Canon 291 specifies that a dispensation from the obligation of celibacy for clerics and only be granted by the Roman Pontiff. The process involves petition of the ordinary who, if he believes the reason(s) sound, requests the approval of the Holy Father. During St John Paul II’s pontificate those requests were routinely denied.

A cleric who loses the clerical state cannot be enrolled among clerics again except through a rescript of the Apostolic See, which is the topic of the article.