The Impediments to Orders

No woman may receive the sacrament of orders. St. Paul says (I Tim. 2:12): “I suffer not a woman to teach (in the Church).” The nature of this sacrament, the example of Christ,and the constant law and practice of the Church, make it abundantlyevident that the female sex is an absolute impediment to the receiving of the sacrament of orders.

The Church sets a definite age for the ordaining of candidates. As regards minor orders, very young boys might bevalidly ordained. Prudence and reverence demand, however, that the candidate for any order be old enough to discharge its duties withseemliness and with an appreciation of the dignity and the responsibility it lays upon him. {-The canonical age is the age set by the laws or canons of the Church as minimal for ordination. For example, a man is not ordained to the priesthood until he has entered his twenty-fifth year, that is, has passed his twenty-fourth birthday.-}

One who is enslaved cannot lawfully be raised to orders. Yet, if he be actually ordained, the ordination is valid. The same is true of those who are under the burden of heavy debts, and of those who are bound to the exacting care of others.

One who has been guilty of homicide, though penitentand pardoned, cannot lawfully be ordained. Still, if he were ordained, the ordination, though illicit, would be valid.

Legitimate birth is required in the candidate for lawful ordination. Here again, the impediment is one of licitness,not of validity. For lawful ordination, an illegitimate person must first be dispensed by the Church from his impediment ofillegitimacy.

Any notable and noticeable deformity of body is an impediment to lawful ordination.