Spouses | Civil Marriage | Marriage in Catholic Church with bishop's permission | …without bishop's permission | Marriage outside Catholic Church with bishop's permission | …without bishop's permission |
Catholic & Catholic | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Catholic & Baptized Non-Catholic | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Catholic & Non-Baptized | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Non-Catholic & Non-Catholic | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the (in)validity and (il)licitness of marriage in Canon law.
Assuming there are no diriment impediments to marriage for the hypothetical couples below, how would this table be filled out using the numbers 1-4 described below?:
Spouses Civil Marriage Marriage in Catholic Church
with bishop's permission…without bishop's permission Marriage outside Catholic Church
with bishop's permission…without bishop's permission
Catholic & Catholic ? ? ?
?
?
Catholic & Baptized Non-Catholic ? ? ? ? ? Catholic & Non-Baptized ? ? ? ? ? Non-Catholic & Non-Catholic ? ? ? ? ?
1 = valid & licit (lawful)
2 = valid but illicit (unlawful)
3 = invalid but licit
4 = invalid & illicit
- = does not apply or not possible
Citations from Canon Law would be appreciated.
Spouses | Civil Marriage [1] | Marriage in Catholic Church with bishop's permission | …without bishop's permission | Marriage outside Catholic Church with bishop's permission [2] | …without bishop's permission [2] |
Catholic & Catholic | 1 [3], [4] or 4 [5] | 1 | - [6] | - [7] | 4 [8] |
Catholic & Baptized Non-Catholic | 1 or 4 [9] | 1 [10] | 2 [11] | 1 [12] | 1 [13], 2 [14], or 4 [15] |
Catholic & Non-Baptized | 1 or 4 [16] | 1 | 4 [17] | 1 | 4 [17] |
Non-Catholic & Non-Catholic [18] | 1 | - | - | - | 1 |
[1] "Marriage between unbaptized persons is subject to the civil power, and in the case of these marriages the civil law has the right to determine the condition of the validity as well as the liceity of these marriage contracts. However, the civil power is bound to respect the divine law on marriage, and all civil laws which contradict the divine law are necessariliy null and void" (Woywod vol. 1, p. 647 1957 ed.).
[2] Canon 1094: "General Principle: Church Law requires for the validity of marriage that it be celebrated in the presence of the pastor or Ordinary of the place, or of a priest delegated by either of these, and at least two witnesses...
..."The Following Persons are obliged to observe the form above prescribed:
1) All who are baptized in the Catholic Church or who have been converted to it from heresy or schism, even though the former or the latter may later have left the Church, whenever the contract marriage among themselves;
2) The same pserons above mentioned, if they contract marriage with non-Catholics, either baptized or not baptized, even after obtaining a dispensation from the impediment of mixed religion or disparity of cult" (Bouscaren and Ellis, 1946, C. 1094, p. 516).
[3] "If the civil law demands it, the Church does not censure parties for appearing even before a non-Catholic minister who is acting merely as an official of the government, provided that their purpose is solely to comply with the civil law and to get civil recognition of their marriage" (Woywod., p. 704)
[11] "Canon 1060. The Church everywhere most severely forbids the contracting of marriage between two baptized persons of whom one is a Catholic whereas the other is a member of a heretical or schismatical sect; and if there is danger of perversion for the Catholic party and the children, the marriage is forbidden also by the divine law itself" (Bouscaren and Ellis, p. 458 ).[12] This would require not only a dispensation from the impediment but also a dispensation to the Catholic party to dispense them from observing the Catholic form of marriage.
My comment: without a dispensation (i.e., the permission of the ordinary), the marriage would be unlawful.
[17] Marriage between a person baptized in the Catholic Church, or received into the Church from heresy or schism, and an unbaptized person is null and void" (Woywod p. 712, C. 1070)
Sorry, the table looks awful with all the footnoting. Hope you can make sense of it.It doesn't look bad on my end.
It doesn't look bad on my end.My pleasure!
Thanks for spending the time filling it out
[18] The Church's law does not govern infidels. Such persons are capable of contracting valid natural marriages that are valid and lawful inasmuch as they meet the conditions established for validity and liciety according to whatever governing body to whom they answer.Do two apostate Catholics validly marry outside the Church?
Do two apostate Catholics validly marry outside the Church?Techncally no.
Techncally no.This also refers to people who were baptized into the Catholic Church as infants and were brought up outside of the Faith or left. There is a thread on Catholic Answers about a woman who is eastern rite yet left the Church and married a non Catholic and wants to return and there are complications. In another case someone who was baptized in the Catholic Church, was brought up outside the Church, married outside the Church, came back and at RCIA her sponser told her she was "living in sin."