Article II. On the Circumstances of Banns

A threefold circumstance must be considered here, namely 1° of time; 2° of place; 3° of persons.

1535. - Proclamations must be made on feast days of precept - continuously - during the solemnities of Masses. - Trent.⁵

It is said: 1° on feast days, i.e. on feast days of precept, at least in the place of the proclamations. Among feasts of precept can be numbered those suppressed feasts on which the functions and solemnities still have to be performed as before the suppression, and the people still come frequently to the churches. Thus from various resolutions of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, which the illustrious Feije reports and explains.¹ - Indeed, St. Alphonsus² teaches that probably this can be done also on a ferial day, at least without mortal sin, if for some reason a great concourse of people is made to the Church, because thus also the end of the Council is sufficiently obtained.

It is said: 2° continuously, i.e. with no feast day omitted from the first proclamation to the last. Nevertheless St. Alphonsus judges probable, and several others hold, that there is no grave sin if the feast days, with one or another interposed, are not continuous. The reason is because the danger that the people forget is slight, and the matter of transgression is judged light. But whether proclamations can be made on feast days immediately succeeding one another, if they occur, is controverted: there is a twofold probable opinion.⁴

It is said: 3° during the solemnities of Masses, i.e. in the parochial or conventual Mass, from the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council. - Proclamations cannot be made in private Masses, nor at Vespers. - Roman Ritual. If nevertheless the Pastor had forgotten to make the last proclamation at Mass, and the nuptials press, he could supply it at Vespers. This is permitted from the Decision of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, October 25, 1586. - Ferraris. St. Alphonsus admits that probably proclamations can also be made in a sermon or on the occasion of a procession, when the people have been gathered.⁵

If, the proclamations having been made, Matrimony is not celebrated within two months, the proclamations are to be repeated, unless it seem otherwise to the Bishop. - Roman Ritual. - It is also advisable not to contract Matrimony immediately after the last proclamation, or on the same day on which this was made.

Notes near nn. 1535-1536, time and place of banns (printed pp. 225-226).

1 De Imp. n. 241-245. | 2 L. VI. 992. | 3 L. VI. 992. | 4 Ib. | 5 Ib. 991.

1536. - From the Council of Trent, the proclamations of banns must be made in the Church, i.e. in the parochial Church of the contracting parties; but not in chapels, whether public or private, unless they hold the place of a parish, and parochial Mass is celebrated there. - The Pastor can make them either by himself or through another; nevertheless care must be taken lest they be made by a layman. - The opinion of several Doctors seems probable to St. Alphonsus, who say that proclamations can be made (at least without mortal sin, and, with cause, even without venial sin) outside the Church in a place of great concourse, because thus the end of the Council is already obtained.¹ But by parish is not 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 lived there for a notable time.

Hence: 1° If the betrothed persons dwell in different parishes, the proclamation must be made in each. 2° If one or both have approximately equal domicile in two places, the banns also must be proclaimed in both. But if one of the two domiciles is principal, or properly so called, a double proclamation is not for that reason required. If someone, however, besides domicile, has quasi-domicile elsewhere, proclamations must be made also in the quasi-domicile.² 3° If the contracting parties have recently fixed domicile in the actual parish, the banns, much more probably,³ must also be published in the parish where they previously lived. But what domicile in this matter is to be called recent must be known from the diocesan statutes, or, these failing, from usage, Feije teaches.³

1537. - 1° Minors. The banns of minors (n. 836), for the sake of prudence, ought not to be proclaimed except with the express consent of parents or tutors. I say: for the sake of prudence; but not from the necessity of any ecclesiastical law. Proclamation is to be made both in the domicile of fact and in the domicile of law, that is, both in the place where the minors here and now dwell, and in the place where the parents or their tutors live. But minors, by Canon Law, are males who have not yet completed the twenty-fifth year of age, and females who have not yet completed the twenty-first. Nevertheless a male orphaned of ascendants becomes a major as soon as he has completed the twenty-first year.

2° Soldiers. The banns of soldiers are to be proclaimed 1° in the place where they are in garrisons; 2° besides in the domicile of the parents, if they are minors; but if they are majors, in the place where they were residing before they took up military service; because they have not acquired another domicile of law. - Thus commonly.

3° Wanderers and foreigners. Their banns, according to the common opinion, are to be published in the domicile of fact and in the place of origin, if they have not obtained true domicile elsewhere, or at least in the place in which they dwelt for a longer time. Besides, authentic testimony concerning their free state is to be had, nor are wanderers to be joined in Matrimony without the license of the Ordinary, as Trent has.¹

Note. - I. Around those things which we have said in this and the preceding Number, the illustrious Heiss² remarks the following: "Since in these regions it is too difficult to observe this law strictly, it seems to us that this at least must be insisted on in diocesan statutes: 1) that announcements must always be made in each parish, if the betrothed persons are from different parishes; 2) that, if the betrothed persons besides true domicile also have quasi-domicile in some place, and it is not too distant, the nuptials should be announced in each place; 3) that, if because of too great a distance or a similar cause the announcements cannot be made in the way said, the defect should be supplied by some precaution, whether through witnesses or through oath."³

II. The form of the announcements ought to be such that with intelligible voice and accurately the persons and their parish are indicated, and which announcement it is, and this especially when dispensation has been made in some one, so that then it is expressed, e.g. that the one which is now made is the first and second. It is also preferable to make mention of the end of the announcements, namely, that those who know an impediment disclose it; but if this is done, let it be done uniformly for all, lest, if only sometimes, the Pastor seem to suspect an impediment, as "Past.-Blatt für Nordamerika" rightly admonishes.⁴