THEOLOGY 2: IMMEDIATE PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE

Key Questions

• What are the important ingredients for a perfect marriage or wedding?

• What makes a marriage valid?

Definition of Marriage

• As defined by the Family Code of the Philippines:

  • A special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman.

  • Entered into in accordance with the law.

  • For the establishment of conjugal and family life.

  • Foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution.

  • Governed by law, not subject to stipulations, except for marriage settlements regarding property relations.

• Definition of marriage in Art. 52 of the Old Civil Code of the Philippines:

  • Marriage is a special contract.

  • It is a permanent union.

  • The union is between a man and a woman.

  • The union must be entered into in accordance with the law.

  • The purpose of marriage is the establishment of conjugal and family life.

• Purposes of marriage:

  • Not necessarily limited to procreation.

  • Can also be for companionship, especially for those past the age of procreation.

  • The phrase "for the establishment of conjugal and family life" is used to encompass broader purposes.

Marriage Laws

• The legal requisites provided by the Family Code of the Philippines ensure that those getting married possess the basic qualifications required of married life.

Requirements for Validity of Marriage

• Essential

  • Legal Capacity

  • Consent

• Formal

  • Authority of Solemnizing Officer

  • Marriage License

  • Marriage Ceremony

Essential Requisites

1. Legal Capacity:

• Contracting parties must be at least 18 years old, male and female, and not under any impediment to marry (Art. 2 FCP, 1987).

• Impediments are listed in Art. 37 (incestuous marriage) and Art. 38 (void marriages).

• If between 18 and 21 years old, written consent from father, mother, or legal guardian is required (Art. 14).

• If between 21 and 25 years old, written parental advice is required, indicating parents' awareness of the intent to marry (Art. 15).

Impediments to Marry:

• Existing marriage bond: A decree of judgment must be obtained and recorded in the civil registry before any subsequent marriage.

• Consanguinity: Not related by blood in all degrees of the direct line and up to the 4th degree of the collateral line.

• Relationship by Adoption: Between adopting parent and his/her surviving spouse and adopted child, the surviving spouse of the adopted child and adopter, adopted child and legitimate child of the adopter, adopted children of the same adopter.

• Relationship by Affinity: Step-parents and step-children, parents-in-law and children-in-law.

2. Consent

• Freely given by the contracting parties in the presence of the solemnizing officer (FCP, Art. 2, 5, 14, 15, 41, 45).

• Factors Vitiating Consent (FCP, Art. 35, 36, 45):

  • Insanity

  • Fraud:

    • Non-disclosure of previous conviction on crimes involving moral turpitude.

    • Concealment of sexually transmitted disease (STD) existing at the time of marriage.

    • Concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, or homosexuality/lesbianism.

    • Concealment of pregnancy by another man.

  • Force, intimidation, or undue influence

  • Error on the identity of the other contracting party

• Other Factors Affecting the Validity of Marriage (FCP, Art. 36, 45):

  • Psychological Incapacity: Renders marriage void $ab \, initio$.

  • Incurable Impotence: Renders marriage voidable; valid until annulled.

  • Serious and Incurable Sexually Transmitted Disease: Renders marriage voidable; valid until annulled.

Formal Requisites

1. Authority of the Solemnizing Officer

• Authorized to solemnize marriage (Art. 3 FCP, 1987):

  • Any incumbent member of the judiciary within the court’s jurisdiction.

  • Any priest, rabbi, imam, or minister of any church or religious sect duly authorized and registered with the Civil Registrar General.

  • Any ship captain or airline chief only in cases of articulo mortis.

  • Any military commander of a unit in the absence of a chaplain during military operation cases involving $in \, articulo \, mortis$.

  • Any consul-general, consul, or vice-consul in marriages solemnized abroad.

  • Mayors of cities and municipalities under the new Local Government Code.

2. A Valid Marriage License

• Issued by the local civil registrar where either contracting party resides (Art. 9 of the Family Code).

• The application for the marriage license shall be posted for ten (10) consecutive days outside the office of the civil registrar.

• Valid in any part of the Philippines for 120 days and automatically cancelled at the end of said period.

• No valid marriage license, no valid marriage.

• Marriages Exempted from Marriage License Requirement:

  • Marriages $in \, articulo \, mortis$ (Article 27).

