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

---

[Notes]:

[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)

[4] Also note that Canon 1098 provides for Catholics who, if their pastor is unavailable to witness their marriage for the foreseeable future (a month), they are allowed to validly marry before witnesses only, and the canon does not require that these witnesses be Catholic.  So in such a situation, a civil ceremony would suffice (Woywod p. 705).

[5] it would be invalid and illicit, taking into account the principles from [2] and the details of canon 1099, if the couple forewent the religious ceremony in favor of the civil ceremony.  Note that the civil officiation of the marriage does not make it valid or licit, but only under certain conditions simply makes it allowable, provided that canon 1094 is followed.

[6]  Does not seem possible; the bishops permission is not required except inasmuch as the couple are to be married in front of their pastor who is deputed by the bishop to act on his behalf.  So in the rare and unusual instance that a couple, though free to marry, are for some reason forbidden by their pastor from marrying (something he does not, to my knowledge, have the power to do), and they go and get married in a different parish, one might perhaps face this instance.  But it would still seem valid and lawful.

[7] Does not seem possible at all.

[8] See note [2]

[9] It depends on whether or not the baptized non-Catholic was baptized in the Catholic Church.  See note [2].  See also notes [3]-[5].


[10] The impediment of mixed religion may be dispensed from, rendering the marriage lawful and valid.  Note that mixed religion never (by itself) renders a marriage invalid (Woywod, p. 670).  The conditions for the dispensation to be granted is moral certainty on the part of the bishop that the non-Catholic party will at least not interfere with the upbringing of Catholic children and will not interfere with the Catholic life and duty of the family.

[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 ).

My comment: without a dispensation (i.e., the permission of the ordinary), the marriage would be unlawful.

[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.  

[13] Theoretically lawful and valid according to canon 1098.  See note [4].

[14] Theoretically valid but unlawful according to canon 1098 depending on why the bishop's permission was not given-- was he appealed to?  Could he be appealed to?  etc. This note is not substantially different from the previous note.  It's a very complicated situation.

[15] Without any extenuating circuмstance, the marriage would be invalid for wont of form and the lack of dispensation allowing the Catholic to marry elsewhere.

[16] This is the impediment of disparity of cult (C. 1070), which renders a marriage invalid unless dispensed from (Woywod p. 712, see note [17]).  So if this couple marries civilly in bad will, it is an invalid marriage.  If, however, a dispensation is granted and the marriage before civil authorities is simply to gain civil benefits and recognition while the couple intend to or already have married in the Church with the proper dispensation and form, see note [3].

[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)

[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.  

Sorry, the table looks awful with all the footnoting.  Hope you can make sense of it.

It doesn't look bad on my end.
Thanks for spending the time filling it out

If you want the Catholic Church to recognize your marriage as valid, this is the set of rules that you will have to follow;

 http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM

Do two apostate Catholics validly marry outside the Church?

Techncally no.

I have developed a much more BBCode friendly version and posted it here.