Ordination

The following may be used to foster collaboration among the provinces of a region or nation:

1. regular meetings between the priors provincial or differ­ent officials, such as the masters of novices, of students and of cooperator brothers, of regents, professors, promoters, etc.;
2. interprovincial conferences or commissions for the study of common problems;
3. national or regional promoters for different activities;
4. a common novitiate or studentate or common centres, according to norms to be approved by the Master of the Order; 
5. an agreement entered into with the consent of the Master of the Order for the erection of interprovincial convents and for making assignations from one province to another. 
6. an agreement between two provincial chapters or priors provincial for making direct assignations from one province to a house of the other province, with due respect for nn 270 § I and II, 497 § I and 600, the Master of the Order, however, having been notified (see Appendix 16). Such an agreement is to be reviewed at least once every five years by the priors provincial of the respective provinces.

1. In every vicariate there shall be a council whose consent or advice the regional prior must seek on more serious matters as laid down in the vicariate statute. The acts of this council must be sent to the prior provincial after it has met.
2. The number of these councillors and the manner of their election or appointment shall be determined by the vicariate statute.
3. When, in accordance with the prescriptions of the Book of Constitutions and Ordinations or the statute of the province or vicariate, the Prior Provincial, has to deal with matters which concern the vicariate, he must first consult the vicariate council before consulting the provincial council. When however it is a question of confirming, appointing, or removing the regional prior, he consults only the provincial council (see n. 373, 1).

The prior provincial shall have a secret archive in which are kept secret documents, the import of which he is bound to convey to his successor. These documents shall be burned after the death of the brothers mentioned in them, provided this can be done without prejudice to those who are still alive.

1. Two years after a prior provincial has been confirmed in office, At the first council at the time of the next meeting of the provincial council, the prior provincial must summon to a larger council, in addition to the members of the provincial council, the vicars provincial and conventual priors in the strict sense; unless the provincial chapter has determined otherwise regarding regional priors, vicars provincial, and priors in remote regions the statute of the province can determine whether vicars provincial and priors from remote regions are to be summoned, as well as designate others who, as the case may be, are to be summoned.
2. At this larger council meeting, which may exercise only a consultative vote, all topics are to be dealt with that seem to be useful for the good of the province; first of all, there shall be a review of whether the ordinations and exhortations of the last provincial chapter and general chapter have been put into practice.

The vocals of the provincial chapter are:

1.  
   1. regional priors; 2. vicars provincial elected according to the norm of n.389; insofar as they have voice according to the norm of n. 384-bis and the statute of the vicariate;
   2. 3. conventual priors; if the prior cannot attend on account of sickness or another grave reason accepted by the prior pro­vincial, the subprior may take his place.
   3. 4. socii of priors going to the chapter, in accordance with n. 490;
   4. 5. delegates of the brothers, in accordance with nn. 497-501;
   5. 6. a delegate of a non-prioral house with at least four brothers with active voting rights in the territory of any na­tion where there is not another convent or another house of the same province.
   6. 7. a prior provincial who immediately before the chapter completed his term of office in that province.
2. If the vocals of the provincial chapter, elected in ac­cordance with the constitutions, are fewer than twenty, the statute of the province may make provision for extra voters. It is obliged to do this if there are fewer than ten vocals. These, of whom there may not be more than three, are to be constituted such by election and not by personal entitlement.

1. When a brother has spent the year immediately preceding solemn profession, which for a cleric can be a scholastic year, in a convent of his own province, the prior provincial may admit him to profession, if the vote of the chapter and the vote of the council are favourable. He may also do so if the vote of either one is favourable, but not if both are contrary. In convents and houses where, according to n. 139-bis and n. 333, the council is not distinct from the chapter, the second vote is taken by the provincial council; in vicariates it is taken by the vicariate council.
2. When a brother has spent the aforesaid year outside his own province, the vote of its chapter and council are consultative only. However, in that case a vote of the council of the province of affiliation is always required. If it is favourable, the prior provincial may admit the brother to profession but not if it is contrary.
3. If a brother has not yet lived for a year in the convent of his actual assignation and is due to make solemn profession, the convent in which he spent the immediately preceding year takes a vote of the chapter and council according to n. 206, 2  But the convent where he is actually living must first take a vote for the sake of information.

1. All the brothers, especially those whose ministry is among adolescents and young men, should consider it a duty of their Dominican vocation to work actively and prudently in fostering vocations to the Order.
2. Each province shall name a promoter of vocations, which if it is possible, would be his primary task.
3. II. Everyone should remember, however, that the life and apostolate of each brother and of each community will be the first invitation to take up Dominican life.

1. All the brothers, especially those whose ministry is among adolescents and young men, should consider it a duty of their Dominican vocation to work actively and prudently in fostering vocations to the Order.
2. Everyone should remember, however, that the life and apostolate of each brother and of each community will be the first invitation to take up Dominican life.

Those brothers should be assigned to missionary work who had previously shown signs of a missionary vocation and who are well prepared for it. Special training for missionaries, both clerical and co-operator brothers, ought to be provided in a mission convent, or in a special institute where they can learn the people’s language, customs, history, culture and missionary apostolate.

1. A brother who is going to spend some time in the territory of another province should notify the relevant prior provincial in advance, with due regard for n. 137.
2. A brother who is travelling should as far as possible stay in our own convents wherever we have them.