Points of Church Law for Laymen

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 28, 19 July 1923, Page 21

Points of Church Law for Laymen

•/ (By Rev. T. Slater, S.J., in the London Catholic Times.) MARRIAGE WITH UNBAPTISED PERSONS. Protestants do not admit the authority of the Catholic Church, and consequently they deny that the marriage laws of the Catholic Church have any objective validity. A Protestant who has married a Catholic in the Protestant Church or in the Registry Office is offended when he is told that his marriage is null and void. He should consider the Catholic party, it is true, but when religious prejudice stands in the way it is not easy to look at things from other people’s point of view. Sometimes, unfortunately, the Catholic party does not regard the marriage from the Catholic point of view, sometimes he or she is ignorant of the Catholic point of view. In any case it will be worth while to try to make the Catholic position clear with regard to an important part of the marriage law of the Catholic Church. Catholic Church’s Marriage Laws. The Catholic Church has made laws for the regulation of- Christian marriage from the earliest times. Some of these laws, like that which prescribes banns before mar-riage-is contracted, make marriage unlawful and sinful if it is contracted against and in spite of the law, but they do not make it null and void. Such laws are called in technical terms merely prohibitory impediments of marriage. Other laws are more stringent: it is of greater importance that they should attain their, object, and so for good reasons they not only prohibit marriage and make it unlawful and sinful, but they render it null and void if it is attempted against and in spite of the law. Diriment Impediments. V . Such laws l as these are called in' technical - language diriment impediments of carriage, like -consanguinity in

the second and third degree. * When a marriage has r been contracted in spit© of the existence of a diriment impediment between the parties, the marriage is no marriage at all; after the ceremony'the parties are' just where they were ,before it: they are not man and.wife. St. Paul and Marriages of Christians with Pagans. the history of the impediment which is known as Difference of worship, or Difference of religion, will illustrate what has been said. In the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians occur the words: “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers.” In these words St. Paul forbade the Christians of Corinth to enter , into any close and intimate relations with those who were not baptised. Of all close and intimate relations marriage is the closest and most intimate, and so in these words St. Paul prohibits the marriage of Christians with pagans. At first it was only a prohibitory impediment: it forbade marriage be- ' ween a Christian and a non-Christian, but it did not make it null and void. However, as Christians multiplied and pagans decreased in number, custom made the law more stringent, and from the eighth to the twelfth century Difference of religion gradually became a diriment impediment of marriage. Marriage Between a Christian and a Jew. A marriage, for example, between a Christian and a Jew was no marriage at all, unless a dispensation from the law had been obtained from the competent authority. The impediment bound all baptised Christians, even these who had separated from the Catholic Church by schism. There is a well-known case of an Anglican who had married an. Anabaptist in England. He quarrelled with the Anabaptist and married a ' Lutheran woman. He subsequently asked to be received into the Catholic Church, and it was necessary to determine whether his second marriage was valid. The case was sent to Rome, and there it was decided that if the man had been baptised and the Anabap- 1 tist was not baptised, the first marriage was invalid and the second valid. The Code of Canon Law has made an important change in this impediment. Canon 1070 is as follows: “§ 1. Marriage contracted by a person not baptised with a person baptised in the Catholic Church or with a convert to it from schism or heresy is null, § 2. If a party at the time of contracting marriage was comm held to be baptised or if his baptism was doubtful the validity of the marriage must be upheld in accordance with the rule of law that marriage is favored by the law, until it is proved for certain that on© of the parties was baptised and the other not baptised.” The Canon mentions only those who have been baptised m the Catholic Church: that is, those who have received baptism with a view to their incorporation as members of the Catholic Church. It- says nothing expressly about baptised non-Catholics. However, according to the common interpretation, the effect of this Canon is to restrict the impediment of Difference of religion to baptised Catholics; baptised non-Catholics are no longer subject to ; the ■ law The change may be illustrated by the case of the 'Anglican who married an Anabaptist mentioned above. We saw that this marriage was declared null and void and the-second marriage upheld. Since the new Code came into force, if such a case of marriage contracted after May 19, " 1918, ‘ ( were brought into court, the decision would be reversed! The first marriage would be declared valid, and the second invalid.