ORDINARY. – The subject invested with ordinary jurisdiction. According to can. 198 § 1, the following are to be considered Ordinaries, unless expressly excepted: the Roman Pontiff, and, within the limits of their territory, residential bishops, abbots or prelates *nullius* and their vicars general, administrators, vicars and apostolic prefects, those who, in their absence, take their place, and the major superiors, with respect to their own subjects, in clerical exempt religious institutes (can. 218 § 1). While the latter—i.e., the religious superiors—are simply called Ordinaries, the others are designated as Ordinaries 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 Sacred Consistorial Congregation (cf. can. 248 § 2) if they pertain to the ordinary hierarchy, or by the competent bishops or their equivalents for vicarious governance; or through the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide for mission territories (can. 252 § 1), without prejudice to the specific personal and territorial competence of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church.
The faculties of Ordinaries are very extensive, especially when they possess episcopal character. They are the true shepherds of the flock entrusted to them; hence they have the right and duty (can. 335) to govern the diocese in both spiritual and temporal matters, with legislative, judicial, and coercive power. The Ordinary of the place, according to can. 1572, is the judge of first instance for all cases not expressly excepted by law, and may exercise this judicial power personally or through others throughout the diocese. However, he is bound—unless the small size of the diocese or the scarcity of business suggests entrusting this task to the vicar general—to appoint an Official with ordinary judicial power (can. 1573 § 1) and certain synodal or proximate judges with delegated authority to settle disputes (can. 1574 § 1). Ordinaries also exercise coercive power in accordance with cann. 2221 and 2222 and must carefully oversee the observance of ecclesiastical laws, being unable to dispense from those established by common law except under the conditions set forth in can. 81. Can. 336 succinctly summarizes the duties of Ordinaries of the place as follows: “They shall see to it that no abuses creep into ecclesiastical discipline, especially with regard to the administration of the Sacraments and sacramentals, the worship of God and the saints, the preaching of the word of God, sacred indulgences, and the fulfillment of pious wills; and they shall take care that purity of faith and morals be preserved among the clergy and the people, that the faithful, particularly children and the uneducated, be nourished with the teaching of Christian doctrine, and that the young in schools receive an education in accordance with the principles of the Catholic religion.” Ordinaries of the place are teachers and must exercise their right to preach the Gospel (can. 1327 § 1 and 1343 § 1), as well as oversee religious instruction in schools (can. 1381 § 1, 1382, 497 § 3) and seminaries (can. 1357 § 2) and the prior censorship of books (can. 1386 and 1388).
Ordinary of the place have the faculty to dispense from laws, even those that are irritating or incapacitating, when there is a doubt of fact, provided that the laws in question are of the kind from which the Roman Pontiff usually grants dispensations (can. 15); they are the ones who give force of law, with their consent, to ecclesiastical custom in their territory (can. 25); they may issue rescripts, subject to the practical provisions of cann. 43 and 44; and they are charged with executing the rescripts of the Holy See when no other executor is designated and the rescripts are issued in a special commissionary form (can. 51). Of great importance is their activity in the administration of the Sacraments: they are the ones who must grant to parish priests, upon their request, the Ordinaries of the Holy See (can. 735), and to priests who are not parish priests, permission to confer solemn Baptism (cf. can. 738 § 1); they permit the use of the rites for infants even in the Baptism of adults (can. 755 § 2) and ordinarily may and must resolve any practical doubt regarding the necessary qualities required to validly or licitly act as a sponsor (can. 767); only Ordinaries may grant, in exceptional cases, the faculty to solemnly baptize in private houses (cf. can. 776 § 1, 2°). It is their responsibility to issue commendatory letters to their priests so that they may be lawfully admitted to celebrate Holy Mass outside the diocese (can. 804 § 1). Finally, for the full application of what is prescribed in can. 804, they may issue special norms, which, in general, must also be observed by exempt religious, unless they are celebrating in a church of their own institute (can. 804 § 2), and they may permit, in extraordinary cases and *modum actus*, the celebration of Holy Mass even outside a church or oratory, on a portable altar and in a decent and suitable place (can. 822 § 4). Among the duties of Ordinaries is the obligation to establish, by means of a decree to be issued, if possible, in the diocesan synod, the manual stipend for Masses in the respective territory (can. 831 § 1) and to ensure that the obligations of accepted intentions of Masses to be celebrated are fulfilled in secular churches (can. 842). Every Ordinary of the place enjoys ordinary power to hear confessions throughout his territory and may grant delegated jurisdiction to receive the confessions of all, both secular and religious, to priests, whether secular or religious, even exempt ones, within the limits and according to the provisions of cann. 877 and 878 (can. 874 § 1); and he may, in accordance with can. 893, reserve certain cases to his own judgment with the precautions established in cann. 895, 897, and 898. With regard to the power to grant indulgences (v.), cann. 912, 914, and 916 should be consulted.
Moreover, the Ordinary of the place has the faculty to permit, in case of necessity, any priest to administer the sacrament of Extreme Unction, which is usually reserved to the parish priest (can. 938 § 2). Finally, it is the duty of the Ordinary of the place to issue the so-called dimissorial letters for Holy Orders (can. 958 and can. 960), to judge whether candidates for Orders possess the required qualities (can. 968), to dispense his subjects from irregularities arising from an occult crime, in accordance with can. 990 § 1, and to subject those to be promoted to a prior and diligent examination regarding the Order they are about to receive (can. 996 and 997).
Of the utmost importance is the Ordinary’s intervention in the ecclesiastical regulation of the celebration of the sacrament of Matrimony. This intervention occurs with regard to the examination of the spouses (can. 1020 § 3), the publications (can. 1023, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028), the marriage of vagi (can. 1032) and of minors (can. 1034), the merely temporary prohibition of marriages under can. 1039 § 1, as well as all that pertains to the faculty of dispensing from the form and from impediments, whether under can. 1043 in grave danger of death, or under can. 1045 when everything is prepared for the wedding and the celebration cannot be deferred without risk of grave harm until the possible concession of the dispensation by the Holy See (can. 1045 § 1), and likewise the observance of the due juridical form of the sacrament (can. 1044 and following) and the so-called marriage of conscience (can. 1104–1106). No less significant is the activity of the Ordinaries in relation to sacred places and times. This is clearly evident from the canonical prescriptions regarding the consecration (can. 1155) and blessing (can. 1156) of sacred places, the necessity of the prior consent of the Ordinary for the erection of any church (can. 1162), for the laying and blessing of the first stone (can. 1163) and for plans concerning the form and architectural style (can. 1164), for the blessing of bells and for their transformation, in certain special circumstances, into merely profane uses (can. 1169); and further regarding the right of the Church to have its own cemeteries (can. 1206) and to permit the faithful to construct private sepulchres (can. 1209), as well as the faculty of the Ordinary to establish the list of fees and funeral alms (can. 1234), to decide in doubtful cases regarding the canonical deprivation of ecclesiastical burial (can. 1240), and to publish, by way of an act merely, within his own diocese and for certain places, special days of feast, abstinence, and fasting (can. 1244 § 2).
As regards the cessation of the office and powers of the Ordinary, the following canons must be chiefly considered: 183, 430, 327 § 1, and 371.