  • No means of transportation (Article 28): if the residence of either party is so located that there is no means of transportation to enable such party to appear personally before the local civil registrar.

  • Marriages among Muslims or among members of the ethnic cultural communities, provided they are solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites, or practices (Article 33).

  • Couples living together for at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry each other (Article 34).

  • Marriage performed abroad where no license is required by foreign law.

3. Marriage Ceremony

• No particular form of the ceremony is required.

• Appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that they take each other as husband and wife in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age is required.

• Solemnized publicly in the chambers of the judge or in open court, in the church, chapel or temple, or in the office of the consul-general, consul or vice-consul, as the case may be, and not elsewhere.

• Absence of any of the essential and formal requisites shall render the marriage void $ab \, initio$ (void from the very start) except as stated in Art. 35 (2) (Article 4 of the Family Code of the Philippines).

• A defect in any of the essential requisites shall render the marriage voidable as provided in Art. 45.

• An irregularity in the formal requisites shall not affect the validity of the marriage but the party or parties responsible for the irregularity shall be civilly, criminally, and administratively liable.

Catholic Church Perspective on Marriage

• An intimate community of life and love, established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own proper laws.

• God, Himself, is the author of marriage.

• Characterized by unity (monogamy) and indissolubility (permanence).

• Marriage is between one man and one woman, who promise to be faithful to each other.

• A partnership for the good of the spouses, who are open to the procreation and education of children.

• A partnership of life and love in which a man and a woman mutually and freely accept each other and bestow on each other the very gift of themselves.

• The Catholic Church describes marriage as a lifetime, exclusive partnership between one man and one woman, who give and receive mutual help and love and, from their union, bring forth and rear children.

• Marriages are always presumed valid until proven otherwise.

• If a marriage involves two baptized Christians, it is presumed not only valid but also sacramental.

• If one or both parties is unbaptized, the marriage still is presumed to be valid and a good and natural bond.

Definition of Marriage (CIC Can. 1055)

• The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a consortium of the whole life [and which] by its very nature is ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between baptized persons.

Tripod of Marriage Validity

• Capacity/Legal Capacity

• Consent

• Canonical Form

Canonical Marriage Requirements

• Capacity: Freedom from any and all matrimonial diriment impediments.

• Consent: Free, true, and deliberate option for marriage.

• Canonical Form: Constitutive procedure for the celebration of marriage as stipulated by Church law.

• A defect in any of these renders canonical marriage NULL AND VOID $AB \, INITIO$.

Marriage Nullity Grounds

• Canonical Form

• 12 Diriment Impediments (Capacity)

• Consent

Diriment Impediments (Can. 1073)

• “A diriment impediment renders a person incapable of validly contracting a marriage.”

• DIRIMENS “opposed to the validity of the matrimonial contract.”

• Render a person incapable of validly contracting marriage

• Anything which hinders the free action of an agent, which, in this case, is the act of contracting marriage

• (1) gravely prohibit marriage, (2) oppose a valid celebration of marriage.

Purpose of Diriment Impediments

• To guarantee the good of the entire community and to avoid that damage be inflicted either personally or directly to a partner.

Classifications of Diriment Impediments

• Public or Occult

• Of Divine or Ecclesiastical Law

• Absolute or Relative

• Perpetual or Temporary

Public vs. Occult

• Public: can be proved in the external forum (deposition of the witnesses, experts, public and private documents, etc.)

• Occult: cannot be demonstrated in the ecclesiastical court unless divulged although it may be legally or simply be proven.

Of Divine Law vs. Of Ecclesiastical Law

• Of Divine Law: founded on God’s law; established positively by God through the Revelation (can never be granted dispensation)

• Of Ecclesiastical Law: established by the Church for her faithful; binds only the baptized Catholics or those received to it (may be granted dispensation by competent ecclesiastical authority)

Absolute vs. Relative

• Absolute: involves all marriages (e.g. age, impotence, previous bond, disparity of cult, sacred order and vow)

• Relative: concerns only marriages between two specific persons (crime, consanguinity, affinity, public propriety, and legal relationship)

Perpetual vs. Temporary

• Perpetual: by its nature, it can never cease (e.g. consanguinity)

• Temporary: ceases by the passing of time or by dispensation: (e.g. Age, Holy Order) or by the removal of the basis of the disqualifying law (death of the spouse)

