Inkardynacja kapłanów w diecezjach zamorskich

Abstract

In the history of the institution of incardination a special role was played by the fact that many priests went to oversea lands. As early as in the 4th century this fact was considered as a peculiar problem of discipline, which the Church tried to solve in various ways in the Middle Ages, and especially in the modern period. The legislator edited many special rules concerning this matter, which sharpened the general norms of the priests’ passages to other dioceses. These rules obliged bishops to select the leaving priests, to ensure the authenticity of their documents, and to control strictly foreign priests. This rigorous procedure of a passage indirectly hindered also the excardination and incardination of priests in oversea dioceses. The constitution Exsul familia marked the peak of the development of the special discipline in this field. According to this discipline all the prists coming from European countries and going to incardinate themselves in a diocese in any other continent, apart from fulfilling all the requirements of the law had to obtain two different permissions of the Consistorial Congregation: one to depart and one to incardinate themselves. Vatican Cuoncil II took up this problem in the pastoral aspect. It treats the passage and work of priests in other continents as a positive phenomenon, which not only should not be hindered, but supported and developed, and it orders reforming the norms of incardination, and tells bishops to undertake a number of actions facilitating the passage of priests to work in other countries. The post-Council legislator reformed the hitherto existing discipline partly in motu proprio Ecclesia Sanctae, and then in the instruction De cleri transitu ab una ad aliam dioecesim, which abolishes all the limitations of the special legislature in this field. Since then the transition and incardination or priests in oversea dioceses are regulated by the general norms of the Code and post-Council legislature. In this way the new law enables the transition of priests who want to devote themselves to missionary of priestly work in the countries missing priests and among migrants.