Indult of Departure

A religious under temporary vows may leave when the period of profession expires. During the term, a member who asks to leave for a grave cause can receive an indult from the authority designated by canon 688 and proper law. A perpetually professed member should seek departure only for the gravest reasons considered before God, and submits the petition through the supreme moderator with the moderator's and council's opinion.^[1]

An indult is distinct from exclaustration, which permits life outside the institute while the person remains a member and remains bound by compatible obligations. It is also distinct from dismissal, which is initiated by the institute for canonical causes. All three can involve painful pastoral realities but have different juridical acts and effects.

For a perpetually professed member of an institute of pontifical right, the indult is reserved to the Apostolic See; in an institute of diocesan right, the diocesan bishop of the house of assignment can grant it under the Code. Competence for an autonomous monastery and the details for temporary profession follow the current canons and amendments.^[2][3]

When lawfully granted and notified, the indult by the law itself includes dispensation from vows and from all obligations arising from profession unless the member rejects it in the act of notification. It ends membership in the institute. Records should establish the petition, grant, notification, and any conditions without publicly disclosing private reasons unnecessarily.

A cleric cannot become without incardination. An indult of departure for a priest or deacon is not granted until a bishop has incardinated him or at least received him experimentally; during an experimental period the receiving bishop can admit him definitively according to law. Until status and faculties are settled, he cannot assume that departure from religious life authorizes independent ministry.

Departure does not erase debts of justice, the sacramental seal, confidentiality, civil obligations, or consequences of misconduct. Conversely, the former member is owed charity and equity. Unless proper law provides otherwise, one who lawfully leaves can demand nothing from the institute for work performed, though the institute must observe equity and evangelical charity toward the departing member.