Dimissorial Letters for Sacred Ordination are the canonical authorization by which a candidate's competent bishop or major superior asks another Catholic bishop to ordain that candidate to the diaconate or presbyterate.
Competence and purpose
A candidate is ordinarily ordained by his proper bishop or by another bishop who has received legitimate dimissorial letters. For secular clergy, competence is determined by the rules on domicile, intended service, and incardination. For perpetually or definitively incorporated subjects of a clerical religious institute or society of apostolic life of pontifical right, canon 1019 assigns competence to the major superior specified by law.[1]
The letters authorize an ordaining bishop to act for the competent authority responsible for the candidate. They therefore connect formation, suitability, incardination or incorporation, and the sacramental act. They are not a transfer of the ordaining bishop's episcopal character and do not make him the candidate's new Ordinary or superior.
Required assurance
Dimissorial letters are not to be granted until the required testimonials and documents have been obtained. When the ordaining bishop acts for another authority, the letters must attest that those documents are present, the prescribed investigation has been completed, and suitability has been established. If the ordaining bishop nevertheless has specific reasons to doubt suitability, canon 1052 forbids him to proceed merely because papers arrived.[2]
Authenticity, limitation, and revocation
The receiving bishop must be clearly satisfied that the letters are authentic. The grantor or successor can limit or revoke them, while the grant does not lapse simply because the grantor later leaves office. The letters can be sent to a bishop in communion with the Apostolic See, subject to the rite-specific restriction and any apostolic indult required by canon 1021.
Relation to validity and liceity
For ordination to the diaconate or presbyterate, legitimate dimissorial letters ordinarily govern liceity and canonical accountability, not the sacramental character of the ordaining bishop. Their absence does not by itself prove that no ordination occurred, but it can make an ordination gravely unlawful and expose responsible persons to canonical consequences. Matter, form, minister, recipient, and intention remain distinct questions of sacramental validity.
The letters must not be confused with the pontifical mandate required for the lawful consecration of a bishop, a Canonical Mission to govern a flock, or post-ordination faculties for ministry. Ordination confers sacred order; office, incardination, jurisdiction, and faculties determine different juridical relationships and acts.
Record after ordination
After ordination, the ordaining bishop gives the ordained man an authentic testimonial. When another bishop ordained him on dimissorial letters, the testimonial is shown to his own Ordinary so the ordination can be entered in the proper archive; notice is also sent for notation in the baptismal register. The authorization before ordination and the testimonial after ordination are therefore complementary documents, not interchangeable names for one instrument.
References
- 1.Code of Canon Law, canons 232–293 — Current Latin law on sacred ministers, incardination, clerical offices, and functions requiring the power of orders or governance
- 2.Code of Canon Law, canons 1008–1054 — Current discipline on the minister, candidates, dimissorial letters, required documents, ordination, testimonials, and notation