Part II. On the Liceity of Ministering

First note these special points prefaced by the Code: 1° No one may promote to a higher Order one ordained by the Roman Pontiff without the faculty of the Apostolic See (canon 952). 2° Episcopal consecration is reserved to the Roman Pontiff in such a way that no Bishop may consecrate anyone as Bishop unless the pontifical mandate has first been established (canon 953). The consecrating Bishop, however, must employ two other Bishops who assist him in the consecration, unless there has been a dispensation from the Apostolic See in this matter (canon 954). The dispensation is given in such a way that two priests from the more worthy assist the consecrating Bishop.

Besides those special points, this principle holds with respect to the liceity of ministering Orders: In order that someone who enjoys the power of ordaining may licitly minister Orders, it is required that he either be the Superior of the one to be ordained, or have received dimissorial letters from the Superior of the one to be ordained in this matter (canon 955, § 1); and these things also hold if first tonsure is in question (canon 950; Pontifical Commission).¹ Having noted this principle, we shall speak separately about the ordination of seculars and of religious.

¹ February 17, 1930 (A.A.S. 1930, p. 195, ad I).

I. Ordination of seculars. The Code states: Each one is to be ordained by his proper Bishop, or with that Bishop's legitimate dimissorial letters (canon 955, § 1). Therefore a Bishop licitly ordains: 1° his own subject, unless this subject is of an oriental rite, in which case he cannot licitly ordain him without an apostolic indult; 2° another's subject who presents to him legitimate dimissorial letters received from his proper Bishop. Here, however, there are equated with a Bishop the Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, the Provicar and Proprefect, and others to whom the care of a vicariate or prefecture has devolved according to the norm of canon 309, and an Abbot or Prelate nullius (canon 957; canon 310, § 2). If, however, they lack the episcopal character, their power of validly ordaining is limited, as we said in n. 599.

But in order that the requisites for licit ordination may be clearer, something fuller must be said both about the proper Bishop and about dimissorial letters.

1. The proper Bishop, as regards the ordination of seculars, is only the Bishop of the diocese in which the one to be promoted has either: 1° domicile together with origin;¹ or 2° simple domicile without origin, but after an oath has been emitted by which the one to be promoted confirms his intention of remaining perpetually in the diocese; or 3° simple domicile without origin and without oath, namely if it is a question of promoting to Orders a cleric who has already been incardinated in the diocese by first tonsure, or of promoting a student who is destined for the service of another diocese according to the norm of canon 969, § 2, or of promoting a professed religious, of whom canon 964, n. 4 treats² (canon 956).

2. Dimissorial letters are letters by which a Bishop or competent Superior sends a subject to the minister of ordination so that he may be ordained by him. Now:

a) Dimissorial letters for seculars can be given, so long as they retain jurisdiction in the territory, by: 1° the proper Bishop, after he has legitimately taken possession of his diocese, although not yet consecrated; 2° the Vicar General, yet by special mandate of the Bishop; 3° with the consent of the Chapter, the Vicar Capitular after a year from the vacant see; within the year, however, only for those constrained by reason of a benefice received or to be received, or by reason of some certain office for which, on account of the necessity of the diocese, provision must be made without delay; 4° the Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, an Abbot or Prelate nullius, although they lack the episcopal character, even for major Orders (canon 958, § 1); 5° the Provicar and Proprefect Apostolic who has assumed the whole governance (canon 310, § 2, compared with canon 958, § 1, 4°; Pontifical Commission).³

Note. The Vicar Capitular is not to grant dimissorial letters to those who have been rejected by the Bishop (canon 958, § 2).

Those enumerated above likewise can give dimissorial letters: 1° for non-exempt religious; 2° for exempt religious professed with temporary vows and to be promoted to major Orders. For their ordination is governed by the law of seculars (canon 964, 4°).

b) Dimissorial letters are not to be granted unless all testimonies which are required by law have first been obtained (canon 960, § 1); for what testimonies are required by law, see n. 650. Furthermore, note: If after dimissorial letters have been given by the Ordinary new testimonies are necessary according to the norm of canon 994, § 3 (n. 650), an outside Bishop is not to ordain before he has received them (canon 960, § 2). But if the one to be promoted has spent time sufficient to contract an impediment according to the norm of the same canon 994 (n. 650) in the very diocese of the ordaining Bishop, this Bishop is to collect the testimonies directly (canon 960, § 3).

c) Dimissorial letters can be sent by the proper Bishop, likewise by the others enumerated under a), even by a Cardinal suburbicarian Bishop,⁴ to any Bishop having communion with the Apostolic See, with the sole exception, apart from an apostolic indult, of a Bishop of a rite different from the rite of the one to be promoted (canon 961); likewise dimissorial letters can be sent to those who, according to what was said on p. 462, are equated with a Bishop.

