Who receives Promises

Q. Dear Father John Michael, may our retreat master receive the First Promises of our novices at our annual retreat this fall? He is a Discalced Carmelite from another province. Will you need to authorize him?

A. The short answer to your question is, yes he may, and he doesn’t even have to be a Carmelite priest. No, I do not need to authorize him. Read our Oklahoma Provincial Statute I.6): “When the Spiritual Assistant is unable to preside, no special delegation is needed for the Local Council to ask another priest or deacon to clothe candidates and receive Promises and vows.”

The long answer is a bit more complicated. This question involves our OCDS Constitution, articles 11 & 12: “the Promise is made to the community in the presence of the Superior of the Order or his delegate.” It also pertains to introductory notes in our Carmelite ritual which state: ”The local Assistant of the Community, or another authorized priest, presides.” [13 for Clothing, 31, 51 & 67 for Professions]

The important thing to remember at a Profession ceremony is what may affect the validity of the Promise. Who is it who authorizes the candidate to make the Promise and thus be professed in our Order? That authorization comes from the local council of a canonical community, or in the special cases of our Study Groups, the authorization comes from the Provincial Council. If a council vote has been taken with the result that the candidate has been approved (before the ceremony), fine. But if not, then the candidate’s profession would be invalid even if the pope himself were to receive the Promise (at the ceremony).

During my tenure as provincial delegate there have been a number of cases where the validity of a novice’s profession was questioned because the President or Formation Director decided that the novice had completed our two year formation program, the time had come for profession, and an esteemed priest of the order or family friend of the candidate was suddenly available to do the ceremony, so it was all arranged at the last minute, usually at the annual community retreat. First or Definitive Promise was thus celebrated with no authorization from anyone except the priest presider or retreat master who had no authority to approve the candidate for the Promise. In most cases, the priest just presumed the candidate presented to him was duly approved to be professed, because he had not asked to see her papers showing that a council had approved her. If the priest was not an Assistant of our Order, he simply presumed either that the Director of Formation could make that approval on her own, or that simply completing the two year formation program entitled the candidate to be professed. These are examples of invalid professions.

Now the specific point of your question involves an authorization. Authorization is given to your Spiritual Assistant to receive clothings and Promises as a delegate of the Superior of the Order. This fulfills the requirement quoted above in our Constitutions, since Our Father Provincial is unable to attend all our OCDS profession ceremonies. If your Spiritual Assistant is not available for the rite, your local council may ask another priest or deacon to receive the Promises or vows, with special permission from the General Definitory who approved our Provincial Statutes.

Thanks for asking. Your question gave me a chance to research some aspects of the law involving who does what with whom and who can delegate (the Father Provincial), sub-delegate (his Provincial delegate), but not sub-sub-delegate (the local Assistant, if appointed by the Provincial delegate). Don’t even ask about that.

Your brother in Carmel,

John Michael Payne OCD, prov. delg.