Case XCI: Presumption of Life of a Missing Husband

Case.—Zenephon married when a very young man. In social condition Lita, his wife, was far below him. They lived a miserable life for a few months and then the husband, thinking he could no longer endure so unbearable an existence, deserted his wife and settled in the far West. After the lapse of ten years Lita engages to marry Cliopus. To the pastor she admits her prior marriage, informing him that she has never heard directly from her husband, but that once, some six years ago, she heard from a mutual friend that Zenephon had taken to drink, and then died of Bright’s disease in a Western hospital.

Question.—What must be done?

Solution.—The case, like all cases involving the declaration of the existence of a true marriage, must be sent to the Matrimonial Court of the diocese, which court will then be charged with the duty of deciding whether the lady in question is free to enter into new espousals or not. No priest, however certain he may be of the status of such a case, can pass judgment on it. He may have his own convictions, but these do not entitle him to give a decision, or to act in the name of the Church in relation to a new marriage.

Lita must apply to this court and give satisfactory evidence that her husband is dead, and that therefore she is, before God, free to enter into a valid matrimonial contract with Cliopus. The statement made by the mutual friend may have been true or may not have been true. It may have not been founded on any personal knowledge of that mutual friend, but may have been the result of pure hearsay. It may have been uttered as the consequence of the working of a lively imagination, or may have been a baseless fabrication begotten in a desire to please. It may be a fact, too, that the statement attributed to the mutual friend may never have been made; that the mutual friend had no real existence, for oftentimes it happens in such cases that the “wish is father to the thought.” Lita will be called upon to produce the party who made the statement, and an examination will be conducted to ascertain the trustworthiness of the witness. It should not be difficult to trace the missing husband, since the time and place of his sickness were known. The state and hospital records can be searched, and they will afford sufficient evidence of his death if it has really occurred. This, of course, will take time, but it is absolutely necessary. Zenephon may not have died. He may have recovered, at least partially. There is no proof adduced that he really became a drunkard, and when we set forth the fact that he was a young man and in good health the day he deserted his wife, the presumption is in favor of the theory that he is still among the living and, therefore, that Lita is still his lawful wife. The burden of changing this presumption of life into the presumption of death rests upon her who aspires to the new nuptials. Without doubt by using the proper means she could find out many facts having an important bearing upon her matrimonial status. The Church goes slowly and carefully in such cases, for hers it is to safeguard the sacred indissolubility of the marriage bond against the self-interest, the emotions, and the passions of men. Lita must await the decision of the ecclesiastical court.