LODE, DECREE OF. — It is the first step taken by the Holy See in approving a religious institute, which thereby ceases to be of diocesan law and becomes of pontifical law (can. 488, 3°).
To obtain it, a petition signed by the superior general and the members of the General Council is sent to the Supreme Pontiff, to which are added: the testimonial letters of the bishops in whose dioceses the institute has houses; a report on the foundation of the institute and its present state (number and quality of members, disciplinary and economic condition, etc.); the constitutions approved by ecclesiastical authority; the document of aggregation to the first Order if it concerns regular tertiaries.
This decree is generally not granted before the institute has given proof of normal and continuous development, of fervent religious life, and of good economic conditions. Not infrequently, with the decree of lode, the constitutions are approved for a fixed period.
With the decree of lode, the institute acquires a certain independence from the Ordinaries, who can no longer make any changes to the constitutions; the right of the bishop to confirm the election of the superior general ceases; the Ordinaries can no longer intervene in the financial administration (with the exception of the dowries of the religious and certain goods given for worship and charitable works in the diocese); the dismissal of professed members no longer depends on them. However, the authority and especially the right of oversight of the Ordinaries over all the relations of the religious with the outside world and with the faithful remain intact.