Schematic Overview of Diriment Impediments

Impediments of Divine and Natural Law (cannot be dispensed)

• Impotence

• Previous Bond

• Consanguinity (all degrees of Direct Line and up to 2nd degree of collateral line)

Impediments of Ecclesiastical Law (dispensation reserved to the Holy See)

• Sacred Order

• Public Perpetual Vow

• Crime

Impediments of Ecclesiastical Law (dispensation can be given by local Ordinary)

• Age

• Disparity of Cult

• Abduction

• Collateral Line of Consanguinity

• Affinity

• Public Propriety

• Adoption

The 12 Diriment Impediments

1. Age (Can. 1083)

• §1. A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age and a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age cannot enter into a valid marriage.

• §2. The conference of bishops is free to establish a higher age for the licit celebration of marriage.

• In the Philippines, 18 y/o both for man and woman (CBCP Complementary Norms)

• Purpose: This impediment ensures that parties contracting marriage possess physical/biological and spiritual maturity to fulfill the essential duties or obligations of marriage.

Case:

• Ji-ho, a 15-year-old Filipino Catholic, has been dating Ji-ha, a 13-year-old Filipino Catholic. They had been dating for two months and were already having premarital sex. Four months after, Ji-ha missed her period and with a pregnancy test kit, found out she was pregnant. She told her parents about it. To ensure that the child will have a father and a mother, they told Ji-ho and Ji-ha to marry.

• Can they validly marry in the Catholic Church? NO.

• How about in the Philippine law? NO. under Art. 35 no. 1:

  • Art. 35. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning:

    • (1) Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of parents or guardians

2. Impotence (Can. 1084)

• Inability to procreate, to execute the conjugal act or to consummate the marriage.

• Purpose: This impediment protects the integrity of marriage, particularly its procreative end.

  • §1. Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have intercourse, whether on the part of the man or the woman, whether absolute or relative, nullifies marriage by its very nature.

  • §2. If the impediment of impotence is doubtful, whether by a doubt about the law or a doubt about a fact, a marriage must not be impeded nor, while the doubt remains, declared null.

  • §3. Sterility neither prohibits nor nullifies marriage, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 1098.

Case:

• Jessie was born with a rare condition. His sexual organ was not fully developed and despite several surgeries, his organ could still not function. Rachel knew about Jessie’s condition, but she loves him so much that she agreed to marry him.

• Can they validly marry?

  • In the Catholic Church? NO

  • In the Philippine Civil law? YES. Under Article 45 (5) of the Family Code of the Philippines which provides that a marriage may be annulled if, at the time of the marriage, either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other, and such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable. The action for annulment of marriage based on this ground must be filed by the injured party within five (5) years after the celebration of the marriage (Article 47, Ibid.).

3. Previous Bond (Can. 1085)

• Purpose: This impediment protects the integrity of marriage and the stability of conjugal and family relations.

  • §1. A person bound by the bond of a prior marriage, even if it was not consummated, invalidly attempts marriage.

  • §2. Even if the prior marriage is invalid or dissolved for any reason, it is not on that account permitted to contract another before the nullity or dissolution of the prior marriage is established legitimately and certainly.

Case:

• Glen married Jona in 2000. After six months of marriage, they separated ways and were able to obtain a civil affirmative decision on the nullity of their marriage. In 2001, he met Melody. Quite certain that she would be a good wife, he proposed marriage to her.

• Can they validly marry?

  • In the Catholic Church? NO

  • In the Philippine Civil law? NO. Under FCP Art. 41, which provides that A marriage contracted by any person during subsistence of a previous marriage shall be null and void…

4. Disparity of Cult (Can. 1086)

• Purpose: This impediment aims to preserve the Christian faith in the family

  • §1. A marriage between two persons, one of whom was baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it, and the other of whom is not baptized, is invalid.

  • §2. A person is not to be dispensed from this impediment unless the conditions mentioned in can. 1125 and 1126 have been fulfilled.

