Ordination

1. Once the chapter has been convoked, the brothers who have the right to do so shall send to the Master or vicar of the Order the petitions and questions which they wish to propose to the chapter.
2. The following, apart from the members of the chapter, may submit petitions and questions:
   1. all major superiors, the socii of the Master of the Order, and the procurator general;
   2. any chapter and council and also the moderator team of a centre of studies;
   3. any religious provided that his proposal is countersigned by at least five brothers who have active voting rights, or is presented by a member of the chapter who shall judge whether the petition ought to be submitted or not;
   4. monasteries or federations of our nuns; provincial or national councils of fraternities of St Dominic.
3. Councils general or federations of congregations aggregated to the Order may submit their requests and suggestions concerning the Dominican family to a general chapter.
4.  
   1. Questions to be submitted to the general chapter by those who have the right or authority to do so shall be sent to the Master of the Order six four months before the chapter;
   2. they shall be set down briefly in Latin or a modern language accepted by the general council and submitted on as many separate pages as there are separate questions.
5.  
   1. The Master of the Order shall see to it that the questions mentioned in § IV, 1, assigned to different commissions according to differing material, are conveyed to each member of the chapter as soon as possible;
   2. The members of these commissions are: brothers having a voice in the chapter, including the associates of the prior provincials and diffinitors who enjoy the right of election (cf. n. 407 § III); assistants of the Master of the Order designated by the Master himself (cf. n. 410 § I); the prior provincials mentioned in n. 258, the vice-provincials and the vicars general of territories not belonging to a province or vice-province or delegates from them according to the norm of n. 410 § II;
   3. the voters shall at once let the Master of the Order know which three commissions they wish to belong to, in their order of preference, while acknowledging the Master’s right to arrange things freely according to the needs of the chapter;
   4. the Master of the Order shall then appoint the presidents of the commissions and inform the capitulars about the commission to which each has been assigned so that in the meantime they may study very carefully the questions which have been assigned to their own commission.

1. The four-year term is calculated from one provincial chapter to another, disregarding the few days, weeks, or months by which, occasionally, the term falls short of or exceeds the four-year period; and it is terminated on the day immediately before the vigil of the commencement of the provincial chapter.
2. If it should happen that a prior provincial’s four-year term ends when the Order has no Master or that it ends within six months of a general chapter (see n. 354, § I), in either case it is understood that his term is extended until the following provincial chapter which will be held after the completion of the general chapter.

1. The electors are the brothers with active voice and assigned to the convent even if they live habitually outside the convent of their assignation. Those, however, who, in accordance with n. 497, § II, have been joined to a particular electoral college, are not to be counted among the number for determining the socii of a prior going to a provincial chapter (see n. 458, § II).
2. Those, however, who, under any title whatsoever, are already included among the voters at a provincial chapter cannot participate in the aforesaid election.

1. The master, according to the capabilities of each, shall advance the brothers towards the gradual attainment of the perfection of religious and apostolic life, in the spirit of the Order. He shall teach them that to follow Christ is the supreme rule of our life; he shall teach them to be of one mind with the Church, to know and cherish the spirit of Saint Dominic and the Order’s sound traditions, to read when opportune the signs of the time and to interpret them in the light of faith.
2. Guided by their love for their Dominican family, which receives them and enriches them with its manifold traditions, the brothers will learn that religious life provides a more stable life-style, tested doctrine for the way to perfection, fraternal communion in solidarity with Christ, and freedom fortified by obedience.

Reports of the chapter and council votes are to be sent to the prior provincial by the prior. Personal and academic reports on each candidate are to be sent to him by the master. And if the regent deals with students, a report should be sent to the provincial.

1. A negative vote of both the chapter and the council is decisive when the brother has resided in the convent of his own province during that year; if the case concerns a cleric, the scholastic year can be counted for such a year. When the brother has resided outside the province, a decisive vote of the council of the province of affiliation is necessary.
2. In the case in which the votes of the chapter and the council do not agree, the matter is to be referred for decision to the proper provincial.
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. Superiors should see to it that a convent, entrusted with or united to a parish, has all that is required, including a sufficient number of brothers, to combine appropriately conventual life with parish ministry.
2. The number of parishes in any province should be limited, to ensure that enough brothers remain who can devote themselves more freely and fully to other ministries of the word of God.

1. To be promoted a master in sacred theology, it is required that a brother:
   1. be commendable for his life and prudence;
   2. have been totally dedicated to intellectual work for at least ten years from the completion of his complementary studies;
   3. that he be promoted by a general chapter, or by the Master of the Order with his council;
   4. that the newly promoted master give a public lecture.
2. Nobody is to be promoted a master in sacred theology except in the aforesaid manner. 

Each year, the Prior Provincial shall send a report to the Master of the Order drawn up by the Syndic of the same Province in the same way set down in No. 566 above, and already approved by the Provincial Council.