Article One. Concerning the Subject Itself.

464. The Subject of Valid Ordination. The subject of valid ordination is every baptized male and only a baptized male, even if he has not yet arrived at the use of reason. This is established from the institution of Christ, who wished orders to be conferred on men alone.¹

Therefore for orders to be validly received, it is required and suffices: alpha. that the ordinand be male; beta. that he be baptized; gamma. that he have at least the habitual intention of receiving order, if he is an adult.

a. A boy before the use of reason is validly ordained; for an infant is capable of those sacraments which do not require a condition which he himself must furnish, as penance and matrimony require, and order demands no act to be placed by the recipient. But to a boy ordained in this way, after sufficient use of reason, an option is given either of ministering in the order received or of passing over to secular vows; but once the choice has been made he is then bound to fulfill the obligations of the order received and to persevere in them.²

b. Therefore one incapable of order, and indeed by divine law if the order is of divine institution, and by ecclesiastical law if the order is of ecclesiastical institution, is a female and one not baptized.

c. The reason on account of which a woman cannot receive sacred orders is this: that it is fitting for the cleric, as one deputed to the governance of the faithful, to excel by a certain superiority; but woman by nature is inferior and subject to man, although as to her person she may be able to excel man in the gifts of nature and grace.³

¹ Cn. 968, 1.

² Benedict XIV, constitution Eo quamvis, May 4, 1745.

³ Cf. Gen. 3, 16; 1 Cor. 11, 3, 14, 34.

465. The Subject of Licit Ordination. 1. For orders to be licitly received, it is required that the ordinand, by the judgment of his own ordinary, be furnished with the required qualities and not be bound by any irregularity or other impediment.¹

2. A secular ordinand must, by the judgment of his own bishop, be necessary or useful to the churches of the diocese. Nevertheless even his own subject can be ordained who for the future is destined to the service of another diocese.²

3. Those to be promoted to sacred orders ought to be suitable with canonical suitability, concerning which suitability the bishop must be morally certain by positive arguments.³

4. It is unlawful to coerce anyone in any way whatsoever to receive the clerical state.⁴

A cleric who, compelled by grave fear, received a sacred order and afterward did not ratify the ordination can be reduced to the lay state by sentence of a judge without any obligations of celibacy and of the hours.⁵

5. The bishop ought to take care that those who aspire to sacred orders be instituted from tender years in a boys' seminary and educated devoutly. Moreover all through the whole curriculum of sacred theology ought to dwell in the clerics' seminary, unless the ordinary in a particular case dispenses from a grave cause. Those who legitimately stay outside the seminary should be commended to a suitable priest who will watch over them and form them to piety.⁶

Article Two.. Concerning the Requisites in the Subject.

For orders to be received licitly, several qualities are required in the ordinand either from the nature of the thing or from the prescription of the canons.

1. That he be in the state of grace; for since order is a sacrament of the living, it supposes first grace. Therefore for orders which are not sacraments but only sacramentals to be licitly received, the state of grace is not required per se, to such an extent that one who is in the state of sin, at least grave sin, would not sin by approaching an ordination of this kind. But by reason of the Eucharist, which is customarily received in ordination, the state of grace is required.

2. That he be confirmed; the Council of Trent says: "Let not those be initiated by first tonsure who have not received the sacrament of confirmation," which the new Code also requires.⁷

The reason is both because those who are not yet confirmed are not considered sufficiently firm in the faith, and because it is not fitting that they be constituted leaders of others who have not yet been made soldiers of Christ.

3. That he be immune from censure and irregularity,⁸ about which things are spoken elsewhere.⁹

4. That he have the clerical intention. Already for first tonsure there is required a purpose of ascending to the presbyterate and such a habit of life that it can be expected that the one ordained will in the future be a worthy priest. If, however, the one ordained refuses to ascend to a superior order, the bishop can neither compel him to receive it nor forbid him the exercise of the orders received, unless a grave cause or impediment stands in the way.¹⁰

¹ Cn. 968, 1.

² Cn. 969.

³ Cn. 973, 3.

⁴ Cn. 971.

⁵ Cn. 214, 1.

⁶ Cn. 972.

⁷ Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 4, De reform. Cn. 974, 1.

⁸ Cn. 968, 1.

⁹ Cf. De poenis eccl.

¹⁰ Cn. 973, 1, 2.

466. 5. That he be cultivated by spiritual exercises. 1. Spiritual exercises must be performed:

a. By those to be promoted to first tonsure and minor orders, at least for three whole days;

b. By those to be promoted to sacred orders, at least for six whole days.

If some are to be promoted to several major orders within a semester, the ordinary can reduce the time of exercises for the diaconate, but not below three whole days.

