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).

705. • III. A Bishop can licitly ordain only his own subjects, but cannot licitly ordain others without the faculty of their Bishop.

This is gathered from the Council of Trent, session 23, chapter 8, On Reformation: Let each one be ordained by his own Bishop; but if anyone asks to be promoted by another, let this in no way be permitted to him unless his probity and morals are commended by the testimony of his own Ordinary.... If it is done otherwise, let the one ordaining be suspended from the conferral of Orders for a year, and the one ordained from the exercise of the Orders received for as long as shall appear expedient to his own Ordinary ¹.

¹ The Constitution of Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, Apostolicae Sedis, October 12, 1869, reserves this latae sententiae suspension to the Supreme Pontiff in these words: Those ordaining the subject of another, even under the pretext of a Benefice to be conferred immediately or already conferred but by no means sufficient, without dimissorial letters of his Bishop, or even their own subject who has remained elsewhere for so long a time that he could have contracted a canonical impediment there, without testimonial letters of the Ordinary of that place, incur by the law itself suspension for a year from the administration of Orders.

The following suspension is likewise reserved to the Apostolic See: Secular Clerics from outside, residing in the City for more than four months, ordained by someone other than their own Ordinary without the permission of the Cardinal Vicar of the City, or without a previous examination conducted before him, or even by their own Ordinary after they have been rejected in the aforesaid examination; likewise Clerics belonging to any of the six suburbicarian Episcopal sees, if they are ordained outside their own diocese with the dimissorial letters of their Ordinary directed to someone other than the Cardinal Vicar of the City... incur by the law itself suspension from the Orders thus received at the good pleasure of the Holy See; but the Bishops ordaining them incur suspension from the use of Pontificals for a year.

S. Th., Suppl., q. 38.

733. The ordinary minister of the sacrament of Order is every and only bishop. - This is certain from the Council of Florence, decree for the Armenians, and from the definition of the Council of Trent, sess. 23, c. 4, can. 7.

It is clear from the practice of the Church from the beginning, as is had from the Scriptures (Acts VI, 6; XIV, 22; I Tim. IV, 14; V, 22; II Tim. I, 6; Tit. I, 5) and from the ancient monuments of tradition and the statutes of the ancient Church.

The reason of fittingness is that it belongs to the bishop, as endowed with more excellent power over the mystical body, to place others in all the divine ministries, says St. Thomas, a. 1.

By bishop is understood everyone who has been consecrated (can. 951), even a heretic, schismatic, intruder, simoniac, excommunicated or degraded bishop: namely, he validly ordains, provided he preserves the essential rite of ordination (a. 2).

734. The extraordinary minister of sacred ordination is a priest by Pontifical commission, conceded by law or by special indult, and only for conferring certain inferior orders (can. 951). This is clear from various Councils, such as Nicaea II, c. 14, and Trent, sess. 23, de ref., c. 10; and from the practice of the Church, concerning which St. Thomas, a. 1, ad 3:

"The pope, who has the fullness of pontifical power, can commit to one who is not a bishop those things which pertain to episcopal dignity, provided those things do not have an immediate relation to the body of Christ. And therefore 1) by his commission some simple priest can confer minor (i.e., inferior) orders and confirm, but not someone who is not a priest; 2) nor again can a priest confer major (superior) orders, which have an immediate relation to the body of Christ, over the consecration of which the Pope does not have a greater power than a simple priest" (ad 3). This latter is witnessed by Const. Ap. III, 20, and St. Epiphanius, c. haer. LXXV, 4.

Therefore priests can be delegated for conferring:

1. minor orders, consequently also introductory tonsure; by law there are delegated for this: Cardinals (can. 239, 22), the Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, the Abbot and Prelate nullius (can. 957, § 2), also a regular Abbot of regime (can. 964); nevertheless their ordinations, conferred outside the limits of legitimate administration, are not only illicit, but also invalid;

2. also the subdiaconate, because formerly it was an inferior order;

3. perhaps the diaconate, although this is not accustomed to be done, and many deny it with St. Thomas (ad 5);

4. not however for conferring the presbyterate or the episcopate. And although concerning presbyters some have said that this was at some time conceded, nevertheless there is doubt about the concession, or at least about the sense of the concession made (which many understand of the privilege of total exemption from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary of the place as to ordinations); but even if it were authentic, the fact would constitute something altogether particular and solitary, and also revoked shortly afterward, which therefore is not protected by the infallibility of the Church and of the Roman Pontiff.

735. The legitimate ordinary minister is the proper bishop, or he who is delegated by him and has received legitimate dimissorial letters. - This is clear from the Council of Trent, sess. 23, de reform., c. 8; and from can. 955.

