DECREE OF PRAISE. — It is the first step taken by the Holy See in approving a religious Institute, which thus ceases to be of diocesan right and becomes of pontifical right (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, accompanied by: testimonial letters from the bishops in whose dioceses the Institute has houses; a report on the foundation of the Institute and its present condition (number and status of the members, disciplinary and financial condition, etc.); the Constitutions approved by the ecclesiastical authority; and the document of aggregation to the First Order if it concerns regular Tertiaries.
By the decree of praise, the Institute acquires a certain independence from the Ordinaries, who can no longer change anything in the Constitutions; the bishop’s right to confirm the election of the superior general ceases; the Ordinaries may no longer intervene in financial administration (except with regard to the dowries of the religious women and certain goods given for worship and charitable works in the diocese); the dismissal of professed members no longer depends on them. But the authority, and especially the right of supervision, of the Ordinaries over all the relations of religious with the outside world and with the faithful remains intact.