By Father Matthew Crane
Marriage is part of the nature of the human person. Therefore, a lot of the Church’s law about marriage reflects truths about marriage that hold for all human beings, and those laws apply to all human beings. However, not all of the Church’s marriage laws apply to all people.
Most notable is the law regarding the “canonical form” of marriage, i.e. the minimum set of actors and witnesses to make the exchange of vows valid. At minimum, the bride and groom must give their consent to marriage in the presence of someone duly deputed to ask for and receive the consent on behalf of the Church (usually a priest or deacon), and two witnesses (c. 1108). Most people get married in front of at least two witnesses, as that’s often a requirement of civil law as well, but if a Catholic attempts marriage in front of a civil official or a non-Catholic minister without a dispensation from canonical form, the marriage is invalid.
Why such a strict rule? Canonical form for marriage was established at the Council of Trent by the decree Tametsi, promulgated in the year 1563. Church authorities acknowledged that men and women have the freedom, as a part of their nature, to contract marriage with one another, and apart from any authority or system of law, could do so however they wished – in front of two people, or ten, or none. Indeed, Tametsi specifically affirmed the possibility of a clandestine wedding, but that same decree also pointed out that many people were abusing this human right. It was not unknown that one spouse might take advantage of the other, engaging in a secret marriage in order to have a chance at behaving as husband and wife, but then denying the marriage had ever taken place when, later, it seemed less convenient. Sadly, the decree notes that men often took advantage of women in this way.
So, looking out for all people everywhere, as the authority of the Church is called to do, the Fathers of the Council established canonical form. However, as the Protestant Reformation was already underway, the new rules were actually applied in only a few places and only for Catholics.
Now, no one, then or now, disputes the ability of the Church to legislate for all Christians, even all human beings. Christ, king of the universe, has a big house, and his vicar, therefore, has a similarly sweeping authority (see c. 331 which declares that the pope has “supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power”). It is an audacious claim, yes, but a true one, demanding careful application of the law. For many who have not heard the Gospel, or have not accepted its fullness, are nonetheless welcome guests in the Lord’s House, which is the whole world. Therefore, lest non-Catholic Christians and the unbaptized be deprived of the right to marriage intrinsic to their nature, the pope is careful to avoid adding extra burdens to the Lord’s guests and applies canonical form only to Catholics.
Above photo: A pair of wedding bands symbolizing the sacrament of marriage is depicted in a stained-glass window at St. Isabel Church in Sanibel, Fla. (OSV News photo/CNS filer, Gregory A. Shemitz)