A. The proper bishop: a) As to the ordination of seculars, according to can. 956, can be:

1. by title of domicile together with origin, if the one to be ordained has domicile in his diocese and at the same time origin;

2. by title of simple domicile, if the one to be ordained has domicile in the diocese without origin, but confirms by oath the intention of remaining perpetually in the diocese;

3. by title of incardination in the diocese, which the one to be ordained received either through first tonsure, or through letters of perpetual and absolute excardination from his proper diocese and of perpetual and absolute incardination into this other diocese, or through a residential benefice which he obtained there (can. 111-114).

Let it be noted: a) 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 defect of domicile, quasi-domicile; or, if the son is illegitimate or posthumous, the mother had it; - but if it is a question of the son of vagrants, the place of origin is the very place of birth; if of one exposed, it is the place in which he was found (can. 90).

b) He who has two domiciles in different dioceses can be ordained by either bishop, but after ordination has been received he can no longer belong to both dioceses, because by ordination received from his proper bishop he is incardinated into that same diocese.

c) Nevertheless the bishop of the diocese in which someone has domicile can ordain him for the service of another diocese; in which case by first tonsure he is incardinated into this other diocese (comm. int., Aug. 17, 1919).

d) Nor is a bishop prohibited from promoting his own subject (by reason of domicile), who in the future, after legitimate excardination and incardination, is destined for the service of another diocese (can. 969, § 2).

e) For him who lacks a proper bishop, nothing remains except that he provide for himself by apostolic indult.

b) As to religious professed to be ordained, according to can. 965, the proper bishop is the bishop of the diocese in which is located the religious house to whose family the one to be ordained belongs; - unless they have a special indult.

Therefore to him the religious superior must send dimissorial letters; but he can send them to another bishop only when 1) the diocesan bishop has given permission, or 2) is of a different rite, or 3) is absent, or 4) is not going to hold an ordination at the next legitimate time (i.e., on the Saturdays of the Four Times, the Saturday before Passion Sunday, and Holy Saturday), or finally 5) when the diocese is vacant and one who has the episcopal character does not rule it (can. 966, § 1). Nevertheless:

a) in individual cases it is necessary that this be clear to the bishop who is to ordain from authentic testimony of the episcopal curia (can. 966, § 2);

b) let religious superiors beware lest, in fraud of the diocesan bishop, they send a subject to be ordained to another religious house, or deliberately defer the concession of dimissorial letters to that time at which the bishop will either be absent or will have no ordinations (can. 967).

B. One delegated by the proper bishop can licitly ordain, provided he has received from the Ordinary of the one to be ordained legitimate dimissorial letters. These are letters by which a competent superior sends away his proper subject to another bishop with the faculty of receiving orders from him; whence they differ from testimonial letters, by which there is given only an authentic attestation concerning the birth, age, morals, doctrine, and aptitude of the one to be ordained, who is shown worthy for orders to be conferred upon him.

Dimissorial letters for seculars can be given, as long as they retain jurisdiction in their own territory, by:

1. the proper Bishop, after he has legitimately taken possession of his diocese, although not yet consecrated;

2. the Vicar General, but from the special mandate of the bishop;

3. the Capitular Vicar after a year from the vacant see and with the consent of the chapter; but within the year only to those who are constrained by reason of a benefice received or to be received, or by reason of some office for which, because of the necessity of the diocese, provision must be made without delay; - nevertheless let him not concede dimissorial letters to those who have been rejected by the bishop;

4. the Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, an Abbot or Prelate nullius, although they lack episcopal character, even to major orders (can. 958).

As to the ordination of religious, exempt religious can licitly be ordained by no bishop without the dimissorial letters of their proper major superior; but superiors can concede dimissorial letters to those professed of temporary simple vows, i.e., before perpetual profession, only for first tonsure and minor orders, any contrary indult being revoked (can. 964, 2, 3 and 4).

Let it be noted: the Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, the Abbot or Prelate nullius, if they possess episcopal character, are equated with a diocesan bishop as regards ordination (can. 957, § 1); likewise he who can give dimissorial letters for receiving orders can also confer the same orders himself, if he has the necessary power of order (can. 959).

736. Special dispositions of canon law. -

A. As to episcopal consecration:

1. "Episcopal consecration is reserved to the Roman Pontiff, so that it is licit for no bishop to consecrate anyone as bishop unless the pontifical mandate is first established," can. 953; otherwise those acting are by that very fact suspended until the Apostolic See dispenses (can. 2370).

2. "The consecrating bishop must employ two other bishops who assist him in the consecration, unless a dispensation concerning this has been granted by the Apostolic See," can. 954; and therefore not for validity. From the Apostolic Constitution of Nov. 30, 1944, the assisting bishops are to be considered as co-consecrators and must do the same things as the principal consecrator.

B. As to those ordained by the Roman Pontiff himself: "It is licit for no one to promote one ordained by the Roman Pontiff to a higher order without the faculty of the Apostolic See," can. 952.

C. As to the proper bishop: "The proper bishop, not impeded by a just cause, should ordain his subjects himself; but he cannot licitly ordain a subject of an Eastern rite without apostolic indult," can. 955, § 2.