Chapter VI: Of the Form of the Celebration of Marriage

Only those marriages are valid which are contracted before the pastor, or the local Ordinary, or a priest delegated by either, and at least two witnesses, yet according to the rules expressed in the canons which follow, and with the exceptions of which in canons 1098, 1099 preserved.

§ 1. The pastor and the local Ordinary validly assist at marriage:

1° Only from the day of canonical possession of the benefice obtained according to the norm of can. 334, Sec. 3, 1444, Sec. 1, or of office begun, unless by sentence they have been excommunicated, interdicted, or suspended from office, or declared such.

2° Only within the limits of their territory; in which they validly assist at marriages not only of their subjects, but even of non-subjects.

3° Provided that, constrained neither by force nor grave fear, they ask for and receive the consent of the contracting parties.

§ 2. The pastor and local Ordinary who can validly assist at marriage can also give permission to another priest that he validly assist at marriage within the limits of their territory.

§ 1. Permission of assisting at marriage granted according to the norm of can. 1095, Sec. 2, must be given expressly to a determined priest for a determined marriage, any general delegations being excluded, unless there is question of assistant vicars for the parish to which they are attached; otherwise it is invalid.

§ 2. The pastor or local Ordinary is not to grant permission unless all things which law establishes for proving freedom of status have been completed.

§ 1. But the pastor or local Ordinary licitly assist at marriage:

1° When the free status of the contracting parties has been legitimately established for them according to the norm of law.

2° When, in addition, the domicile or quasi-domicile or monthly residence, or, if there is question of a wanderer, the actual residence of either contracting party in the place of the marriage, has been established.

3° When, if the conditions of which in n. 2 are lacking, the permission of the pastor or Ordinary of the domicile or quasi-domicile or monthly residence of either contracting party has been had, unless either there is question of wanderers actually traveling, who nowhere have a fixed seat of residence, or a grave necessity intervenes which excuses from seeking permission.

§ 2. In any case let it be held as a rule that marriage is celebrated before the pastor of the bride, unless a just cause excuses; marriages of Catholics of mixed rite, however, unless something else has been provided by particular law, are to be celebrated in the rite of the man and before his pastor.

§ 3. A pastor who assists at marriage without the permission required by law does not make the stole offerings his own, and is to remit them to the proper pastor of the contracting parties.

If the pastor or Ordinary or delegated priest who would assist at marriage according to the norm of canons 1095, 1096 cannot be had or approached without grave inconvenience:

1° In danger of death, a marriage contracted before witnesses alone is valid and licit; and also outside danger of death, provided that it is prudently foreseen that this condition of things will last for a month.

2° In either case, if another priest is at hand who can be present, he must be called and, together with the witnesses, assist at the marriage, with the validity of the union before witnesses alone preserved.

§ 1. The following are held to observing the form established above:

1° All baptized in the Catholic Church and those converted to her from heresy or schism, although either these or those afterward defected from her, as often as they enter marriage among themselves.

2° The same persons of whom above, if they contract marriage with non-Catholics, whether baptized or not baptized, even after a dispensation has been obtained from the impediment of mixed religion or disparity of cult.

3° Easterners, if they contract with Latins bound to this form.

§ 2. With the prescription of Sec. 1, n. 1 remaining firm, non-Catholics, whether baptized or not baptized, if they contract among themselves, are nowhere held to observing the Catholic form of marriage; likewise those born of non-Catholics, although baptized in the Catholic Church, who from infancy have grown up in heresy or schism or infidelity or without any religion, as often as they contract with a non-Catholic party.

Outside a case of necessity, in the celebration of marriage the rites prescribed in ritual books approved by the Church or received by laudable customs are to be observed.

§ 1. The pastor is to take care that the spouses receive the solemn blessing, which can be given to them even after they have lived long in marriage, but only in Mass, with the special rubric observed and except during forbidden time.

§ 2. Only that priest, personally by himself or through another, can give the solemn blessing who can validly and licitly assist at marriage.

§ 1. In marriages between a Catholic party and a non-Catholic party, the questions concerning consent must be made according to the prescription of can. 1095, Sec. 1, n. 3.

§ 2. But all sacred rites are prohibited; but if graver evils are foreseen from this prohibition, the Ordinary can permit some of the customary ecclesiastical ceremonies, always excluding the celebration of Mass.

§ 1. When marriage has been celebrated, the pastor or the one who acts in his place is, as soon as possible, to write in the book of marriages the names of the spouses and witnesses, the place and day of the celebrated marriage, and other things according to the manner prescribed in the ritual books and by his own Ordinary; and this although another priest, delegated either by him or by the Ordinary, assisted at the marriage.

§ 2. Moreover, according to the norm of can. 470, Sec. 2, the pastor is also to note in the book of the baptized that the spouse contracted marriage on such a day in his parish. But if the spouse was baptized elsewhere, the pastor of the marriage is to transmit notice of the contract entered, either personally or through the episcopal Curia, to the pastor of baptism, so that the marriage may be entered in the book of the baptized.

§ 3. As often as marriage is contracted according to the norm of can. 1098, the priest, if he assisted at it, otherwise the witnesses, are held in solidum with the contracting parties to take care that the union entered be noted as soon as possible in the prescribed books.