• Can. 1125 The local ordinary can grant a permission of this kind if there is a just and reasonable cause. He is not to grant it unless the following conditions have been fulfilled:
  * 1. the Catholic party is to declare that he or she is prepared to remove dangers of defecting from the faith and is to make a sincere promise to do all in his or her power so that all offspring are baptized and brought up in the Catholic Church;
  * 2. the other party is to be informed at an appropriate time about the promises which the Catholic party is to make, in such a way that it is certain that he or she is truly aware of the promise and obligation of the Catholic party;
  * 3. both parties are to be instructed about the purposes and essential properties of marriage which neither of the contracting parties is to exclude.

• It is for the conference of bishops to establish the method in which these declarations and promises, which are always required, must be made and to define the manner in which they are to be established in the external forum and the non-Catholic party informed about them. (Can. 1126)

  • §3. If at the time the marriage was contracted one party was commonly held to have been baptized or the baptism was doubtful, the validity of the marriage must be presumed according to the norm of can. 1060 until it is proven with certainty that one party was baptized but the other was not.

    • Can. 1060 Marriage possesses the favor of law; therefore, in a case of doubt, the validity of a marriage must be upheld until the contrary is proven.

Case:

• Adam, a devout Catholic, works in Saudi Arabia. There, he met Eve, a Muslim. After a two-year relationship as girlfriend and boyfriend, they decided to marry. Adam wants their marriage to be celebrated in the Catholic Church.

• Can they validly marry in the Catholic Church? NO, UNLESS THEY WILL GET THE DISPENSATION OF THE LOCAL ORDINARY FIRST.

• HOW ABOUT IN THE PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW?

  • Yes, there is no law prohibiting them from marrying civilly.

  • It is a haram or forbidden for a Muslim woman to be married to a non-Muslim man(2:221, The Holy Qur'an, Article 13, PD 1083). Shari'a jurisprudence explains that one of the reasons is that because the man is the head and maintainer of the family. He also takes absolute responsibility for his wife's protection.

5. Sacred Orders (Can. 1087)

• Purpose: To preserve religious values in the community and the dignity of the sacrament of ordination.

  • Those in sacred orders invalidly attempt marriage.

  • Founded on the obligation of celibacy of ordained ministers.

Case:

• After ten years as an ordained priest, John bumped into Jane, his former girlfriend. After going out with her several times, he fell in love with her again. He wanted to marry her, but he also loves his ministry as a priest and could not bear the thought of leaving it.

• Can he marry secretly and continue to be a priest?

  • In the Catholic Church? NO.

  • In the Philippine Civil Law?

    • Yes, there is no law in Philippines prohibiting them from marrying civilly.

6. Public Perpetual Vow of Chastity (Can. 1088)

• Purpose: To preserve religious values in the community

  • Those bound by a public perpetual vow of chastity in a religious institute invalidly attempt marriage.

  • This impediment ceases with the dispensation of the vow itself by the competent Church authority

Case:

• Sr. Ji-hyun, made her perpetual profession in 2010. In 2013, she met Jun, who approached her for some advice. Their meetings became frequent, and their relationship developed. Jun confessed his feelings to her. She also admitted that she has learned to love him. In 2014, she asked the Holy See for the permission to live outside the convent for a year. There, she continued meeting Jun. After six months, she finally decided to marry him.

• Can she validly marry Jun in the Catholic Church?

  • NO, unless Sr. Ji-hyun gets a dispensation from the Holy See.

• How about in the Philippine Civil Law?

  • Yes, there is no law in Philippines prohibiting them from marrying civilly.

7. Abduction (Can. 1089)

• Purpose: To protect the freedom of the person to marry.

  • No marriage can exist between a man and a woman who has been abducted or at least detained with a view of contracting marriage with her unless the woman chooses marriage of her own accord after she has been separated from the captor and established in a safe and free place.

Case:

• Park Hun, Ye-jin's longtime secret admirer, kidnapped her with the intention of marrying her. He threatened to kill her if she refused to marry him. Ye-jin’s fearfully agreed to marry him. Park Hun made her promise to convince the priest that she is marrying him voluntarily. Having been assured of her promise, he arranged their marriage in the nearby Catholic parish.

• Can they validly marry?

  • IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? NO.

  • HOW ABOUT IN THE PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW? NO. UNDER ART. 45 NO. 4 OF FCP.