Note. The proper Bishop is not to dismiss his subjects to another unless a just cause prevents him from ordaining them himself (canon 955, § 2).

¹ The place of origin of a son, even a neophyte, is that in which, when the son was born, the father had domicile, or, in the absence of domicile, quasi-domicile; or, if the son is illegitimate or posthumous, the mother. If it is a question of the son of vagabonds, the place of origin is the very place of birth; if of an exposed child, it is the place in which he was found.

² Cf. n. 602.

³ July 20, 1929, ad I (A.A.S. 1929, p. 573).

⁴ Before the Code a Cardinal suburbicarian Bishop could direct dimissorial letters only to the Cardinal Vicar of the City.

II. Ordination of religious. 1. A regular Abbot of governance, even without a territory nullius, can confer first tonsure and minor Orders, provided the one to be promoted is subject to him by force of at least simple profession, and he himself is a priest and has legitimately received the abbatial blessing. Outside these limits, ordination conferred by him, every contrary privilege having been revoked, is null, unless the one ordaining is endowed with the episcopal character (canon 964, 1°).

2. Exempt religious can licitly be ordained by no Bishop without dimissorial letters from their proper major Superior (canon 964, 2°). But:

a) The said Superiors can grant dimissorial letters to those professed with temporary vows only for first tonsure and minor Orders (canon 964, 3°); but to those professed with perpetual vows, also for major Orders.

b) Dimissorial letters from a religious Superior must be sent to the Bishop, or quasi-Bishop, for example a Prefect Apostolic and so on, of the diocese, or quasi-diocese, in which the religious house is situated, to whose family the ordinand belongs (canon 965). Only then can the Superior send dimissorial letters to another Bishop, when the diocesan Bishop has given permission, or is of a different rite from the religious to be ordained, or is absent, or is not going to have an ordination at the next legitimate time, or finally when the diocese is vacant and is not ruled by someone endowed with the episcopal character (canon 966, § 1). But it is necessary that in individual cases this be established for the Bishop who is to ordain from an authentic testimony of the episcopal Curia (canon 966, § 2). Religious Superiors should take care not to send a subject to be ordained to another religious house in fraud of the diocesan Bishop, or deliberately defer the granting of dimissorial letters to that time when the Bishop will be absent or will have no ordinations (canon 967).

Note. The privilege of receiving Orders from any Catholic Bishop must have been granted to religious nominally and directly, not by communication, after the Council of Trent, as Benedict XIV had decreed in the Constitution Impositi nobis.¹

c) A religious Superior in his dimissorial letters must testify not only that the one to be promoted has emitted religious profession and belongs to the family of the religious house subject to him, but also about studies completed and about the other things required by law (canon 995, § 1); for what testimonies are required by law, see n. 650. For the rest, the Bishop, after receiving these dimissorial letters, does not need other testimonial letters (canon 995, § 2).

3. The ordination of: 1° non-exempt religious; 2° exempt religious professed with temporary vows and to be promoted to major Orders is governed by the law of seculars, every indult granted to Superiors to give dimissorial letters to those professed with temporary vows for major Orders having been revoked (canon 964, 4°).

4. Novices are not to be promoted to Orders during the novitiate (canon 567, § 2).

¹ February 27, 1747.

III. Points to be noted concerning the ordination both of seculars and of religious. 1. He who can give dimissorial letters for receiving Orders can also confer those same Orders himself, if he has the necessary power of Order (canon 959).

2. Any Bishop, after receiving legitimate dimissorial letters, licitly ordains another's subject, provided he himself can in no way doubt the genuine trustworthiness of the letters (canon 962).

3. Dimissorial letters can be limited or revoked by the grantor himself or by his successor, but once granted they are not extinguished when the right of the one giving them is dissolved (canon 963).