Article VII: Raptus

136. • I. Notion.

Raptus, as it is an impediment of matrimony, is defined: "the abduction or detention of an unwilling woman, for the sake of entering matrimony with her."

137. • II. Existence of the impediment.

That impediment is of ecclesiastical law, established for protecting the liberty of matrimony.

"§ 1. Between a man who abducts and a woman abducted with a view to matrimony, so long as she remains in the power of the abductor, no matrimony can stand.

§ 3. As regards the nullity of matrimony, violent retention of the woman is held equal to raptus, namely when a man violently detains a woman with a view to matrimony in the place where she is staying or to which she freely came." (Can. 1074.)

138. • III. What conditions are necessary that the impediment be present.

a) Abduction is required, i.e., removal from a place in which the woman is free from the power of the abductor to a morally diverse place in which she is under his power; or detention, i.e., custody of the person in some place from which she is impeded from departing and where she is under the power of the one detaining her.

b) Force done to the woman is required. But it matters little whether the woman is unwilling as to the abduction or detention, or only as to entering matrimony.

c) It is necessary that a woman be abducted or detained. The law does not concern itself with the unusual case of the raptus of a man by a woman.

d) It is necessary that raptus have matrimony as its end. If it is done for another end, even a most wicked one, the impediment is not present.

139. • IV. Cessation of the impediment.

a) It ceases by the fact itself, once the woman has been separated from the abductor and placed in a safe and free place, and consents to have the abductor as husband. (Can. 1074, § 2.)

Nevertheless let the pastor not assist at the matrimony without consulting the Ordinary, whose part it will be to judge whether the raptus has truly ceased and the woman freely consents to matrimony.

b) The Church dispenses very rarely in this impediment, on account of the danger of consent that is not free.

But it is not excluded from the faculty granted by cc. 1043-1045. Then, however, care must be taken that the woman give free consent.