    • Art. 45. A marriage may be annulled for any of the following causes, existing at the time of the marriage:

      • (4) That the consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence, unless the same having disappeared or ceased, such party thereafter freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

8. Crime (Can. 1090)

• Purpose: To protect human life and the integrity of consortium. The murderer for the sake of marriage should not be rewarded by that marriage. Partners in crime should never be partners in marriage

  • §1. Anyone who with a view to entering marriage with a certain person has brought about the death of that person’s spouse or of one’s own spouse invalidly attempts this marriage.

  • §2. Those who have brought about the death of a spouse by mutual physical or moral cooperation also invalidly attempt a marriage together.

Case:

• Ji-won, a married man, is in an illicit affair with Lee, who was married as well. They poisoned their respective spouses so that they can marry each other.

• Can Ji-won and Lee marry validly in the Catholic Church? NO.

• HOW ABOUT IN THE PHILIPPINE CIIVL LAW?

  • NO, UNDER ART. 38 NO. 9 OF FCP.

    • Art. 38. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning for reasons of public policy:

      • (9) Between parties where one, with the intention to marry the other, killed that other person’s spouse, or his or her own spouse.

9. Consanguinity (Can. 1091)

• Purpose: To protect integrity of marriage, and the stability of conjugal and family life

  • §1. In the direct line of consanguinity marriage is invalid between all ancestors and descendants, both legitimate and natural.

  • §2. In the collateral line marriage is invalid up to and including the fourth degree.

  • §3. The impediment of consanguinity is not multiplied.

  • §4. A marriage is never permitted if doubt exists whether the partners are related by consanguinity in any degree of the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line.

• Relationship by blood

• Descent from one person to another

• All degrees in the direct line of consanguinity

• Up to fourth degree collateral line (dispensation is possible for 3rd and 4th degree)

Case:

• Ji-chang's parents gave him up for adoption to a wealthy family, who then brought him to the United States. He did not know his biological parents and siblings. Ji-chang returned to the Philippines after twenty years. He met Suzy, who was his biological sister. They fell in love with each other and decided to marry after three years.

• Can they validly marry?

  • IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? NO.

  • HOW ABOUT IN THE PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW? NO, UNDER ART. 37 NO. 2 OF FCP.

    • Art. 37. Marriages between the following are incestuous and void from the beginning, whether relationship between the parties be legitimate or illegitimate:

      • 2) Between brothers and sisters, whether of the full or half blood.

10. Affinity (Can. 1092)

• Purpose: To protect integrity of marriage, and the stability of conjugal and family life

  • Juridical relationship arising from marriage and existing between one spouse and the blood relatives of the other spouse

  • Prohibits marriage between one surviving spouse and all the blood relatives of the dead spouse in the ascending or descending direct line and in all degrees.

  • Admits dispensation but rarely heard of because of basic decency

  • Affinity in the direct line in any degree invalidates a marriage.

Case:

• Wang-chu, a 40-year-old widower, fell in love with So-yun, her former wife's 25 year-old biological sister. After two years of dating, they are now planning to marry.

• Can they validly marry?

  • IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

    • NO, UNLESS THEY GET A DISPENSATION FROM THE LOCAL ORDINARY.

  • HOW ABOUT IN THE PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW?

    • YES, there is no law in Philippines prohibiting them from marrying civilly.

11. Public Propriety (Can. 1093)

• Purpose: To protect integrity of marriage, and the stability of conjugal and family life

  • Arises when a couple live together (in an invalid marriage) or cohabitated in notorious concubinage

  • Prohibits marriage between the man and the blood relatives of the woman (first degree ascending or descending direct line) and vice versa.

  • The impediment of public propriety arises from an invalid marriage after the establishment of common life or from notorious or public concubinage. It nullifies marriage in the first degree of the direct line between the man and the blood relatives of the woman, and vice versa.

Case:

• Cha-in, a 35-year-old single mother, has been cohabiting with Chonin for five years. After five years, living together had become toxic for them and they mutually decided to separate. Chonin, though, kept in communication with Che-Che, Cha-in’s only daughter. He fell in love with her and proposed to marry her.

• Can Chonin validly marry Che-Che?

  • IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? NO.

  • HOW ABOUT IN PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW?

    • YES, there is no law in Philippines prohibiting them from marrying civilly.

