ORDINARY. – This is the person invested with the ordinary power of jurisdiction. According to can. 198 § 1, the following are to be considered O., unless expressly excepted: in addition to the Roman Pontiff and, for their respective territory, residential bishops, abbots or prelates nullius and their vicars general, administrators, vicars and apostolic prefects, those who, in the absence of the aforementioned persons, act in their place, as well as major Superiors, with respect to their own subjects, in exempt clerical religious institutes (can. 218 § 1). While the latter—that is, religious Superiors—are called simply O., the others are called O. of the place or places; the former are elected, appointed or designated according to the religious Constitutions (can. 488 § 8), while the latter are appointed by the Roman Pontiff through the S. Congr. Consistorial (cf. can. 248 § 2), when the ordinary hierarchy is concerned, and by the competent bishops or their equivalents, for vicariate government; or through the S. Congr. of Propaganda Fide, when mission countries are concerned (can. 252 § 1), without prejudice to the specific personal and territorial competence of the S. Congr. Oriental.
The faculties belonging to O. are exceedingly broad, especially when they possess the episcopal character. They are the true shepherds of the flock entrusted to them; hence they have the right and obligation (can. 335) to govern the diocese in both spiritual and temporal matters, with the corresponding legislative, judicial and coercive power. The O. of the place, in accordance with can. 1572, is the judge of first instance for all cases not expressly excepted by law, and may exercise this judicial power personally and through others throughout the diocese. He is nevertheless obliged, unless the smallness of the diocese or the limited number of cases advises entrusting this task to the vicar general, to appoint the Official with ordinary power to judge (can. 1573 § 1) and several synodal or pro-synodal judges with delegated power to resolve disputes (can. 1574 § 1). O. also exercise coercive power in accordance with cann. 2221 and 2222 and must carefully supervise observance of ecclesiastical laws, since they may not dispense from those established by common law except under the conditions laid down in can. 81. Can. 336 summarizes the duties of the O. of places as follows: «They shall see to it that abuses do not insinuate themselves into ecclesiastical discipline, especially as regards the administration of the Sacraments and Sacramentals, the worship of God and the saints, the preaching of the word of God, holy indulgences, and the fulfillment of pious wishes; and they shall be concerned that purity of faith and morals be safeguarded among the clergy and the people, that the nourishment of Christian doctrine be given to the faithful, particularly to children and the uneducated, and that the little ones and the young in schools receive a formation according to the principles of the Catholic religion». The O. of places are teachers and must exercise their right to preach the Gospel (cann. 1327 § 1 and 1343 § 1), as well as supervise religious instruction in schools (cann. 1381 § 1, 1382, 497 § 3) and seminaries (can. 1357 § 2), and the prior censorship of books (cann. 1386 and 1388).
The O. of places have the faculty to dispense from laws, including invalidating and incapacitating laws, when there is a doubt of fact, provided that the laws are ones from which the Roman Pontiff customarily dispenses (can. 15); they are the ones who, by their consent, give the force of law to ecclesiastical custom in their territory (can. 25); who may issue rescripts, subject to the appropriate and practical provisions of cann. 43 and 44; and who are charged with executing rescripts of the Holy See when no other executor is indicated and the rescripts themselves are issued in special commissorial form (can. 51). Their activity in the administration of the Sacraments is also of the greatest importance: the O. are the ones who must give sacred Oils to parish priests who request them (can. 735), and permission to priests who are not parish priests to confer solemn Baptism (cf. can. 738 § 1); they permit the ceremonies for children to be used also in the Baptism of adults (can. 755 § 2), and ordinarily they can and must resolve any practical doubt concerning the necessary qualities required to act validly or licitly as a sponsor (can. 767); only the O. may, in exceptional cases, grant the faculty to baptize solemnly in private homes (cf. can. 776 § 1, 2°). It belongs to them to issue letters of commendation to their own priests so that the latter may be lawfully admitted to the celebration of S. Mass outside the diocese (can. 804 § 1). Finally, for the full application of what can. 804 prescribes, they may issue special norms which, in general, must also be observed by exempt religious, unless they celebrate in a church of their own religious institute (can. 804 § 2), and they may permit, in extraordinary cases and per modum actus, the celebration of S. Mass even outside a church and oratory, on the sacred stone alone and in an honest and suitable place (can. 822 § 4). Among the duties of O., one of particular importance is to establish, by means of a decree to be issued preferably at the diocesan synod, the manual offering for Masses in the respective territory (can. 831 § 1), and to supervise so that the obligations attached to accepted intentions for S. Masses to be celebrated are fulfilled in secular churches (can. 842). Every O. of the place possesses ordinary power to hear confessions throughout his territory and may therefore grant delegated jurisdiction to hear the confessions of all persons, both secular and religious, to secular and religious priests, including exempt priests (can. 874 § 1), within the limits and according to the provisions of cann. 877 and 878; and, in accordance with can. 893, he may reserve certain cases to his own judgment, with the safeguards established in cann. 895, 897 and 889. With regard indulgences (v.) cann. 912, 914 and 916 must be borne in mind.
Moreover, the O. of the place has the faculty, in case of necessity, to permit any priest to administer the sacrament of Extreme Unction, which is ordinarily reserved anew to the parish priest (can. 938 § 2). Finally, it belongs to the O. of the place to issue the so-called dimissorial letters for S. Ordination (can. 958 and can. 960), to judge whether candidates for Orders possess the requisite qualities (can. 968), to dispense their own subjects from irregularities arising from occult crime, in accordance with can. 990 § 1, and to subject those to be promoted to a prior and diligent examination concerning the Order they are about to receive (cann. 996 and 997).
Most important, moreover, is the intervention of the O. in the ecclesiastical regulation of the celebration of the sacrament of Matrimony. This intervention concerns the examination of the spouses (can. 1020 § 3), the banns (cann. 1023, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028), the marriage of vagi (can. 1032) and of minors (can. 1034), the merely temporary prohibition of marriages in accordance with can. 1039 § 1, as well as everything concerning the power to dispense from the form and from the impediments, both under can. 1043, in grave danger of death, and under can. 1045, when everything has been prepared for the wedding and the celebration of the marriage cannot be postponed, without danger of serious harm, until the possible granting of the dispensation by the Holy See (can. 1045 § 1); it also concerns observance of the proper juridical form of the Sacrament (can. 1094 ff.) and the so-called marriage of conscience (cann. 1104-1106). No less significant is the activity of the O. in relation to sacred places and times. This is clearly evident from the canonical prescriptions concerning the consecration (can. 1155) and blessing (can. 1156) of sacred places; the need for the O.’s prior consent in order to build any church (can. 1162), to lay and bless the foundation stone (can. 1163), and to approve plans concerning architectural form and style (can. 1164); and the blessing of bells and their conversion, in certain special circumstances, to purely profane uses (can. 1169). It is also evident in the provisions concerning the Church’s right to have its own cemeteries (can. 1206) and to permit the faithful to construct private tombs (can. 1209), as well as the O.’s power to establish the schedule of funeral fees or alms (can. 1234), to decide, in doubtful cases, concerning canonical deprivation of ecclesiastical burial (can. 1240), and to publish, per modum tantum actus, in his own diocese and for particular places, special days of feast and abstinence and fasting (can. 1244 § 2).
For the termination of the office and powers of the O., cann. 183, 430, 327 § 1, and 371 should be borne chiefly in mind.