Article II. On the Circumstances of the Banns

A threefold circumstance is to be considered here, namely: first, of time; second, of place; third, of persons.

736. • The proclamations must be made on consecutive feast days of precept during the solemnities of Mass. - Council of Trent, session 24, chapter 1, On Reformation.

It is said: first, on feast days, that is, on feast days of precept ¹, at least in the place of the proclamations; second, consecutive, that is, with no feast day omitted from the first proclamation to the last ². Whether the proclamations can be made on feast days immediately succeeding one another, if these occur, is disputed; there are two probable opinions ³. Third, during the solemnities of Mass, that is, in the parochial or conventual Mass, from a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council. - St. Ligorius, no. 991 ⁴. The proclamations cannot be made at private Masses or at Vespers. - Roman Ritual.

¹ Several teach with Schmalzgrueber (book 4, title 1, no. 24) and St. Alphonsus (book 6, no. 992) that the denunciation can be made even on a weekday if, for some cause, a great concourse of people comes to the church, because in this way also the end of the Council is sufficiently attained.

² St. Alphonsus (no. 992) considers it probable, and several others hold (in Schmalzgrueber, book 4, title 1, no. 23), that there is no grave sin if the feast days are not consecutive, one or another intervening, especially if feast days other than Sunday are in question. The reason is that there is slight danger that the people will forget, and the transgression is considered light matter.

³ In order that the affirmative opinion be probable, it appears necessary that every suspicion of an impediment truly be absent, because in so brief an interval neither can a report easily be spread sufficiently nor can doubts be dispelled.

⁴ The Doctors probably add, as St. Alphonsus says (no. 991), that the proclamations can be made at a sermon or on the occasion of a procession when the people are assembled.

If, however, the Pastor has forgotten to make the final proclamation at Mass, and the nuptials are urgent, he can supply it at Vespers. This is permitted by a Decision of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, October 25, 1586. - Ferraris.

If, after the proclamations have been made, the matrimony is not celebrated within two months, the proclamations must more probably be repeated, unless it seems otherwise to the Bishop ⁵.

⁵ From the Council of Ravenna it was approved and decreed in the Congregation that if any persons do not contract within four months after the denunciations have been completed, they cannot contract unless the denunciations have again been completed. Gallemart (note 3 on chapter 1, On the Reformation of Matrimony, session 24, Council of Trent). The same Declaration is reported by Rebellus (at the end of book 4, part 2, section 8, no. 8) and Busembaum (book 6, treatise 6, chapter 3, doubt 1, resolution 1). But what the Author says concerning the elapse of two months agrees with the Roman Ritual.

Although the form of the Tridentine precept does not appear to be violated if matrimony is contracted on the same day immediately after the final proclamation, nevertheless, if there should perhaps be insufficient time for reporting impediments, the law appears to be evaded. Hence Croix (book 6, part 3, no. 480) records that the Council of Cologne requires an interval of at least one day, so that, namely, if some impediment is present, it can be reported before the matrimony.

737. • From the Council of Trent, the proclamations of the banns must be made in a church, that is, in the parochial church of the contracting parties; but not in chapels, whether public or private ⁶, unless they hold the place of a parish and the parochial Mass is celebrated there. By parish, however, there is not to be understood the parish in which someone was born, or the parish of origin, but the parish of actual domicile, if the one to be proclaimed has remained there for a notable time.

⁶ Denunciations in chapels would not attain, as is evident, the end of the Council. Moreover, if the Pastor makes the denunciations in another church of the same parish in which perhaps solemnities are celebrated, the law of the Council appears to have been sufficiently fulfilled. Indeed, several Doctors in St. Alphonsus (book 6, no. 991) say that they can be made outside the church in a place of great concourse because thus the end of the Council is attained.

Hence: first, if the betrothed persons live in different parishes, the proclamation must be made in each. Second, if one or both have a roughly equal domicile in two places, the banns must also be proclaimed in each. But if one of the two domiciles is the principal or properly so called, a double proclamation is not thereby required. If someone, however, besides a domicile has a quasi-domicile elsewhere, the proclamations must also be made in the quasi-domicile. Third, if the contracting parties have recently fixed their domicile in the present parish, the banns must also be published in the parish where they previously lived; six months, however, is a sufficient time, says St. Ligorius, no. 991 ⁷.

⁷ St. Alphonsus by no means determines a period of six months in the cited place, but writes thus: A doubt arises concerning where the denunciations must be made if one of the betrothed persons stays for a short time in some place. Pontius thinks it sufficient if they are made in the place where that person actually resides. But Sanchez, etc., far more probably say from a Declaration of the Sacred Congregation that they must altogether be made in the parish from which the person departed; because the denunciations are therefore made that impediments may be manifested, and consequently they must be made where the betrothed persons have remained for a longer time.

Moreover, Father Gury perhaps indicates a period of six months as a sufficient cause why the denunciations must also be made in the present parish. For otherwise, as Schmalzgrueber has it (book 4, title 3, no. 14), it is not necessary that they be made in the place where the matrimony is contracted if, for example, after the denunciations have been made in the city, with permission for a just cause they wish to celebrate in the country, or migrate to another place. For, in general, the Tridentine Decree is satisfied if marriages are announced where those who are to contract matrimony are parishioners at the time of the denunciations.

But what Gury adds after St. Alphonsus, that the banns must also be published in the parish where they previously lived, must be understood unless they departed from there a long time previously, for example, ten, eight, or even five years, as is sufficiently gathered from Declarations of the Sacred Congregation. See Thesaurus of Resolutions of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, volume 6, pp. 272, 274. For in this case it would have been sufficient to seek testimony concerning free status.

738. • 1. Minors. The banns of minors must not be proclaimed except with the express consent of their parents or tutors ⁸. The proclamation must be made both in the domicile of fact and in the domicile of law, that is, both in the place where the minors live here and now and in the place where their parents or tutors reside. Males are held to be minors until the age of twenty-five years, and females until the twenty-first year. A male deprived of ascendants, however, becomes a major as soon as he has completed his twenty-first year.

⁸ No ecclesiastical law requires this consent of parents or tutors as regards minors, but the Author admonishes these things according to the prescriptions of the civil laws in France.

2. Soldiers. The banns of soldiers must be proclaimed: first, in the place where they are in garrison; second, in addition, in the domicile of their parents if they are minors ⁹; but if they are majors, in the place where they resided before entering military service, because they have not acquired another domicile of law. - Thus commonly.

⁹ See the preceding note.

3. Wanderers and foreigners. According to the common opinion, their banns must be published in their domicile of fact and in their place of origin if they have not obtained a true domicile elsewhere, or at least in the place in which they remained for a longer time. Furthermore, an authentic testimony concerning their free status must be obtained, and they must not be joined in matrimony without the permission of the Ordinary, as the Council of Trent has it, session 24, chapter 7, On the Reformation of Matrimony.