INCARDINATION. — The canonical order presupposes and requires that every cleric be enrolled in a diocese or in a religious institute, and in no way admits stateless or wandering clerics, that is, clerics 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 i.
The practice of not ordaining in sacris except for the service of a particular church (titulus, cardo) dates back to the apostolic age; the ordained person thereby remained permanently aggregated to the clergy or presbiterium of that church (inititulatus, incardinatus), with his name entered in the canon or register of those enrolled. Absolute ordinations, that is, those performed without the assignment of a title, were strictly prohibited from that time onward. Beginning with the Council of Nicaea of
325 (c. 19, C. 7, 9, 1), many councils severely sanctioned this prohibition. Wandering clerics sine titulo (vagi, acephali) were barred from the exercise of Orders; indeed, their ordination was regarded as legally invalid. This invalidity was first sanctioned by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which definitively established the principle, reproduced today in can. 111 of the CIC, that no one could be promoted to Orders unless he were enrolled in a church or monastery (c. 1, D. 70; c. 2 ibid.). Connected with this discipline is the prohibition imposed on bishops against conferring Orders on subjects of other dioceses.
From that time, however, it became customary to authorize, though only by way of exception, transfer from one diocese to another through the granting of special dimissorial letters (litterae formatae), often drafted, as an additional precaution, in a complicated cipher (cc. 1, C. 19, q. 2; 1, C. 21, q. 2; 1, D. 73).
Against the relaxation of this discipline, which occurred in the Middle Ages through the gradual and abusive introduction of absolute ordinations, the Council of Trent, in can. 6 of session XXIII, recalled the rule of Chalcedon and reaffirmed its sanctions. The practice, which nevertheless gradually became established, of authorizing transfers from diocese to diocese through the process of excardination-incardination and of admitting subjects of other Ordinaries to ordination when furnished with their respective Ordinaries’ dimissorial letters, was approved by the S. Congregation of the Council in the decree di primis (20 July 1898) and is now reproduced in the CIC.
I. is distinguished as original (first i.) and derivative (subsequent i.). Original i., which belongs to the lay candidate who receives it for the first time, takes place through the conferral of the first tonsure by the proper Ordinary or by another Ordinary authorized for this purpose by the dimissorial letters of the proper Ordinary (can. 111 § 2).
Derivative i. is that concerning a cleric already incardinated elsewhere, and is subdivided into formal, implicit (equivalent), and virtual.
Derivative formal i. occurs when a cleric already regularly incardinated elsewhere is enrolled in another diocese through the process of excardination-incardination, that is, through the simultaneous occurrence of two formal written acts: one of perpetual and unconditional acceptance by the new Ordinary, and the other of dismissal (litterae dimissoriale), likewise perpetual and unconditional, by the Ordinary of the diocese of departure. For the validity of this i., it is required that the two acts effectively correspond to one another; hence the new i. does not take place unless it has been preceded by regular excardination, nor, on the other hand, does excardination produce its full effect before formal i. has taken place on the part of the accepting Ordinary. 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 i. and excardination, the term Ordinary cannot here be understood to include either the vicar general, except by special mandate, or the capitular vicar, except when the diocese has been vacant for more than a year and the consent of the Chapter is obtained (can. 113).
For the liceity of formal i., it is prescribed that the accepting Ordinary may not proceed with it when there are no reasons of necessity or usefulness for the diocese; when adequate support for the newly enrolled cleric has not been guaranteed through the assignment title of ordination (v.); when there is no authentic document of prior excardination; when the information necessary in the case has not been requested from the dismissing curia; or when the cleric to be incardinated has not made the prescribed oath to devote himself perpetually to the service of the new diocese according to the canonical laws (can. 117).
Implicit or equivalent i. occurs when a cleric has obtained in another diocese a residential benefice, even a removable one, with the prior written consent of his Ordinary, or with the latter’s written permission to leave the diocese permanently (can. 114). If the benefice relationship should subsequently be dissolved in any way, i. in the diocese of departure revives ipso facto.
Virtual i. 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 to the clergy of a diocese by an unconditional formula, or who, if received ad experimentum, has not been dismissed in due time, before the expiration of the second three-year period of probation (cann. 112, 614 § 2).
For a layman who, having entered a clerical religious institute, is promoted to the tonsure, the latter does not effect i. in any diocese. For the Religious, i. is replaced by enrollment in his own religious institute, which takes place with first profession and becomes definitive with perpetual profession (simple or solemn), by which the juridical bonds linking him to his diocese are severed (cann. 115, 585).
For a cleric, however, who has embraced the religious state after having previously received clerical tonsure, the relationship of i. with his diocese, although suspended and rendered inoperative by first profession, survives in principle until perpetual profession; thus, if before making that profession he abandons the religious state, he automatically returns to membership in the clergy of his diocese. With the making of perpetual profession, formal excardination takes place and the relationship is definitively extinguished (ibid.).
As an effect of i., the incardinated cleric first acquires a specific juridical status, insofar as he is a cleric; he contracts the bond of subjection to the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the particular obligation of obedience and respect toward his bishop; and he remains bound by the obligation of residence in the diocese (cann. 111, 127, 128, 143, 144).
I. ceases only following formal excardination and simultaneous formal i. in another diocese or in a religious institute. This occurs, as has been seen, either ipso iure (cann. 114, 115, 585, 641), or through a measure of the competent authority (cann. 112-117, 641).
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