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RÉSUMÉ - Cet article est une recherche du fondement canonique pour la réadmission de clercs volontairement laïcisés et la pratique courante du Siège Apostolique dans ces cas. L'auteur établit le contexte de cette discussion avec brève vue d'ensemble des exigences canoniques pour l'admission à l'état clérical et la procédure de laïcisation volontaire du canon 290, 3°. Les questions des domaines de compétence à la Curie romaine, des critères généraux pour la réadmission à l'état clérical, les exigences et les divers stages de la procédure elle-même sont examinées.
Introduction
Canon 293 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law reads:
A cleric who loses the clerical state cannot be enrolled among clerics again except through rescript of the Apostolic See.1
Thus, the possibility exists in the law that a cleric who has lost the clerical state (and therefore the exercise of his diaconate or priesthood) can reverse that loss and thereby exercise Orders once again. The purpose of this article is to investigate the canonical foundation for that possibility and the current praxis of the Apostolic See regarding cases of readmission to the clerical state of priesthood.2
To achieve this purpose, it will be necessary to present some background information on the canonical implications of entrance into the clerical state and when this occurs. Then there will be discussed the means by which a man loses the clerical state beginning with canon 290 of the present Code. This will be followed by a brief treatment of the process of voluntary laicization. Finally, we will examine the process by which one who has been voluntarily laicized may be readmitted to the clerical state. This treatment will include: dicasteries competent for cases of readmission to ministry, the general criteria for readmission, the previous and indispensable requirements that must be met in order for a petition to be accepted and finally, the actual procedure that is followed in these cases will be examined.
We will now turn our attention to some brief background material.
1 - Entrance Into the Clerical State
In order to appreciate the process of reversing the loss of the clerical state, which is the topic of this article, it is first necessary to examine how an individual enters the clerical state and therefore becomes...