Chapter III. On The Subject Of Order

601. Preliminary note. Here we treat of those conditions which are required on the part of the subject for valid and licit ordination. For valid ordination three things are required, namely, that the ordinand: 1. be male; 2. be baptized; 3. have at least the habitual intention of receiving the order, if he is an adult. Of itself nothing prevents even infants from validly receiving orders, but such an ordination is subject to many inconveniences and is therefore obsolete today. The conditions required for valid ordination do not need a special explanation, and therefore we treat only of the qualities required for a worthy and licit ordination. All these qualities can be distributed into two categories, namely: 1. those qualities which regard rather the soul of the ordinand and are already prescribed by divine law; 2. those qualities which are rather extrinsic and are established by ecclesiastical law. Among these qualities established by ecclesiastical law, immunity from irregularities and impediments is preeminent; these must be treated specially. Hence we divide this chapter into three articles: 1. on the qualities required by divine law; 2. on the qualities required by ecclesiastical law; 3. on irregularities and impediments.