Article — Sabetti-Barrett, Compendium of Moral Theology
Article III. On Impediments
They are simply impeded:
1°. Children of acatholics, as long as the parents remain in their error;1
2°. Men having a wife;
3°. Those who hold an office or administration forbidden to clerics, of which they ought to render accounts, until, the office and administration having been laid down and accounts rendered, they have been made free;
4°. Slaves, with slavery properly so called, before liberty has been received;
5°. Those who by civil law are bound to ordinary military service before they have completed it;
6°. Neophytes, until, by the judgment of the Ordinary, they have been sufficiently proved;
7°. Those who labor under infamy of fact, while it endures, by the judgment of the Ordinary (Can. 987).
These impediments are not perpetual; and when the causes have been removed, the obstacle to receiving ordination is removed in the various cases. In the first case a great change has been introduced; namely the impediment holds the children of acatholics as long as the parents remain in their error; it is no longer an irregularity, nor does the impediment proceed beyond the first degree. In the second case married men are impeded from ascending to Orders. In the third there is treatment of those who exercise functions prohibited to clerics, of which they ought to render accounts; but if the office is laid down and accounts are rendered, they become free and are no longer detained by the impediment; see the canon where some such functions are designated. - Cf. C. un., X. 1, 19. In the fourth are understood bondmen, slaves strictly so called, as long as they remain slaves. In the fifth there is treatment of a matter difficult in our days, of military service imposed by civil law; the impediment remains until the law is fulfilled.
Notes. - Pontifical Commission for Authentically Interpreting the Canons of the Code. Doubts resolved in the plenary meetings of the days 2-3 June 1918. On irregularities and other impediments. 1. Whether, according to the sense of canon 987, n. 5, those are impeded who perhaps will be called to military service, but in fact have not yet been called, either because they are unequal in age, or because, the examination having been rightly performed, they have been declared unfit for a time (Can. 987, n. 5). And insofar as negatively: 2. Whether the aforesaid can licitly be promoted not only to first tonsure and minor Orders, but also to major Orders, nevertheless observing, as long as this war shall endure, the Decree Ut jus certum.
Resp. To the 1st Affirmatively. To the 2nd, provision has been made in the first. (A. A. S. An. X, n. 8 - 1 August 1918).
In the sixth are understood neophytes, namely those who in adult age have been converted to the faith.
Hardly do disciples with difficulty become teachers, such as priests ought to be. The judgment of sufficient probation belongs to the Ordinary. Finally in the seventh there is treatment of infamy of fact, which is contracted when someone, on account of a perpetrated delict or on account of depraved morals, has lost good estimation among upright and grave faithful, concerning which the judgment belongs to the Ordinary.
Ignorance of irregularities, whether from delict or from defect, and of impediments, does not excuse from the same (Can. 988).
In this matter also the new Code removed ambiguity. And indeed since a stain from some defect or delict is present, whether the subject in whom it is present knows or does not know the law concerning irregularity, the unworthiness of the ministry exercised by this man branded with such a stain is clearer than midday light. Wherefore ignorance of impediments or irregularities does not excuse from incurring them.
Irregularities and impediments are multiplied from diverse causes of the same, but not from repetition of the same cause, unless there is question of irregularity from voluntary homicide (Can. 989).
Titius, a judge, bore a sentence of death, procured abortion with the effect having followed, is the son of a heretic father still dwelling on the earth. There are two irregularities and one impediment. Namely there are diverse causes.
§ 1. It is permitted to Ordinaries, by themselves or through another, to dispense their subjects from all irregularities proceeding from occult delict, except that of which in can. 985, n. 4, or another brought to the judicial forum.
§ 2. The same faculty belongs to any confessor in more urgent occult cases in which the Ordinary cannot be approached and danger threatens of grave damage or infamy, but only for this, that the penitent may licitly be able to exercise orders already received (Can. 990).
Under the name of Ordinaries here come those who are designated in the law, Can. 198, § 1. The faculty itself of dispensing is conceded, not from irregularities from defect, but from all those arisen from occult delict, except the irregularity from voluntary homicide and procurement of abortion with the effect having followed, and an irregularity brought to the judicial forum. In an irregularity from defect, in an irregularity from public delict, in an irregularity from homicide and procurement of abortion with the effect having followed, the Ordinary can do nothing. He can also do nothing in an irregularity brought to the judicial forum. The same faculty belongs to any confessor under certain conditions: the case must be occult and more urgent; recourse to the Ordinary cannot be made; there is danger of infamy or of grave damage. Finally the penitent is dispensed only for the exercise of orders received.
§ 1. In petitions for dispensation from irregularities and impediments, all irregularities and impediments must be indicated; otherwise a general dispensation will indeed be valid also for those withheld in good faith, except those which are excepted in can. 990, § 1, but not for those withheld in bad faith.
§ 2. If there is question of irregularity from voluntary homicide, even the number of delicts must be expressed under penalty of nullity of the dispensation to be conceded.
§ 3. A general dispensation for orders is valid also for major orders; and the dispensed person can obtain non-consistorial benefices, even with cure, but cannot be announced as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Bishop, Abbot or Prelate nullius, major Superior in an exempt clerical religion.
§ 4. A dispensation conceded in the internal non-sacramental forum is to be committed to writing; and it ought to be established concerning it in the secret book of the curia (Can. 991).