Section 2. On the Power of the Ordinary.

608. To local ordinaries in the new Code a very ample power is granted.

By ordinary power he can dispense:

1. In the impedient impediment of vow arising from non-reserved vows, and indeed his subjects and travelers.

Non-reserved vows are: the vow of virginity, the vow of not marrying, of receiving sacred orders, of embracing the religious state in a congregation. Even the vows of perfect chastity and of entering a religion of solemn vows are not reserved if they were emitted before the eighteenth year or not absolutely, Cn. 2309.

608. By ordinary power he can dispense:

2. In danger of death, for providing for conscience, and, if the case bears it, for the legitimation of offspring, he can dispense a. over the form to be observed in the celebration of matrimony; b. in each and every impediment of ecclesiastical law, whether public or occult, even multiple, with two exceptions; c. his proper subjects wherever they are staying and all actually dwelling in his own territory; d. scandal being removed and, if dispensation is granted in disparity of cult or mixed religion, the customary cautions having been furnished,¹ without the requiring or furnishing of which the dispensation would be invalid.

a. Danger of death, whether it comes from disease or from an external cause of nature or of man.

b. The faculty has force even if the person who is affected by the impediment is not ill.²

c. Provision is made for conscience by this, that sin or a proximate occasion of sin or a great temptation is removed, from whatever source these are derived, whether from lust, or from avarice, or from hatred, or from another cause.

d. Provision is made for offspring by this, that afterward it is more easily legitimated, without its being necessary to obtain for legitimation a new favor of the Holy See, whether the offspring is natural or incestuous (but not adulterine or sacrilegious).³

e. Two impediments are to be excepted, those arising from the sacred order of priesthood and from affinity in the direct line (when the matrimony has been consummated).

f. Scandal must be removed if the impediment is public; moreover, it is removed by this, that the dispensation is granted before witnesses, to whom the reasons for the same are explained.

g. If the local ordinary cannot be approached, the parish priest, the priest assisting at the matrimony, and the confessor possess the same faculty, but the latter only for the internal forum.⁴

h. This faculty can be used both for the external forum and for the internal forum, and since it is ordinary, it can also be delegated habitually to others, Cn. 202, 3.

3. In urgent necessity, namely, when all things have already been prepared for the nuptials and the matrimony cannot be deferred without probable danger of grave evil until dispensation is obtained from the Holy See, he can dispense in the same impediments and under the same conditions as in danger of death. This faculty has force also for the convalidation of a matrimony already contracted, if the same danger is present and there is no time for recourse to the Holy See.⁵

a. Grave evil would be infamy, scandal, notable temporal harm, etc. If the matter concerns convalidation, grave evil could be the danger of incontinence, namely if only after matrimony has been contracted an occult impediment is detected and the spouses can neither be separated without scandal or infamy nor cohabit without danger of sinning.

b. In order that dispensation of the Holy See can be obtained, a time of about fifteen days is required, since no one is held to have recourse by telegraph.

4. In impediments doubtful by a doubt of fact, whether occult or public, he can and is accustomed to dispense, provided the matter concerns impediments in which the Roman pontiff is accustomed to dispense; in a doubt of law he declares that the matrimony can be celebrated safely.⁶

¹ Cn. 1043.

² S. Office, July 1, 1891.

³ S. Office, July 8, 1903.

⁴ Cn. 1044.

⁵ Cn. 1045.

⁶ Cn. 15.

609. By delegated power he can dispense in those impediments, whether diriment or impedient, for which he has received special delegation. Formerly, from diverse offices of the Roman curia, faculties were granted to ordinaries which were called quinquennial or triennial, and which, after the very ample faculties granted by the new Code, have almost become superfluous.¹

The Holy Office grants the faculty of dispensing (either for a certain time or in a certain number of cases) in mixed religion and, in mission places, also in disparity of cult.

The Sacred Penitentiary grants the faculty of dispensing for the internal forum only, subjects (whether they themselves and the ordinary are within or outside the diocese) in the occult impediment of crime with neither party perpetrating, if the matter concerns matrimony already contracted. This faculty can be delegated habitually, but only for the sacramental forum.

¹ Therefore by decree of the Consistorial Congregation, April 25, 1918, in all dioceses subject to the common law all faculties of the external forum which are customarily called triennial, quinquennial, and decennial were abrogated, so that it is no longer licit to use them.