§ 1. On The Precept And Form Of Proclamations

PROCLAMATIONS, which are also called banns, are public denunciations by which the faithful are warned concerning a matrimony to be contracted between certain persons, to the end that, if anyone knows some diriment or prohibiting impediment to exist between those wishing to contract, he may manifest it at an opportune time. - These, however, ought to be preceded by the private INVESTIGATION of the parish priest, and an opportune ADMONITION of the nupturients concerning those things which are required for contracting matrimony validly and licitly. - That these may become known better, let the following be given.

2057. Principles. I. The parish priest, before he comes to proclamations, is bound to institute a diligent EXAMINATION, by which he may know whether nothing obstructs the valid and licit celebration of matrimony. - For he ought, by reason of his office, to watch that subjects receive the Sacraments worthily. And this is greatly commended both by the Roman Ritual,⁸ and by Benedict XIV's Constitution Nimiam licentiam.⁹ - Congruently with these prescriptions:

1. "The parish priest, having been warned concerning some matrimony to be contracted in his parish, first should know from those to whom it pertains, for example from the parents or other cognates, and especially from the betrothed themselves, who and of what sort are those who wish to contract matrimony. Whether between them there is some canonical impediment, impedient or diriment; whether they wish to contract spontaneously, freely, and according to the honesty of the Sacrament." Thus the RITUAL.

2. If one party is a foreigner, according to the Instruction of the S. Inquisition approved by Clement X on 21 August 1670,¹⁰ a testimony or mandate concerning free state is altogether required; in which matter, diocesan Statutes also must be attended to.

3. Let him inquire whether sons and daughters of families contract with the consent of parents. For matrimonies reasonably against the will of parents the holy Church of God has always detested and prohibited for most just causes (cf. n. 1973, q. 6).¹¹ - But if the children are unwilling to desist from matrimony, and greater evils are to be feared, let the parish priest not deny his ministry; but, if he can, let him set forth the whole matter to the Bishop.

4. Let him not neglect the prescriptions of the civil law, if they can be observed with a safe conscience. For although the civil law can establish nothing concerning Sacraments, nevertheless the parish priest acting against it would involve himself in many entanglements, which always, insofar as divine and ecclesiastical laws permit, he ought prudently to decline according to his strength.¹²

5. The RITUAL warns "that each spouse know the rudiments of the Faith, since afterward he ought to teach these to his children." The betrothed therefore are to be examined concerning these, yet prudently and discreetly, according as the condition of persons and various circumstances will persuade.

6. Let the parish priest explore whether they live separately, by day as well as by night; or, if previously they have lived under the same roof, whether from the time of the betrothals or of the proclamations they have been separated.¹³

7. "Moreover let the spouses be admonished that, before they contract, they diligently confess their sins, and devoutly approach the Most Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Matrimony to be received; and how they ought to conduct themselves rightly and Christianly in it, let them be diligently instructed from divine Scripture, by the example of Tobias and Sarah, and by the words of the Angel Raphael teaching them how holily spouses ought to live together."¹⁴

Concerning this we OBSERVE: 1. The state of grace is altogether required for receiving the Sacrament of matrimony worthily, as is plain. But Confession and Communion are strictly prescribed by no law: wherefore the PARISH PRIEST indeed ought urgently and paternally to exhort the betrothed to dispose themselves for matrimony by the reception of these Sacraments; but he cannot strictly command it, unless perhaps diocesan Statutes require it. 2. In setting forth the duties of spouses, and in inquiring concerning impediments from illicit intercourse, the PARISH PRIEST should use such a manner of speech as bears before it a certain singular gravity and integrity of mind; yet those things which pertain to the use of matrimony will scarcely not have to be remitted to the time immediately preceding matrimony, and ordinarily it is better to hand them on in the very act of confession¹⁵ (cf. n. 2119).

2058. II. Proclamations are NECESSARILY TO BE PREMISED before matrimony: and this from an ecclesiastical precept obliging UNDER GRAVE obligation.

They are to be premised; for the holy Tridentine Synod,¹⁶ "adhering to the footsteps of the sacred Lateran Council celebrated under Innocent III, commands that for the future, before matrimony is contracted, it be publicly denounced three times by the proper parish priest, on three continuous feast days, in church, during the solemnities of Masses, between whom matrimony is to be contracted." - Yet matrimony would not be invalid if, proclamations having been omitted, it were contracted, provided no other impediment obstructs.

But that the law obliges under grave obligation is evinced both from its end, which is that impediments be known and that clandestine matrimonies be avoided; and from the penalties laid on violators, which similarly are grave, namely: a PARISH PRIEST presuming to assist at a matrimony which legitimate denunciations have not preceded is commanded to be punished by suspension from office, to last three years, or even by a graver penalty.¹⁷ WITNESSES also, if they act knowingly, are to be affected with a fitting penalty. - But as regards the CONTRACTING PARTIES, if the matrimony was invalid from a hidden impediment, the children born from putative matrimony will be illegitimate, about to have no help from the ignorance of the parents.¹⁸ Dispensation concerning an impediment afterward detected is also granted with more difficulty, and besides a penance to be defined at the judgment of the Bishop is to be enjoined (cf. n. 2061).¹⁹

2059. III. Proclamations OUGHT to be made on three continuous feast days, in church, during the solemnities of Masses, by the proper parish priest of the contracting parties. Thus the decree of Trent.

