed by the Bishop. 1. Not to recite the prayers which after ordination are enjoined by the bishop does not seem to be a sin, since it is not established that they are to be fulfilled under strict obligation under sin. For some teach that the obligation of reciting those prayers is grave because the matter is grave; others that it is light; still others that it is none, because the bishop does not intend to impose a precept.
- For the nocturn of such a day which, by the Roman Pontifical, the bishop is accustomed to impose on subdeacons and deacons ordained by him, the first nocturn of the feria, feast, or Sunday is to be understood, according as the ordination was held on a feria, feast, or Sunday, unless the bishop, who has the right to do this, expressly designated another.1
By the name nocturn are understood three psalms with their antiphons; for these constitute the nocturn. But those things which are otherwise prefixed to the divine office, Pater, Ave, Credo, Lord, open, hymns, and lessons, do not belong to the substance of the nocturn.2
- Not to say the three Masses imposed by the bishop on new priests, namely Masses of the Holy Spirit, of the Blessed Virgin, and for the dead, in the same way does not seem to be a sin. It is certain that new priests are not bound to apply them to the intention of the bishop or to the intention of the Church, and therefore they can accept a stipend for them, since the bishop enjoins only the quality of the Mass, not its application. Nor must they be said before the day of the following ordination, because according to the rubrics a votive Mass may be celebrated, and for a reasonable cause they can be deferred still further. If, however, in the meantime there occurs a feast on which the Mass is said of the Holy Spirit, e.g., Pentecost, or of the Blessed Virgin, by the Mass of the feast conforming to the office one satisfies the burden imposed by the bishop of celebrating a Mass of the Holy Spirit or of the Blessed Virgin.
a. The contrary opinion, namely that the bishop imposes the application of those Masses, is held by not a few, including Bouix, Hartmann, and Schuch, distinguished rubricists, whose arguments nevertheless cannot be called probable.
b. Yet it is strongly to be recommended that new priests apply those three Masses for the Church and for the faithful departed. For without doubt the mind of the Church enjoining these Masses is this: that those ordained should honor the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin through them, should carry out thanks for benefits received, first toward the whole Church, then toward the pontiff ordaining, then toward themselves, and finally should show mercy to the suffering Church, namely the faithful departed.
1 S. C. R., June 27, 1899, n. 4042.
2 S. C. R., July 10, 1903.