Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise VIII. On Matrimony › Dissertation II. On Matrimony Itself › Part II. On Matrimony, Insofar as It Is a Sacrament, Particularly › Section III. On the Reception of the Sacrament of Marriage › Chapter III. On Diriment Impediments in Particular › Article V. Sacred Order

Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Scholion. On Sacred Order in the Eastern Churches

783.

I. Sacred or major Order also in the Eastern Churches constitutes an impediment of marriage; in other words, major clerics after ordination cannot enter marriage, neither a first marriage nor, after the death of the first wife, a second.1 Except, with regard to Maronites and Syrians, the Subdiaconate, since they do not reckon it among the major Orders.

II. Sacred Order constitutes a diriment impediment: 1° for Italo-Greeks;2 2° for Ruthenians, at least with regard to presbyters;3 3° for Maronites and Syrians with regard to deacons and presbyters;4 4° for Romanians;5 5° most probably, not to say certainly, for the other churches. For first, Benedict XIV adheres to this opinion in the Constitution Eo quamvis.6 Next, the style of the Roman Curia embraces this opinion; namely, as Benedict XIV admits in the Constitution Anno vertente of June 19, 1750,7 this opinion was already received in his time among the Roman tribunals and is in force now. Then, in the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide to the Bishop of the province of Alba Iulia,8 marriage after Subdiaconate is said to be attempted, that is, contracted invalidly. Finally, there is added the consensus of the Orientals themselves, both Catholic and schismatic. But the fact that Benedict XIV in the Constitution Anno vertente pronounces that this controversy has not yet been defined by any apostolic decree does not prevent the opinion defended from being called almost certain.9

1 Nevertheless married men can receive the sacred Orders of Subdiaconate, Diaconate, and Presbyterate, and, once these have been received, use the marriage entered before ordination. But married men cannot be admitted to the Episcopate without dispensation, nor can they, once made Bishops, use a marriage perhaps contracted previously (canon 13 of the Trullan Council; Benedict XIV, Constitution Etsi pastoralis).

2 Canon 6 of the Trullan Council (692).

3 Synod of the Ruthenians, 1720.

4 Synod of Lebanon (1736); Synod of Sciarf (1888).

5 Provincial Synod of the Romanians, 1883.

6 May 4, 1745.

7 June 19, 1750.

8 March 24, 1858.

9 Wernz-Vidal, op. cit., n. 286.

Sacred Order in the Eastern Churches