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The Vatican has appealed to diocesan bishops to encourage laicised priests to play a more active role in parish life.
This information is contained in a letter from Cardinal Ivan Dias, the prefect for the Evangelisation of Peoples. The letter, dated February 2 2011, was to a priest who had written to the congregation on behalf of an Australian missionary society that is seeking a relaxation of the prohibitions on dispensed clergy.
In a copy of a letter seen by The Catholic Herald, Rome placed more discretionary power in the hands of bishops for discerning a dispensed cleric’s involvement with parish life.
The Catholic Herald story does not make it clear whether the policies cited by Cardinal Dias apply only to mission territories under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Evangelization or to the entire Church.
At present the document (rescript) a priest receives when he is laicised states:
1) He can’t celebrate any of the sacraments except for hearing deathbed confessions. It is especially noted that he can’t give homilies.
2) He can’t serve as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion.
3) He can’t serve any “directive office in the pastoral field” (e.g., serving as a parish administrator).
4) He can’t do anything at all in a seminary.
5) He can’t serve as a director or teacher in a Catholic university.
6) He can’t teach theology or any closely related discipline (e.g., religious studies, history of theology) in a non-Catholic university.
7) He can’t serve as a director (e.g., school principal) in a parochial school.
8) He can’t serve as a teacher in a parochial school unless he gets the bishop’s permission.
9) He shouldn’t live in or frequent places where his status as an ex-priest is generally known, unless he gets the bishop’s permission.
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