Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 2. On Irregularities From Defect
Preliminary note. What irregularities from defect are was stated above, n. 610. According to the discipline of the Church in force, there exist seven irregularities from defect.121
121 Ibid., c. 984.
614. 1. Defect of birth has constituted an irregularity for centuries, because a) illegitimate children bearing the reproach of their parents are not sufficiently worthy for the excellence of the clerical state; b) they not rarely imitate the incontinence of their parents.122 According to the discipline in force, those who were born outside a true or at least putative marriage are irregular from defect of birth.123
The following are not illegitimate and consequently not irregular:
a) foundlings; nevertheless, as a precaution, a dispensation is customarily given if their parents are entirely unknown;
b) children doubtfully illegitimate;
c) children born from adultery during a legitimate marriage, provided, however, that this adultery and the illegitimate origin of the child have not been juridically proved. For the adage holds: The father is he whom the marriage indicates, unless the contrary is proved by evident arguments.124
The cessation of this irregularity is obtained:
a) through a legitimate (ecclesiastical) dispensation. Who can dispense from this irregularity has already been stated above.
b) through legitimation by means of a subsequent marriage. In this manner irregularity is not removed for spurious children, but only for natural children (that is, of parents who were capable of contracting marriage at the time either of conception, pregnancy, or birth).125
c) through solemn religious profession.126 But not through simple profession, nor through reception of the religious habit, unless a special privilege is present.127
122 Cf. Council of Trent, sess. 25, c. 15, De reform.
123 On the contrary, "children conceived or born of a valid or putative marriage are legitimate, unless at the time of conception the use of the previously contracted marriage was forbidden to the parents because of solemn religious profession or the reception of sacred order" (Code of Canon Law, c. 1114). What a putative marriage is will be stated below, n. 640.
124 Code of Canon Law, c. 1115, § 1.
125 Ibid., c. 1116.
126 Ibid.; cf. below in the treatise on marriage, n. 893.
127 Cf. Gasparri, De ordinatione I, 247.
615. 2. Defect of mind is a defect of the use of reason arising from a habitual cause. Those labor under such a defect who are or have been epileptic, insane, or possessed by a demon.128 But if they become such after receiving orders and it is now certainly evident that they are free, the Ordinary can again permit his subjects to exercise the orders received.
128 c. 1, X 1, 17; cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 984, n. 3.
616. 3. Defect of body is a bodily fault on account of which orders cannot be exercised either safely because of weakness or becomingly because of deformity.
The following are irregular from defect of body:
a) the mutilated, for example, those lacking a foot, hand, thumb, or index finger, or those who cannot becomingly break the host with thumb and index finger.
b) those impaired or so weakened that they cannot becomingly perform the offices connected with orders, for example, the blind (or those so dim-sighted that they cannot read in the Missal); the deaf, who hear nothing; the mute or those who stammer so much that they cannot pronounce complete words; the lame, who cannot stand at the altar without a staff; paralytics, who cannot hold the sacred vessels or perform the prescribed ceremonies.
c) the deformed, who labor under an external fault so easily perceptible that they excite horror or laughter in others, for example, those whose noses have been cut off, those who are true dwarfs,129 or, on the contrary, giants,130 and those who are notably hunchbacked.
Note. It pertains to the bishop to judge whether, in a particular case, a defect of body is so great that it causes irregularity. This judgment indeed ought to be more severe before ordination than afterward. For it is hard to lose through misfortune the exercise of an order rightly received.131
129 In German: Zwerge [dwarfs]; in French: nains [dwarfs].
130 In German: Riesen [giants]; in French: géants [giants].
131 Code of Canon Law, c. 984, n. 2.
617. 4. Defect of bigamy (which is also called defect of the sacrament) is true bigamy, namely, when a man successively marries several wives.
Already St. Paul established that bishops, priests, and deacons be husbands of one wife.132 For marriage signifies the union of the one Christ with the one Church. Therefore a marriage which a man contracts (successively) with two women imperfectly signifies this union and causes a certain stain in the man. Hence arose the irregularity of the sacrament, or of bigamy.
132 Cf. 1 Tim. 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6.
618. 5. Defect of reputation arises from infamy of law alone. Infamy in general is the lack or notable diminution of a good reputation. How necessary a good reputation is for all clerics is evident of itself. Hence St. Paul says of a bishop: "It is necessary that he also have a good testimony from those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and into the snare of the devil."133
Infamy of law arises only in those cases which are established by common law.134
Infamy of fact arises (before the condemnatory sentence of a judge) from the commission of some enormous and notorious crime, for example, from the notorious commission of adultery, perjury, sodomy, and generally of all crimes which are punished by civil laws with a gravely infamous penalty, for example, imprisonment at hard labor.
Infamy is now by no means incurred from the fact that someone or his parents exercise a base trade, for example, that of a butcher, executioner, or stage-player. But it is evident of itself that he who exercises a trade of this kind must leave it if he wishes to become a cleric.
Infamy of fact is not an irregularity properly so called, but those who labor under infamy of fact are simply impeded from orders as long as it endures in the judgment of the Ordinary.135 This infamy of fact especially ceases through removal to a place where the disgraceful fact is entirely unknown.
133 1 Tim. 3:7.
134 Cf. Code of Canon Law, cc. 2314, 2320, 2328, 2343, 2351, 2357, 2359.
135 Ibid., c. 987, n. 7.
619. 6. and 7. Defect of lenity is twofold, namely: a) in a judge who has pronounced a sentence of death.136 Jurors also appear to come under the name of judge.137 b) in those who have undertaken the office of executioner and their voluntary and immediate assistants in the execution of a capital sentence.
136 St. Thomas, S. theol. 2, 2, q. 64, a. 7, ad 3.
137 In German: Geschworener [juror]; in French: le juré [the juror].