Article — Konings, Theologia Moralis
Article I. On the Necessity of Banns
1533. Principles. - I. From the precept of the Church there is a grave obligation of proclaiming banns. This is clear 1° as to the precept from the Fourth Lateran Council and from Trent.4 - It is clear 2° as to grave obligation, because a general discipline prescribed by two General Councils, and supported by grave motives, begets grave obligation. - Nevertheless the decrees of the Lateran and Tridentine Councils differ in this: that from the Lateran at least one announcement had to be made; from Trent, three, and these in the way which the Tridentine law, which also had to be introduced among us after the Easter feasts in the year 1853,1 prescribed. As regards the number of proclamations in places where Mass is not celebrated on single Sundays, consult the diocesan statutes.
II. The proclamation of banns is not required from the necessity of the Sacrament. For no law can be cited from which it is clear that the proclamation is required for the validity of Matrimony.
1534. Questions. - Quaer. 1° Does the Pastor sin gravely by omitting the announcement, if he knows that no impediment is present?
Resp. Affirmatively. The reason is 1° because with difficulty can a Pastor be altogether certain that no impediment of Matrimony is present; 2° because, even if no impediment appears before the proclamation of banns, it can happen that, when they have been proclaimed, some impediment supervenes; 3° because, even if these reasons did not subsist, there always subsists the reason that the end of the law in the case ceases only privatively, as was said n. 165. 2°. I say: 2).2
Quaer. 2° Does the Pastor sin gravely if he omits only one proclamation without dispensation?
Resp. It is controverted. Some affirm, because one proclamation out of the three is to be held as a grave part of the whole precept. But others deny, whose opinion St. Alphonsus calls probable.3 It is more probable, however, that the omission of two announcements is a mortal sin.4
Notes near nn. 1533-1534, necessity of banns and omitted proclamations (printed pp. 224-225).
1 Conc. Pl. Balt. II. a. 331-333. | 2 L. VI. 990. | 3 Ib. | 4 Ib. | 5 Sess. 24. c. 1. de Ref. Matr.