To defrock, unfrock, or laicize ministers or priests is to remove their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. This may be due to criminal convictions, disciplinary matters, or disagreements over doctrine or dogma. It may also be voluntarily for personal reasons (taking over a family business, declining health, running for civil offices, old age, or for various other reasons). Various Christian denominations have different procedures for doing this. "Defrocking" carries implications of forced laicization for misconduct, while "laicization" implies no judgement either way and may be initiated by the request of a priest to be released from vows.
In the Catholic Church, a priest, deacon, or bishop may be dismissed from the clerical state as a penalty for certain grave offenses, or by a papal decree granted for grave reasons. This may be because of a serious criminal conviction, heresy, or similar matter. A Catholic cleric may also voluntarily request to be laicized for any personal reason.[1] Voluntary requests are by far the most common means of laicization, and the most common reason is to marry.[1] A priest may also seek laicisation voluntarily because he disagrees with major policies or doctrines of the church and wishes to dissociate himself from those policies.
A dismissed cleric is forbidden to exercise ministerial functions under nearly all circumstances, but an indelible priestly character is held to remain on his soul (as is sung at a priest's ordination, "You are a priest forever, like Melchizedek of old").[2]
In being dismissed, the cleric is normally relieved of any and all offices, roles, and obligations, including his vow of obedience to his bishop (but not including his vow of chastity, unless separately dispensed by the Pope, as described below).
In general, any exercise of his power to dispense the Sacraments, is considered valid but illicit, except in certain extraordinary circumstances. He is debarred from celebrating some sacraments, but he may still perform others under special circumstances. For example, if a penitent is in danger of death, a dismissed priest may hear his confession, and indeed is obliged to if the penitent desires, and confer absolution. Additionally, he may perform any religious rituals that are permitted to any lay person, such as baptism or praying, although laicized priests have generally been discouraged from taking publicly visible roles, however minor, such as serving as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, that is, one who brings the consecrated Eucharist to those who are gravely ill, or otherwise confined.
Loss of the clerical state by itself does not release the cleric from his vow of celibacy;[2] the cleric cannot be married in the Church without a separate dispensation for this vow from the Pope.
A cleric dismissed from the clerical state cannot be reinstated in the sacred ministry without the consent of the Pope.[3]
In a February 2001 letter written by Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Vatican appealed to diocesan bishops to encourage priests who left the ministry in order to marry to play a more active role in parish life. Prior rules prohibited laicized priests from celebrating Mass, delivering homilies, administering the Eucharist, teaching or working in seminaries, and placed restrictions on teaching the faith in schools and universities. Under the new instructions and at the local bishop's discretion, the teaching of theology in schools or universities (both Catholic and non-Catholic), contact with the parish where the priest used to serve, and administering Holy Communion are permitted.[4]
The laicization of bishops, by dismissal or voluntarily, is very rare, although it has happened a few times. Notably Talleyrand in France (1801), Emmanuel Milingo in Zambia (2009), and Raymond Lahey in Canada (2012) were defrocked.[5][6][7]
Bishop of San Pedro Fernando Lugo requested laicization in Paraguay in 2005 to allow him to run for President of Paraguay. The Church at first refused, going so far as to suspend him as bishop when he ran for office anyway, but eventually granted lay status in 2008 after he was elected.[8]