§ I. Irregularities from Defect

By force of canon 984 the following are irregular from defect:

I. From defect of birth: "Illegitimates, whether the illegitimacy is public or occult, unless they have been legitimated or have professed solemn vows" (cited canon, n. 1). Now:

1. Who are illegitimate, see in the treatise on matrimony.

2. Irregularity from defect of birth is removed: 1° by legitimation, about which later; 2° by dispensation (n. 644); 3° by solemn religious profession. This removes the irregularity, but does not legitimate; hence an illegitimate person solemnly professed cannot be constituted major Superior in his Religion (canon 504).

Note. Illegitimates cannot be admitted into the Seminary (canon 1363, § 1); nevertheless legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents suffices.¹

¹ Pontifical Commission, July 13, 1930 (A.A.S. 1930, p. 365).

II. From defect of body: "Those defective in body who cannot safely by reason of weakness, or decently by reason of deformity, perform the ministry of the altar. Yet to impede the exercise of an Order legitimately received, a graver defect is required; nor because of this defect are acts prohibited which can rightly be placed" (cited canon, n. 2°). Therefore the following are irregular:

1. Those who by reason of weakness cannot safely perform the ministry of the altar. To this class belong: 1° those lacking the index finger or thumb, that is, the customary fingers with which the host is broken; likewise those who have hands so trembling that there is danger of spilling the Blood; likewise those lacking either arm or either hand; 2° the deaf who cannot hear the responding minister; but deafness supervening upon the priesthood does not stand in the way of the celebration of Mass; 3° the mute, likewise those stammering so much that they cannot pronounce whole words, or cannot except with great difficulty, so that they provoke laughter; 4° the blind, likewise the partially blind, who cannot read except very large characters; but not one who lacks only one eye, provided it is not the left eye, or the eye of the Canon, and provided the deformity is removed by a glass eye.¹ But if the eye of the Canon is lacking, a dispensation can be given if the other eye is sufficiently fit for reading the Canon without deformity (St. Alphonsus, VII, 404-409).

2. Those who by reason of deformity cannot decently perform the ministry of the altar. To this class belong: 1° those deprived of a conspicuous member, unless the deformity is removed by an artificial member. Those who lack the three rear fingers are irregular for receiving Orders, but not for exercising them; 2° those having a conspicuous member very deformed, whether the deformity arises from nature or from disease, for example from leprosy. Deformity of the legs can ordinarily be sufficiently covered by a cassock; 3° the monstrous, such as pygmies, the very hunchbacked, and hermaphrodites; yet the latter defect does not induce irregularity if it is occult and the male sex prevails. Likewise those notably limping are irregular (St. Alphonsus, VII, 410-412).

Note 1. Since all Orders, even first tonsure, are ordered to the priesthood, one excluded from the priesthood must also be regarded as excluded from the other Orders.

Note 2. To impede the exercise of an Order legitimately received a graver defect is required than to impede the reception of an Order (canon 984, 2°). Moreover, one who by reason of some defect is impeded from some exercise of an Order received is not therefore impeded from acts which can rightly be placed (canon 984, 2°); so that, for example, a blind priest can well hear confessions.

Note 3. In doubt whether some defect stands in the way of the reception or exercise of an Order, the Ordinary should be consulted (St. Alphonsus, VII, 414).

¹ With respect to partially blind priests, the Sacred Congregation of Rites established the following on January 12, 1921:

1. A partially blind priest, or one laboring under such weakness of visual power, whether accidentally or habitually, that he can read only very large type, can obtain from the Supreme Pontiff or the Sacred Congregation of Rites, unless the Bishop has been furnished with an apostolic faculty, a dispensation to celebrate either the votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Mass which they call the daily Mass of the Dead.

2. The conditions added in the instrument of a privilege of this kind are not mere matters of rituality and style, but obligatory in conscience.

3. If in the privilege it is said: Provided the petitioner is not entirely blind, and meanwhile he becomes blind, then he must abstain from celebrating Mass until he has obtained a new indult; and once this has been obtained, he is bound under grave obligation to use the assistance of another priest, although perhaps this obligation was not expressly added in the indult. After these things noted by the Sacred Congregation, the rules to be followed in celebration follow (A.A.S. 1921, p. 154-156).

III. From defect of mind: "Those who are or have been epileptic, insane, or possessed by a demon; but if after receiving Orders they have become such and it is certainly established that they are now free, the Ordinary can again permit his subjects the exercise of the Orders received" (canon 984, 3°).

1. Epilepsy must be taken in the strict sense, so that it does not comprehend a certain disease of the stomach which carries with it certain signs of epilepsy. Furthermore, if the disease supervenes upon the priesthood and recurs rarely, for example only once in a month, without emission of sounds, foaming, and notable contraction of the body, the priest will be able to celebrate privately, with a fasting priest joined to him who may complete the Mass when the disease comes on (St. Alphonsus, VIII, 399). There are also those who judge that one who had been freed from epilepsy before puberty is not irregular. But this opinion is with difficulty composed with the words of the law, which states absolutely: "Those who are or have been epileptic."

2. Insanity is understood which flows from a permanent cause; but an insane person is irregular even if he has lucid intervals.

3. Possession by a demon; concerning which, see t. I, n. 700.

4. Just as those healed cannot receive Orders without the permission of the Holy See, so neither can they receive a higher Order without the same permission.

5. Under the name of Ordinary, of which the cited canon speaks, come both the Ordinary of the place and the major Superior in an exempt clerical religion (canon 198, § 1).

IV. From defect of sacrament: "Bigamists, namely those who have successively contracted two or more valid marriages" (canon 984, 4°). "It is said: from defect of sacrament, because he who has married two wives cannot aptly signify the union of Christ with the Church, His one spouse" (St. Alphonsus, VII, 436). This irregularity, at least with respect to some major Orders, is of apostolic origin, according to these words of St. Paul: "Therefore a Bishop must be irreproachable, the husband of one wife... Let deacons be husbands of one wife."¹

For irregularity it suffices that several marriages have been validly contracted; it is not required, however, that they have been consummated.

Note. One who before Baptism successively contracted several valid marriages seems, after Baptism has been received, to become irregular.

¹ 1 Tim. 3:2, 12.

V. From defect of reputation: "Those who are marked by infamy of law" (canon 984, 5°). It is called an irregularity from defect, because the infamy itself which induces irregularity is not a delict. What infamy of law is and who contract it, see in the treatise on ecclesiastical penalties.

VI. From defect of mildness: "The judge who has pronounced sentence of death" (canon 984, 6°). If a capital sentence has been established collegially, those judges are irregular who agreed to the capital penalty, not the others who cast a contrary vote. Furthermore this irregularity is not to be extended to a region where sentence of death, although pronounced, is nevertheless no longer carried into execution; nor to the case in which a leader in war orders someone to be killed without any military council having been held, because he does not proceed as judge. Nor are jurors irregular, since they pronounce sentence only about the truth of the fact, but do not establish the penalty.

Moreover, from defect of mildness the following is irregular: "Those who have undertaken the office of executioner and their voluntary and immediate ministers in the execution of a capital sentence" (canon 984, 7°). Among these are not counted: 1° soldiers who kill the enemy in battle, or by command of the leader or of a military council kill a guilty person, because they are not said to have undertaken the office of executioner; 2° those who, for example, erect the scaffold or lead the one condemned to death to the place of punishment, because they are not immediate ministers of the executioner; but indeed those who, for example, place the head of the condemned man under the machine, etc. (St. Alphonsus, VII, 461-468).