Therefore they ought to be made: 1. On feast days, i.e. feasts of precept, among which suppressed feasts can be numbered if functions and solemnities are still customarily performed, as before the suppression, and there is a concourse of people.²⁰ - Indeed, on account of a just motive, which is approved as such by the Bishop, they can be made on ferial days themselves, if from some cause there would be a great concourse in the church.²¹

2. On three continuous feast days, i.e. with no feast day omitted from the first proclamation to the last. - To make proclamations on three non-continuous feast days, provided several feast days do not intervene, according to the truer opinion, is not mortal, because it does not seem a grave transgression; but it is not excused from venial fault, because now the precept of the Council is transgressed. But if three immediate feast days should occur, practice bears that one or another be passed over, because in so brief a time the end of the Council would not be sufficiently obtained.²²

3. In church during the solemnities of Masses, i.e. in the parochial or conventual Mass, at the judgment of the parish priest. - According to the decree of S. C. C. dated 20 Sept. 1828,²³ the same thing can be done at another time, at which the concourse of the people would be more frequent. - Indeed, it is probable that they can be made outside the church, on the occasion of some sacred function, in a place of great concourse, "at least without mortal fault, and if some cause is present, without any fault."²⁴

4. By the proper parish priest of the contracting parties, i.e. by him to whose parish the betrothed pertain by title of domicile or quasi-domicile (concerning domicile see below n. 2074).

Hence: 1) If they are of diverse parishes, proclamations are to be made in each. 2) Likewise in each, if someone has a double domicile, i.e. domicile in one parish and quasi-domicile in another. And this is clearly gathered from the Statute of the City (11 Jan. 1762), prescribing that denunciations be made both in the parish of domicile and of the college, monastery, conservatory, where the betrothed are staying.²⁵ - 3) If someone recently has arrived in some parish, proclamations ought to be made both in that parish and in the parish of his prior habitation, if he stayed there for at least six months. But what space of time from changed domicile is required, so that proclamations are to be made only in the actual parish, is not defined by law: the matter therefore must be recognized from custom and from diocesan statutes. 4) They are to be made besides in the place of origin, unless it has already been deserted for several years. - 5) If the nupturients are wanderers, they are to be made in the parishes both of actual habitation and of origin, or even of preceding habitation, if either betrothed stayed there for a longer time. 6) Soldiers are to be proclaimed in the place where they are in garrisons and besides in the parish of their parents if they are minors; and if they are adults, in the place where they resided before undertaking military service.²⁶

Note. When proclamations are to be made in two parishes, neither parish priest will be able to assist at the matrimony unless he has received the ATTESTATION of the other parish priest, that three proclamations were duly made in his parish, and that no impediment was detected from them.

2060. IV. In making proclamations, that FORM ought to be held which corresponds to their end. - The reason is that aptitude for the end, i.e. the manifestation of impediments, is principally intended by the legislator. - Wherefore 1) the denunciations are to be made in the vernacular speech, with a high and intelligible voice, and the persons intending to contract and their parish are to be indicated accurately, so that there is room for no error. 2) In the individual denunciations it must be commemorated whether it is the first, or second, or last; indeed if only one, or two, were to be made by dispensation of the Ordinary, this ought to be notified to the people standing by. 3) It is also better to warn the people concerning the grave obligation incumbent upon each faithful person of manifesting impediments known to him, as is had in the formula of the Roman Ritual. 4) It is advised, and in various provinces is held as prescribed, that matrimony be celebrated only after an entire day has elapsed after the last proclamation. - 5) But if within two months after the denunciations have been made, matrimony has not been contracted, the denunciations are to be repeated, unless it seems otherwise to the Bishop (ROMAN RITUAL).

2061. IT IS ASKED. Whether it is a grave sin to omit denunciations, if, diligence having been made, it is altogether ESTABLISHED that no impediment underlies?

Resp. 1. Affirmatively, if the three denunciations are omitted. "The reason is both because, although through diligence the parish priest fulfills the end of Trent, nevertheless he transgresses the form of diligence which the Council prescribes: which, since it is in a most grave matter, is not excused from mortal sin unless urgent necessity which does not allow delay is present; and because otherwise the end of the precept of denunciations is not adequately satisfied; for the diligence of the parish priest does not sufficiently supply the effect of denunciations for impeding evils which otherwise can happen" (cf. n. 2058).²⁷

Resp. 2. To omit two denunciations, more probably, is mortal; but omission of only one, probably, is only venial fault, because with respect to the whole precept it does not seem grave matter.²⁸

Note. What the Tridentine Synod says concerning denunciations, if they have been omitted, to be supplied before consummation of matrimony, has now everywhere passed into desuetude. - Besides, the Synod itself had remitted the matter to the prudence and judgment of Ordinaries.