Ordination

1. When an election needs confirmation, a report of the election shall be drawn up in duplicate as a formal document. In it the various ballots shall be noted and, also if there were objections against the validity of the election provided they were made at the proper time (see n. 452, 3, 12, and 15). One copy shall be sent to the one who is to give the confirmation; the other shall be preserved in the conventual or provincial archives (see Appendix n. 18).
2. When, however, an election does not need confirmation, one copy of the report of the election signed in the aforesaid manner shall be given to the person elected, except for nn. 515, § V, and 532, 3; the other copy, together with the processus verbalis, shall be preserved in the files. (See Appendices nn. 26, 27, 30.)

The following is the procedure for the election of superiors:

1. the electors shall meet at the appointed time and place and invoke the Holy Spirit; the president, tellers and secretary shall take the oath to fulfil their duty faithfully and, even after the election is over, to observe secrecy about the transactions in the sessions;
2. the secretary shall call the names of the individuals who by law must be present as electors; if they are present, they shall answer;
3. objections, if there are any, against the admission or exclusion of any voter must then be raised;
4. the president shall remind the voters that no one may validly vote for himself;
5. the ballot papers are distributed by the secretary, and voters write their vote in this manner: I elect or I postulate N.N., indicating both the given name and surname. In every case the complete formula, I elect or I postulate, shall be used;
6. if any voter present in the convent is confined to his room by illness, the tellers shall then go to him together, and obtain his written vote. If the sick person is unable to write, he may authorize someone else to write his vote, or he may even by word of mouth declare his vote to the tellers: they should immediately write it down;
7. the tellers and then the voters, one by one, beginning with the seniors, place their folded ballot-papers in an open container;
8. the ballots are counted by the tellers. If their number does not exceed the number of voters, they are then opened; otherwise, they shall be destroyed immediately, and the electors shall fill in a new ballot-paper;
9. the tellers read the ballot-papers and tabulate the votes;
10. the tellers compare their tabulations and after they have found them in agreement, the ballot-papers are destroyed;
11. then the president reads out in a clear voice the names of each one who has received a vote;
12. objections, if there are any, against the process of the election itself must then be raised;
13. with the consent of the majority, the election process may be interrupted between ballots, but the last ballot must be held on that same day;
14. if the required majority is obtained, the president shall declare brother N.N., to have been canonically elected or postulated for such and such office. If the president himself has been elected, the declaration shall be made by the first teller;
15. objections, if there are any, against the character of the one elected must then be raised;
16. the document of election is drawn up and signed by the president, the tellers, and the secretary.

In the election of superiors, on the day of the election itself or on the preceding day, the Mass of the Holy Spirit shall be celebrated in accordance with the rubrics.

1. In every election there must be a president, a secretary, and at least two tellers.
2. The secretary, if he is not designated by our laws and thus summoned and present, or otherwise appointed, shall be elected before everything else by secret vote and in a single ballot at the first meeting of the election. He may be elected from the brethren who are not members of the chapter, and he may be given an assistant and a substitute elected in the same manner.
3. The secretary or his assistant must be present at every session. All the acts of the election shall be recorded accurately by the one who exercises the office of secretary, and, having been signed at least by the secretary himself, the president, and the tellers, shall be carefully preserved in the minutes of the chapter.
4. In the same meeting or at the beginning of the elective session, tellers shall be elected from among the voters by a secret vote, in a single ballot and all at once.

Major superiors may not propose a candidate to the electors except in case of necessity. Then they shall propose at least three, though the electors may elect someone else.

The following lack active voice:

1. anyone who is exclaustrated, for the duration of the indult and for a year from the date of his return;
2. anyone who has requested exclaustration or secularisation, from the moment that his request is sent by the prior provincial to the Master of the Order;
3. anyone who has permission from his major superior to live outside a convent of the Order (CCL 665, § 1) unless this permission was granted for the sake of his health, by reason of study, or to carry out an apostolate in the name of the Order;
4. anyone who has left the Order illegitimately, for five years from the date of his return, unless the prior provincial with his council, having examined the circumstances, shall have extended or even shortened the time, provided that the returning member remains without voting rights for at least three years from the date of his return;
5. anyone who has been legitimately deprived of active voice.

In all institutions immediately subject to the jurisdiction of the Master of the Order, the presiding officials are appointed for a six-year term by the Master of the Order after he has consulted the members of the institutions and the assistants concerned; they may be reappointed to the same offices.

1. In the general curia immediately after the Master of the Order come:
   1. the assistants of the Master of the Order, and among themselves according to the order of profession;
   2. the procurator general of the Order; 
   3. the other brothers belonging to the curia, and among themselves according to the order of profession.
2. In general chapters, however, the assistants, according to their own seniority, come immediately after the priors provincial.
3. No brother shall be assigned to the general curia except those who belong to it according to the constitutions.

1. It is the duty of the promoter general for nuns:
   1. to assist the Master of the Order and the procurator general in matters concerning the nuns;
   2. to collect information concerning them or for them and to communicate it to them and the different provinces.
2. It also belongs to him to take care of the aggregated or aggregating secular institutions of the Order.

1. The archivist has charge of the general archives, where documents pertaining to the history of the Order are preserved, according to the norms given above for provincial archives (nn. 381-383) with appropriate modifications.
2. No one shall be admitted into the archives of the Order except with the special permission of the archivist; moreover, nothing shall be communicated to outsiders who wish to inspect documents of a more recent period except with the permission of the Master of the Order.