Article — Merkelbach, Pastoral Questions
Article XIII: Legal Kinship
- I. Notion.
It is the propinquity of persons coming from adoption.
- II. When it is a diriment impediment.
a) This depends on the civil law of each nation, which in this matter the Church canonizes or makes its own.
"Those who by civil law are held incapable of entering nuptials between themselves on account of legal kinship arising from adoption cannot by force of canon law contract matrimony between themselves." (Can. 1080.)
b) A civil law having adoption as a diriment impediment is in force in the following states: Italy, Spain, Poland, Croatia, Slavonia, Russia, Monaco, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and perhaps Greece.1
1 Cfr. Capello, cited work, n. 570.
c) From the diverse laws in force in diverse nations, it must be drawn out between which persons the impediment is present.
- III. Cessation of the impediment.
a) It ceases by abrogation of the civil law promulgating it.
b) Or by dispensation granted not by the civil prince, but by the Church.