12. Legal Relationship (Can. 1094)

• Purpose: To protect integrity of marriage, and the stability of conjugal and family life

  • Its causal origin is adoption

  • Persons may not validly enter into marriage when they are related in whatever degree in the direct line or in the 2nd degree of the collateral line (by adoption)

  • Those who are related in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line by a legal relationship arising from adoption cannot contract marriage together validly.

Case:

• Ka Tony, a 50-year-old widower, fell in love with Jo-ha, her previous wife's adoptive daughter. They wanted to marry after being in a relationship for five years.

• Can they validly marry in the Catholic Church?

  • IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? NO.

• HOW ABOUT IN PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW?

  • NO, UNDER ART. 38 NO. 5.

    • 5) Between the surviving spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child

Possible Remedy of an Invalid Marriage Due to an Impediment:

• Simple Convalidation (can. 1156 - 1160)

• Radical Sanation or Retroactive Validation (can. 1161 - 1165)

Integrality of Matrimonial Consent

• CAN. 1057§1 “A marriage is brought into being by the lawfully manifested consent of persons who are legally capable. This consent cannot be supplied by any human power.”

  • Consent is absolute necessary.

  • Exchange of consent must follow the solemnities prescribed by law.

  • Only legally capable persons can give their consent.

• CAN. 1057§2 MATRIMONIAL CONSENT

  • Act of the will, by which a man and a woman, with an irrevocable covenant give and accept each other mutually, in order to bring into existence a marriage (Can. 1057 §2)

    • Indispensable internal element in the creation of the bond.

    • Deep seated act in the spirit of a human person manifested through external signs

    • Its object are the essential elements/properties and specific rights and duties of marriage

    • In giving his/her consent, the contracting party is presumed to have the intention of establishing a PERMANENT UNION.

• CAN. 1095-1107

  • Purpose: uphold and safeguard the integrity of human persons in the act of choosing marriage

  • Persons contracting marriage must be WELL-INFORMED and FREE from SERIOUS CONSTRAINT and DECEIPT

• CAN. 1095-1107

  • Factors Vitiating Consent

    • A. Psychosomatic Incapacity

      • Lack of Sufficient Use of Reason (can. 1095 §1)

      • Lack of Due Discretion of Judgment (can. 1095 §2)

      • Incapacity to fulfill the essential rights and duties of marriage (can. 1095 §3)

    • B. Cognitive Capacity

      • Ignorance (can. 1096 §§1-2)

      • Error (can. 1097 §§1-2)

      • Fraud/Deceit (can. 1098)

    • C. Volitive Capacity (Full and Free Consent)

      • Exclusion (can. 1101 §2)

      • Conditional Consent (can. 1102)

      • Force and Fear (can. 1103)

Psychosomatic Incapacity

• 1. Consensual Incapacity: natural capacity to elicit consent

  • Lack of Use of Reason

  • Grave Lack of Due Discretion of Judgment

  • Incapacity to assume the essential obligations of marriage

• CAN. 1095 Requires contracting parties to have the capacity to:

  • THINK RATIONALLY (use of reason)

  • DECIDE RESPONSIBLY (discretion of judgment)

  • CARRY OUT DECISION BY ACTION (psychological capacity to fulfill the obligations of marriage)

• CAN. 1095

  • USE OF REASON

    • Does not refer to the content of the intellect but to the fundamental ability to know.

    • The use of reason must be “sufficient” to understand that marriage is a community of conjugal life for the good of the spouses and the generation and education of children.

  • DUE DISCRETION OF JUDGMENT:

    • Capacity to intend and to will, sufficient knowledge, sufficient deliberation and sufficient internal freedom.

Comparison of Capacities

Cognitive Incapacity

• CAN. 1096

  • a. marriage is a permanent consortium

  • b. ordered to procreation and upbringing of children

  • c. through some form of sexual cooperation

  • Minimum knowledge:

    • §1. For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation.

    • §2. This ignorance is not presumed after puberty.

• CAN. 1097

  • §1. Error concerning the person renders a marriage invalid.

  • §2. Error concerning a quality of the person does not render a marriage invalid even if it is the cause for the contract, unless this quality is directly and principally intended.

• CAN. 1099

  • Error concerning the unity or indissolubility or sacramental dignity of marriage does not vitiate matrimonial consent provided that it does not determine the will.

Error Types

• CAN. 1098

  • 4. Fraud

  • A person contracts invalidly who enters into a marriage deceived by malice