Section — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Section 4. On the Use of Delegated Faculties.
612. 1. If the contracting parties are of diverse dioceses and a. the impediment is personal to one contracting party, as the impediment of vow, the contracting party must be dispensed by his or her own bishop. Hence if each is bound by an impediment of this sort, each must be dispensed by his or her own bishop. But if b. the impediment is common to each, as consanguinity or affinity, the bishop of either can dispense: for once the impediment has been removed from one side, the other party also becomes free. But it is fitting that the dispensation be sought from the bishop in whose diocese the matrimony is contracted.
If the petition for dispensation has been sent to the Holy See, the ordinary cannot use his faculties unless a grave and urgent cause supervenes. In this case dispensation must be granted, but the Holy See must immediately be advised concerning the matter.1
Concerning the faculty of cumulating dispensations, that is, of dispensing in several impediments concurring at the same time in the same case, the following things now have force:2
a. One who has a general faculty of dispensing in some certain impediment (e.g., in relationship) can use the same faculty both in a matrimony to be contracted and in one contracted, even if the same impediment is multiple, unless something else is prescribed in the indult itself.
b. One who has a general faculty of dispensing in several impediments of diverse species can dispense in these, even if several concur, whether diriment or impedient, whether public or occult.
c. If with a public impediment or public impediments in which he can dispense there concurs another impediment in which he cannot dispense, the Holy See must be approached for all. If, however, the impediment or impediments in which he can dispense are discovered after the dispensation of the Holy See has been obtained, he can use his faculty. But if in this case the impediment in which the ordinary can dispense is occult, he can likewise use his faculty.3
d. In granting dispensations, the ordinary must follow the practice of the Holy See concerning the causes of dispensations, that is, he can dispense only from those causes which are judged sufficient by the Holy See for that impediment.
1 Cn. 1048; Cn. 204.
2 Cn. 1049; 1050.
3 Cn. 1050.