What Is Legal Impediment to Marriage

As far as their origin is concerned, the obstacles come either from divine law and therefore cannot be decreed, or from ecclesiastical law, and can therefore be issued by the competent ecclesiastical authority. According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, ecclesiastical obstacles apply only to marriages in which one or both parties are Catholic. According to the previous Code of 1917, ecclesiastical obstacles also applied to marriages of non-Catholic Christians, unless they were expressly excluded. Note that, as stated in Articles 2 and 4 of Dignitas Connubii,[4] the Catholic Church now recognizes the obstacles of other (i.e. non-Catholic) Churches and ecclesial communities when their members are parties to a marriage. Barriers to marriage are classified according to many different criteria. Roman Catholic sacramental theology teaches that the servants of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony are man and woman, and therefore any marriage voluntarily contracted between two baptized and unmarried adults is valid, although under normal circumstances marriage must be attested by the clergy to be legal. However, various provisions of current canon law describe exceptional circumstances that would prevent the validity of marriage. (b) a claim based on a marriage considered valid. To be entitled to the benefits of wife, husband, widow or widower of a marriage considered valid, you and the insured person must have lived in the same household at the time of the death of the insured person or, if the insured person is alive, at the time of the application for benefits (cf. § 404.347). However, a marriage deemed valid remains valid if the insured person and the beneficiary no longer live in the same household as the spouse or husband of the insured person at the time of the insured person`s death.

The validity of an act differs from its legality in that the former concerns its integrity, while the latter concerns its legality. (A similar illustration could be of an expelled lawyer winning a trial; the verdict is not overturned, but the lawyer is still subject to punishment. Similarly, a priest who has been laicized, suspended or excommunicated cannot legitimately celebrate Mass, but if he does, the Mass is still considered valid. [1]) (a) General. If your relationship as the insured`s wife, husband, widow, or widower cannot be established under state law, as explained in Section 404.345, you may be eligible for benefits based on a valid marriage. You are considered the wife, husband, widow or widower of the insured if you entered into a marriage in good faith with the insured person that would have led to a valid marriage without legal obstacles. A legal obstacle includes only an obstacle arising from the fact that a previous marriage had not yet ended at the time of the marriage or because the procedure relating to the intended marriage was flawed. For example, an error in the procedure can be found if a marriage was contracted during a religious ceremony in a country that requires a civil marriage for a valid marriage. Good faith means that at the time of the ceremony, you did not know that there was a legal obstacle, or if you did, you thought it would not prevent a valid marriage. Obstacles to the priesthood are divided into permanent “irregularities” if they are not eliminated by the competent authority, and into “mere obstacles” that can pass over time without the intervention of an ecclesiastical authority. Canon law also enumerates various obstacles to the exercise of a priesthood already conferred. The bishop can remove most irregularities and simple obstacles, except those concerning public apostasy, heresy, or schism; abortion or murder, even in secret; and existing marriages.

Irregularities that cannot be eliminated by the bishop may be reported by the Holy See (i.e. by the pope or by the competent dicastery of the Roman Curia[31]). In the canon law of the Catholic Church, an obstacle is a juridical obstacle that prevents a sacrament from being validly or legally administered, or both. The term is most often used in reference to the sacraments of marriage and holy orders. Some canonical obstacles may be removed by the competent authority (usually the local Ordinary, but some obstacles are reserved for the Apostolic See) as defined in Catholic canon law. With respect to their effect on the Lord`s Supper,[2] the obstacles are either the leadership that invalidates an attempted marriage or the prohibitive (or unfavorable) obstacles that make marriage illicit but valid. “Diriment” comes from the Latin word dirimens (“to separate”), which means an obstacle that means that the pair cannot be merged. [3] The 1983 Code of Canon Law does not enumerate prohibitive obstacles as such, so the distinction between validity and admissibility is less clear than in previous formulas. Note: In the following, canonical references to the 1983 Code of Canon Law are referred to as “CIC” (Codex Iuris Canonici), canonical references to the 1917 Code of Canon Law as “1917 CIC”, and canonical references to the 1990 Codex of Canons of the Eastern Churches are referred to as “CCEO” (Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium). [44 FR 34481, 15 June 1979, amended by 45 FR 65540, 3 October 1980; 48 FR 21927, 16 May 1983; 58 FR 64892, 10 December 1993], if they can be exempted by the local ordinary under normal circumstances or if their dispensation is reserved to the Pope[6].