Incardination

INCARDINATION. - The canonical order presupposes and requires that every cleric be enrolled in a diocese or a religious order, and in no way admits clerics who are stateless or vagrant, that is, lacking this specific title of clerical citizenship. The act by which a candidate for the ecclesiastical state is enrolled in the clergy of a diocese and officially deputed to its service is called incardination.

The practice of not ordaining in sacris except for the service of a determined church (titulus, cardo), to whose clergy or presbiterium the ordained man remained by that very fact stably aggregated (inititulatus, incardinated), with the registration of his name in the canon or roll of the enrolled, dates back to the apostolic era. Even then, absolute ordinations, that is, those performed without the assignment of a title, were rigorously forbidden. Beginning with that of Nicaea of 325 (c. 19, C. 7, 9, 1), many councils severely sanction this prohibition. Vagrant clerics sine titulo (vagi, acephali) were barred from the exercise of Orders; indeed, their ordination was held to be juridically invalid. This invalidity is found sanctioned for the first time by the Council of Chalcedon of 451, which definitively established the principle, today reproduced in can. 111 of the CIC, that no one could be promoted to Orders unless he was shown to be enrolled in a church or a monastery (c. 1, D. 70; c. 2 ibid.). Connected to this discipline is the prohibition imposed on bishops against conferring Orders on subjects of other dioceses.

From that time on, however, it was customary to authorize, albeit only by way of exception, the transfer from one diocese to another through the granting of special dimissory letters (litterae formatae), often drawn up, for greater caution, in a complicated cipher (cc. 1, C. 19, q. 2; 1, C. 21, q. 2; 1, D. 73).

Against the loosening of this discipline, which occurred in the Middle Ages with the gradual abusive introduction of absolute ordinations, the Council of Trent, in can. 6, sess. XXIII, recalled the norm of Chalcedon and reaffirmed its sanctions. The custom, however, which gradually arose of authorizing transfers from diocese to diocese through the process of excardination-incardination and of admitting ordinations of another's subjects furnished with the dimissory letters of their respective Ordinaries, was approved by the S. Congregation of the Council with the decree di primis (20 July 1898) and is now reproduced in the CIC.

Incardination is distinguished into original (first incardination) and derived (subsequent incardination). Original incardination, which belongs to the lay candidate who receives it for the first time, is effected through the conferral of first tonsure by the proper Ordinary or by another Ordinary authorized for this by dimissory letters of his own (can. 111 § 2).

Derived incardination is that relating to a cleric already incardinated elsewhere, and it is further distinguished into formal, implicit (equivalent) and virtual.

There is formal derived incardination when the cleric, already regularly incardinated elsewhere, is enrolled in another diocese through the process of excardination-incardination, that is, through the simultaneous concurrence of two formal written acts: one of perpetual and unconditional acceptance by the new Ordinary, the other of dismissal (litterae dimissoriales), likewise perpetual and unconditional, by the Ordinary of the diocese of departure. For the validity of this incardination it is required that the two acts actually correspond to each other, so that the new incardination does not take place if it has not been preceded by regular excardination, nor on the other hand does excardination produce its full effect before the formal incardination by the accepting Ordinary has occurred. The relevant documents, duly signed by the two Ordinaries, are required ad validitatem and not merely ad probationem (cann. 112, 116). For the legal effects of incardination and excardination, under the name of Ordinary one cannot here understand either the vicar general, save by special mandate, or the capitular vicar, except in the case in which the diocese has been vacant for more than a year and the consent of the Chapter is added (can. 113).

For the liceity of formal incardination it is prescribed that the accepting Ordinary may not proceed to it when there exist no reasons of necessity or utility for the diocese, when due sustenance is not assured to the newly enrolled man through the assignment of a congruous title of ordination (v.), when the authentic document of prior excardination does not exist, when the information that would be necessary in the case has not been requested from the dismissing curia, and when the cleric to be incardinated has not emitted the prescribed oath to dedicate himself in perpetuity to the service of the new diocese according to the canonical laws (can. 117).

There is implicit or equivalent incardination when the cleric has obtained in another diocese a residential benefice, even a removable one, with the prior written consent of his Ordinary, or with the written license of the same to leave the diocese in perpetuity (can. 114). If subsequently the beneficiary relationship should in any way be dissolved, incardination in the diocese of departure revives ipso facto.

Virtual incardination occurs in the specific case of a religious who, having obtained the brief of secularization (v. ESCLAUSTRAZIONE E SECOLARIZZAZIONE), has been admitted by a bishop among the clergy of a diocese with an unconditional formula, or, if received ad experimentum, has not been sent back in due time, before the expiry of the second three-year probationary period (cann. 112, 614 § 2).

For the layman who, having entered a clerical religious order, is promoted to tonsure, this does not effect incardination in any diocese. For the Religious, incardination is replaced by enrollment in his own religious order, which is effected by first profession and becomes definitive with perpetual profession (simple or solemn), through which the juridical bonds that tied him to his diocese are severed (cann. 115, 585).

For the cleric, on the other hand, who has embraced the religious state having already previously received clerical tonsure, the relationship of incardination with his diocese, although suspended and rendered inoperative by first profession, survives at the root until perpetual profession, so that, if before emitting such profession he abandons the religious state, he automatically returns to be part of the clergy of his diocese. With the emission of perpetual profession, formal excardination takes place and the relationship is definitively extinguished (ibid.).

As an effect of incardination, the incardinated man acquires first of all the specific juridical seat, insofar as he is a cleric; he contracts the bond of subjection toward the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the particular obligation of obedience and respect toward his bishop; he remains bound to the obligation of residence in the diocese (cann. 111, 127, 128, 143, 144).

Incardination ceases only following formal excardination and simultaneous formal incardination in another diocese or in a religious order. This occurs, as has been seen, either ipso iure (cann. 114, 115, 585, 641), or by provision of the competent authority (cann. 112-117, 641).

Zaccaria da San Mauro