Admission of girls and boys

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Slater, Manual of Moral Theology

Thomas Slater, S.J. — 2 passages

Vol. II, Bk. I, Pt. III, Chapter II. Entrance into Religion

n. 3.

Girls may not be admitted to the novitiate or be professed before they have completed their fifteenth year, and before doing so they must be examined by the bishop or by someone deputed by him as to whether they know the grave character of the step they are about to take, and whether they are acting of their own free and unfettered will (Can. 552).

n. 4.

Boys cannot be lawfully admitted into any order or congregation before the superiors thereof have received from the Ordinaries of their place of birth and of any place where they have lived for more than a year after attaining their fifteenth year testimonial letters bearing witness to their having the qualifications necessary for entering religion.¹ By the common law a full uninterrupted year of probation must be spent by the candidate for religion in the house of the novitiate. Although the novice has not yet taken the vows of religion, he is subject to the authority of the superiors of the order and is bound to obey them.

¹ S.C. super Stat. Reg., January 25, 1848; can. 544.