Canon 1012 of the Church’s canon law states: “The minister of sacred ordination is a consecrated bishop.” Is it possible for this canon to be dispensed with in any circumstance whatsoever? I ask this because our episcopal see is currently vacant since the middle of last year. In this case, are there ever any legitimate pastoral reasons, therefore, for someone other than a bishop from another diocese to ordain someone a priest?
No. The way to resolve the issue is: If there is a vacant see, the dimissorial letter would be issued by the administrator of the diocese. If the administrator of the diocese is, in fact, not a bishop, then a bishop would be invited to come to do the ordination – just as needs to happen if the diocese is vacant at the time of the Chrism Mass. It could be a retired bishop, an auxiliary bishop, a nuncio or member of the Roman curia, as well as the diocesan bishop of another diocese.
The alternative is that the one to be ordained himself goes, with the dimissorial letter, to where the bishop is who has accepted to confer the ordination.
*Can. 1018 §1. The following can give dimissorial letters for secular clergy:
1/ the proper bishop mentioned in ⇒ can. 1016;
2/ an apostolic administrator and, with the consent of the college of consultors, a diocesan administrator; with the consent of the council mentioned in ⇒ can. 495, §2, an apostolic pro-vicar and an apostolic pro-prefect.
§2. A diocesan administrator, apostolic pro-vicar, and apostolic pro-prefect are not to grant dimissorial letters to those who have been denied admission to orders by the diocesan bishop, the apostolic vicar, or the apostolic prefect.*
This is the habitual experience of religious clergy, by the way. The major superior of the entity where the cleric-to-be will be incardinated is normally never a bishop – be he an abbot or a prior provincial, etc. That person would himself grant the dimissorial and then arrange for a prelate with the episcopal character to confer the ordination.
There is no dispensation from Canon 1012. There are canons for which there is no dispensation. One cannot, for example, grant or obtain a dispensation regarding Canon 1024 either.
