About This Book
Religious life is the kernel of the holiness of the Church. Its sanctity has always been a matter of great importance to the Church throughout the centuries. Unfortunately, on account of human weakness and perhaps even malice, members sometimes behave in a way that causes scandal and impedes the Church’s mission of salvation, thus calling for the separation of the members from the religious Institute.
This book in its first part presents the institution of the dismissal, the second part the effects on the juridical bonds of a religious cleric and the third part the issue of incardination of a religious cleric after dismissal.
Canon 701, CIC83 in its formulation, is crystal clear that by virtue of the decree of dismissal, confirmed and not contested, the juridical bond of a member with his Institute derived from profession ipso facto ceases to exist. But can. 701 does not categorically affirm that if the member is a cleric, the juridical bond of incardination ipso facto ceases with dismissal. Neither does the canon ensure any subsequent incardination into another canonical entity. Excardination does not occur without concurrent incardination and, as a corollary, the juridical bond of incardination perdures throughout the cleric’s life. Canon 265, CIC83 expresses this principle as “ita ut clerici acephali seu vagi minime admittantur”.
It is in the context of this dissonance between cann. 701 and 265 CIC83, the quaestio of the argument of the present study has emerged. Whether or not, legitimate dismissal ipso facto causes both the juridical bonds of the dismissed religious cleric to cease; and if this is not the case, whether the present legislation on dismissal lacks the efficiency to totally separate the religious cleric at dismissal from the Institute.
