Following consultation with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the following is hereby clarified: 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 grant 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 authority to dispense from the conditions established by universal law for the valid and licit reception of the Sacrament of Orders.
Therefore, the dispensation from the time required for the reception of Sacred Orders, since it concerns a matter that directly affects sacramental discipline, falls within the competence of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, without prejudice to the provisions of can. 4 of the Code of Canon Law regarding privileges.
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 possible requests for dispensation in this matter.