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Profession in Danger of Death
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Only one manual in the library treats this topic so far; there is nothing yet to set beside it.
Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology
Vol. I, Bk. II, Tr. II, Diss. III, Pt. III, Sect. I, Ch. III, Art. II, § III, Scholion. On Profession in Danger of Death
I. Substance of the privilege. A novice or probationer who, in the judgment of a physician, is gravely ill, so that he is considered to be constituted in the article of death, can before the end of the novitiate be admitted to profession or consecration or the promise customary in the institute; and indeed either by the major superior, or by him who actually governs the monastery, or the house of novitiate or probation, or by a delegate of the aforesaid superiors.
II. Things to be observed in the use of the privilege. The formula of profession or consecration or promise should be the same as that which is in use in the Institute outside the case of illness; and the vows, if they are pronounced, should be pronounced without determination of time or perpetuity.
III. Effects. 1. One who has emitted a profession, consecration, or promise of this kind will be participant in absolutely all the indulgences, suffrages, and graces which truly professed religious dying in the same Institute obtain; and to the same person a plenary indulgence and remission of his sins in the form of a Jubilee is mercifully granted in the Lord.
- This profession or consecration or promise, besides the graces declared in the preceding article, produces no other effect at all. Therefore:
a) If a novice or probationer after a profession, consecration, or promise of this kind dies intestate, the Institute will be able to claim no goods or rights belonging to him for itself.
b) If he recovers before the time of novitiate or probation expires, let him be in entirely the same condition as if he had emitted no profession; and therefore: a) freely, if he wishes, he will be able to return to the world; b) the Superiors are able to dismiss him; c) he must complete the whole time of novitiate or probation defined in each Institute, even if it is beyond a year; d) when this time has been completed, if he perseveres, a new profession or consecration or promise will have to be emitted.
So, considering the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious dated 10 September 1912, and the declaration of the same Congregation dated 30 December 1922, which declared that the first decree, after the promulgation of the Code, was still in force.1