§ 3. On The Rite Of Celebrating Matrimony

2078. Since matrimony is a wholly holy thing, inasmuch as it is a Sacrament, and holy things are to be treated holily, the holy Church of God instituted the RITE which is to be observed in the celebration of this Sacrament.

It is found described in the Roman Ritual,¹⁹ whose prescriptions in this matter look to THREE things: namely the joining, the blessing, and the inscription. A few things concerning each.²⁰

I. The JOINING consists in this, that the parish priest, "the man and woman having been questioned, and their mutual consent having been understood, either says: I join you in matrimony, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; or uses other words, according to the received rite of each province."²¹ In the joining the following are to be OBSERVED:

1. It ought to be performed publicly, or in the face of the Church, and this under grave obligation: as is gathered from Benedict XIV's Constitution Satis vobis, by which the contrary custom is condemned as a grave abuse. - Therefore it cannot be performed in Oratories or in private houses, unless by license of the Ordinary: which only then can be presumed, when some necessity presses, for example in danger of death.

2. The parish priest ought to question each contracting party concerning consent. Yet omission of the questioning, if the free consent of each is established, is only venial.²²

3. He ought similarly to pronounce the words: I join you, etc. Others probably say that this obligation is light; but others, still probably and perhaps more probably, affirm that the same is grave, because it seems a transgression in a matter of great moment.²³

4. Finally there is added the blessing of the ring, which is a sacramental, and whose omission would be only venial. Nor is it to be omitted in second nuptials.²⁴ It can be done in the plural, and likewise the remaining blessings, if several matrimonies are celebrated at the same time.²⁵

5. "If the Mass immediately follows the rite of Joining, the Priest besides Alb and Stole ought also to put on the Chasuble."²⁶

IT IS ASKED. Whether the parish priest can assist at the matrimony of those who are PUBLIC sinners, or excommunicated?

Resp. to the 1st. Negatively, of itself, both because by natural law no one can cooperate with the sin of a neighbor, and because the parish priest is bound from justice to apply himself to the spiritual salvation of his sheep, by averting them from sins. - It is said of itself; because he is excused if he assists for avoiding death, or other grave evils of the community or of the contracting parties themselves, for example lest they themselves persevere in sin²⁷ (cf. n. 1429, q. 1).

Resp. to the 2nd. If the contracting parties are notoriously excommunicated, but not to be avoided, "let the parish priest consult the Ordinary, who, with account taken of the matters and circumstances, and all things weighed which are handed down by approved authors and especially by St. Alphonsus, should declare those things which he shall have judged more expedient in the Lord, yet the celebration of Mass always being excluded." Response of the S. PENITENTIARY, 10 Dec. 1860.²⁸

2079. II. The NUPTIAL BLESSING is read in the missal, the Mass for bridegroom and bride, and pertains to the solemnity of Nuptials. It obliges under venial fault, as is commonly taught.²⁹ Concerning it the following things are to be NOTED:

1. "The holy Synod established that the blessing be made by the proper parish priest, and that license for making the aforesaid blessing cannot be conceded to another priest by anyone except by the parish priest himself or by the Ordinary. - But if a priest should have dared to join or bless the spouses without the license of their parish priest, let him remain suspended by the law itself for so long until he is absolved by the Ordinary of that parish priest who ought to have assisted at the matrimony, or from whom the blessing was to be received"³⁰ (cf. n. 1373).

2. The Congregation of the Holy Office, on 31 Aug. 1881, decreed that that blessing "is always to be imparted in the matrimonies of Catholics, yet within celebration of Mass according to the Rubrics, and outside the forbidden time, to all those spouses who, in contracting matrimony, did not obtain it from whatever cause: even if they ask after they have already lived in matrimony for a long time, provided the woman, if a widow, herself did not receive the blessing in other nuptials.³¹ Besides, the same Catholic spouses who did not obtain the blessing of their matrimony are to be exhorted to seek it at the first possible time. But it is to be signified to them, especially if they are neophytes, or validly contracted before Conversion from heresy, that the blessing itself pertains to the rite and solemnity, but not to the substance and validity of marriage."³²

3. The blessing of Nuptials cannot be conferred except in Mass:³³ in which the spouses are indeed to be exhorted by parish priests and confessors to communicate, but are not to be compelled by force of precept.³⁴

4. The Mass, in celebration of nuptials, ought always to be the votive Mass for bridegroom and bride, as in the Missal:³⁵ except on Sundays and Feasts of precept, on doubles of the first and second class, within the privileged Octave of Epiphany and Pentecost, on the Vigil of Pentecost, on the octave day of Corpus Christi, and on other days excluding doubles of the second class.³⁶ - But on days on which the Mass for bridegroom and bride is not permitted, the Mass of the day is to be celebrated, with commemoration from that Mass.

5. The Mass for bridegroom and bride is a private votive Mass; since it is for the private good of those marrying, and therefore it must always be celebrated as any other private votive Mass, without Gloria and Credo, even if it is celebrated in chant and with solemn apparatus.³⁷

6. When, without Apostolic Indult, nuptials are celebrated in the time of Advent or Lent, the Commemoration for the spouses ought not to be made in the Mass by Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion; nor is it licit to recite the Prayers placed in the Missal after the Lord's Prayer and Ite Missa est; nor ought the same prayers to be recited outside Mass, the prohibited time having elapsed.³⁸

7. In the same Mass several spouses can be blessed; yet the prayers are not said in the plural, but are recited as they are read in the Missal.³⁹ "If any provinces use other laudable customs and ceremonies beyond the aforesaid in this matter, the holy Synod vehemently desires that they be retained altogether." To this pertains, for example, the ceremony by which the joined hands of the spouses are covered, or bound, with the lowest part of the stole.⁴⁰

8. When, by reason of the blessing to be imparted, the Mass for bridegroom and bride is to be celebrated, the priest is not bound to apply it for the spouses, unless he receives a stipend: wherefore he is free to apply it for another offering.⁴¹

2080. III. The INSCRIPTION of matrimony, which Trent and the Ritual prescribe, is to be made under grave obligation; since, after the death of the witnesses and the parish priest, from this inscription alone it can be established that the matrimony was performed. - See the formulas in the Ritual itself.

Note. Concerning secret matrimony, or matrimony of conscience, concerning which see n. 1962, 3, it will help to have noted the following things here.

1. A Matrimony of this kind cannot be celebrated except by license of the Ordinary: for legitimately obtaining it, there are prerequired: 1) A grave and most urgent cause, for example of recalling from a state of damnation occult concubinarians who are reputed legitimate spouses; 2) diligent inquiry of the matter and circumstances, for example whether the spouses are of their own right or of another's, whether parents justly dissent, etc.; 3) indubitable documents concerning the free state of the spouses.

2. Matrimony is celebrated, denunciations being omitted, with everyone unaware, before only the parish priest and two witnesses, for example two other presbyters, who will most faithfully preserve the secret. But the parish priest ought to admonish the spouses concerning the most grave obligation of providing for future offspring as to education, legitimacy, and inheritance, but especially concerning the obligation of denouncing to the Bishop, within a month to be computed from the day of birth, the offspring received and baptized; if they neglect to do these things, they certainly will lose the right of secrecy.

3. Attestations, both concerning celebration of Matrimony and concerning Baptism conferred, are to be transcribed not in the parochial books, but in books preserved at the episcopal Curia and guarded with seals, and are to be kept cautiously in a more secret place.

Thus from the Constitution Satis vobis of Benedict XIV, issued on 9 Nov. 1741.⁴²