2. If after the exercises have been completed ordination is delayed beyond a semester from any cause, the exercises must be repeated; otherwise the ordinary judges whether they are to be repeated.

3. Seculars are to perform these exercises in the seminary or in another pious or religious house designated by the bishop; religious in their own or in another house by judgment of the superior.

4. The bishop must be made more certain concerning the performed exercises by testimony of the superior of the house in which they were performed; as regards religious, by the testimony of their own major superior.¹

¹ Cn. 1001.

467. 6. That he be furnished with morals congruent with the order to be received. So that it can be established for the bishop concerning the life and morals of the ordinand and concerning his immunity from any canonical impediment, public denunciations are prescribed.¹

1. Before the individual orders are conferred, the names of those to be promoted must be publicly announced in each parish church, except religious who have emitted perpetual vows.

The ordinary, however, can: a. dispense from the publication itself for a just cause; b. prescribe that it be made even in other churches; c. substitute for publication an affixing to the doors of the church for some days, among which one at least must be a feast day; d. make also other private investigations, if he has judged them necessary or opportune.

2. Publication ought to be made in the church on a feast day of precept among the solemnities of Mass or on another day and hour at which a greater attendance of the people is had.

3. If the candidate has not been ordained within six months, publication must be repeated, unless another judgment seems good to the ordinary.

The faithful are bound to reveal to the ordinary or parish priest before ordination the impediments which they know.

4. The ordinary can commit to the parish priest, both to him who performed the publication and also to another, that he inquire concerning the life and morals of those to be ordained and transmit testimonial letters about this matter to the curia.²

¹ Cn. 998.

² Cn. 999; Cn. 1000, 1.

468. 7. That he be constituted in canonical age.

a. For first tonsure and minor orders a determined age is not prescribed; but since no one, whether secular or regular, is to be promoted to first tonsure before the begun theological course, it can be affirmed that ordinarily it cannot be received before the eighteenth or nineteenth year of age.¹

b. For the subdiaconate the canonical age is the completed twenty-first year;

c. For the diaconate, the completed twenty-second year;

d. For the presbyterate, the completed twenty-fourth year;

e. For the episcopate, the completed thirtieth year.²

alpha. To bishops the faculty of dispensing in defect of age of one year is usually communicated by the holy see, but only for receiving the priesthood. The holy see itself very rarely dispenses in age for the subdiaconate, rarely for receiving the diaconate; but for receiving the priesthood it often dispenses even in a defect of one year and a half.

beta. He who maliciously, knowingly and willingly, receives a sacred order before canonical age is ipso facto suspended from the order received.³

¹ Cn. 976, 1.

² Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 12, De reform. Cn. 975.

³ Cn. 2324.

469. 8. That he be instructed with due knowledge. 1. The prescriptions set forth by the Council of Trent on this matter have been adapted by more recent laws of the Church to the needs of the present time. And so:

a. No one, whether secular or regular, is to be promoted to first tonsure before he has begun the theological course, and therefore unless he has completed the regular curriculum of humanities studies.

b. The subdiaconate is not to be conferred unless the third year of the theological course is ending.

c. The diaconate, unless the fourth year has begun.

d. The presbyterate, unless after the middle of the fourth year.¹

The theological course must be completed not privately but in schools instituted for this according to the norm of the Code of Canon Law.²

Moreover it is required that the scholastic complete a space of nine months after the final examination has been successfully completed.³

2. Concerning the previous examination. a. All ordinands, whether seculars or religious, must undergo an examination before the order to be received; and those to be ordained to sacred orders must be examined also from the other treatises of sacred theology. The bishop determines the treatises themselves, as also the examiners and the method of examination.

b. The ordinary of the place who ordains by his own right or grants dimissorial letters receives the examination of all ordinands. Nevertheless, from a just cause he can also commit it to the ordaining bishop, if this latter wishes to take it on.

c. A bishop ordaining an alien subject, whether secular or religious, with legitimate dimissorials by which it is asserted that the candidate has been examined and found suitable, can acquiesce in the attestation, but is not bound to do so. And if in his own conscience he judges that the candidate is not suitable, he should not promote him.⁴

¹ Cn. 976.

² Cn. 976, 3.

³ S. C. Consist., March 24, 1911.

⁴ Cn. 996, 997.

470. 9. That he have emitted the profession of faith. From the prescription of the new Code, all to be promoted to the order of subdiaconate are bound to emit the profession of faith, and, until otherwise established, the anti-modernist oath. Moreover the ordinary can compel them to emit it again before the conferral of the individual orders, if he judges this necessary or useful.¹

¹ Cn. 1406, 1, n. 7; S. C. Consist., March 24, 1911; Holy Office, March 22, 1918.