Following consultation with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the following is hereby clarified: with regard to members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life of pontifical right, the law grants to the competent Major Superior the faculty to issue dimissorial letters for the reception of the diaconate and the presbyterate (cf. can. 1019 ยง1 CIC). Such competence, however, is limited to the presentation of the candidate for ordination and does not include the power to dispense from the conditions established by universal law for the valid and licit reception of the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Therefore, the dispensation from the time required for the reception of Holy Orders, since it concerns a matter directly pertaining to sacramental discipline, pertains to the competence of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, without prejudice to privileges granted by the Holy Father after the 1983 Code of Canon Law came into force.
The present clarification entails a modification of the practice followed until now. Therefore, Major Superiors of the Institutes are requested to address directly the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments regarding any requests for dispensation in this matter.