Article I. On Irregularities from Defect

They are irregular from defect:

1°. The illegitimate, whether the illegitimacy is public or occult, unless they have been legitimated or have professed solemn vows;

2°. Those defective in body who, safely because of weakness, or decently because of deformity, cannot discharge the ministry of the altar. Yet for impeding the exercise of an order legitimately received, a graver defect is required; nor because of this defect are acts prohibited which can be duly placed;

3°. Those who are epileptics or insane or possessed by a demon, or have been so; but if after Orders have been received they have become such, and it is certain that they are now free, the Ordinary can again permit his subjects the exercise of the orders received;

4°. Bigamists, namely those who successively contracted two or more valid marriages;

5°. Those who are marked by infamy of law;

6°. A judge who bore a sentence of death;

7°. Those who have undertaken the office of executioner, and their voluntary and immediate ministers in the execution of a capital sentence (Can. 984).

1°. Legitimate children are children conceived or born from a valid or putative marriage, unless to the parents, on account of solemn profession or a sacred order received, the use of a marriage previously contracted was prohibited at the time of conception. Illegitimate children are children conceived and born from fornication, adultery, incest, or sacrilegious intercourse between parents to whom at the time of conception the use of marriage was prohibited on account of solemn religious profession or sacred order.

They are legitimated: 1°. by subsequent marriage, provided the parents were able to enter marriage between themselves at the time of conception or pregnancy or birth; 2°. by decree of the prince. - Cf. Can. 1116.

2°. Those defective in body are those who, because of a defect of body, cannot perform the functions of the altar either safely because of weakness or decently because of deformity. Concerning this defect note that a graver one is required for impeding the exercise of an Order received, and not all functions of the order are prohibited. To this defect are reduced any defects, and only those, which have as a consequence either weakness, so that the functions of Order cannot be exercised safely, or deformity, so that they cannot be exercised decently, without scandal. Truly the canon itself explains the matter.

This irregularity is incurred under a twofold head: 1°. if someone is unfit for the exercise of Order; 2°. if he brings notable horror to others, or presents indecency.

Hence the following are held irregular: 1°. the mutilated, those wearing a wooden leg, those unable to use the hand, thumb, or index finger; 2°. the blind, totally lacking sight or so becoming blind that they cannot read in the Missal; 3°. the deaf, who hear nothing, so that in no way can they hear the voice of the minister responding; 4°. the mute or stammering, who cannot pronounce whole words, or cannot except with great difficulty, so that they move the laughter or contempt of those standing by; 5°. the lame, who cannot present themselves at the altar without a staff; 6°. those lacking a nose, or having one enormously distorted, lowered, or extended; 7°. the monstrous, for example, those having an enormous hump, which induces great deformity, etc. - Cf. St. Alph., nn. 403 and following.

Question. Whether one who lacks one eye is irregular?

Resp. Negatively, if he lacks only the right eye, because it is less necessary for the celebration of Mass, provided no notable deformity is born from it. But it must be said otherwise if he lacks the left eye, which is called the eye of the canon, because it is necessary for reading the canon of the Mass. Except, unless he can read the canon with the right eye without deformity. But this is to be subjected to the judgment of the Bishop. - Cf. St. Alphons., n. 404.¹

3°. Epileptics; see the Canon, n. 3.

¹ Cf. Addenda, p. 1087, n. 5.

4°. Bigamists: this irregularity has now become simple by force of this canon; it arises from the fact that someone successively and validly entered two or more marriages, because in bigamy the perfect signification of the indissoluble union of one Christ with one Church is lacking. This irregularity is called from defect of Sacrament; in the second valid marriage, or third, the perfect signification of that great sacrament, concerning which St. Paul to Ephes. V. 32, is lacking. True bigamy, and it alone, constitutes irregularity. A bigamist is not said to have sinned, "but to have lost the norm of the sacrament necessary not for the merit of life but for the seal of ecclesiastical ordination." C. 2, D. XXVI.

5°. Those who are marked by infamy of law are irregular. That infamy of law is that which is established in cases expressed by law. But cases, latae sententiae, are:

He who has cast away the consecrated species or carried them away or retained them for an evil end is, by the fact itself, infamous (Can. 2320).

He who has violated the corpses or tombs of the dead for theft or another evil end is, by the fact itself, infamous (Can. 2328).

He who has laid violent hands upon the person of the Roman Pontiff is infamous by the law itself (Can. 2343, § 1).

The duelers themselves and those who are called their seconds are besides infamous by the fact itself (Can. 2351, § 1).

Bigamists, that is, those who, with the conjugal bond standing in the way, have attempted another marriage, even only civil, as they say, are by the fact itself infamous (Can. 2356).

Laymen legitimately condemned for delicts against the sixth with minors below the age of sixteen years committed, or for rape, sodomy, incest, pandering, are by the fact itself infamous (Can. 2357).

Infamy of law ferendae sententiae:

All apostates from the Christian faith and all and each heretics or schismatics, unless having been warned they have come to their senses, are to be declared infamous (Can. 2314, § 1, n. 2).

Clerics, if they have admitted a delict against the sixth precept of the decalogue with minors below the age of sixteen years, or have practiced adultery, rape, bestiality, sodomy, pandering, incest with blood-relatives or relatives by affinity in the first degree, are to be declared infamous (Can. 2359, § 2).

Infamy of law ceases only by dispensation granted by the Apostolic See (Can. 2295).

6°. A judge who bore a sentence of death; those who have undertaken the office of executioner, and their voluntary and immediate ministers in the execution of a capital sentence. Christ Our Lord taught meekness both by words and by example; clerics ought to imitate it. Therefore the Church abhors a judgment of blood, and on account of defect of gentleness makes irregular: judges who bore a judgment of death; those taking up the office of executioner; voluntary and immediate ministers of the execution of a capital sentence voluntarily involving themselves in this execution, but not others. And therefore this irregularity also is much restricted.