Article Four. On the Assisting Parish Priest.

656. Declaration. On the part of the parish priest it is required that he furnish assistance. A distinction is made between active assistance, by which the parish priest performs the sacred rite in the church, and passive assistance, by which the parish priest, without any sacred rite outside the church, intervenes in the matrimony by material presence only.

a. Active assistance contains the sacred vestment, the copulation with its prayers, the Mass with blessing, a suitable admonition, a sacred place; since, therefore, it contains several things, it can be more and less full and perfect. Hence a twofold active assistance can be distinguished: the one solemn, the other less solemn, in which at least the celebration of Mass with the nuptial blessing must always be omitted. Now a twofold passive assistance can also be distinguished: merely passive assistance, where those about to marry only express their consent before the parish priest; and (simply) passive assistance, where the parish priest, without any other rite, only proposes the questions concerning consent.

b. If matrimony is to be contracted outside the church, it ought to be entered in a decent place, such as the sacristy (others consider the sacristy as pertaining to the church), a private oratory, or the parish house.

1. If those about to marry are in the state of sin, the parish priest cannot assist without a just cause, both because he cooperates in their sacrilege and because by office he must procure the salvation of his parishioners and impede their sins.

He can and must assist both if he knows only from confession that the spouses are in the state of sin, and if they are unworthy only on account of an occult sin or an occult censure: the first, lest he violate the seal; the second, lest he injure their reputation.

2. If those about to marry are public sinners or notoriously excommunicated persons, of itself nothing is to be furnished except passive assistance; nevertheless, to avoid greater evils ordinaries can determine in particular cases what they judge more expedient.¹ Therefore they can permit active assistance, excluding however the sacrifice of the Mass and the solemn blessing; indeed, if the circumstances require it, even the celebration of Mass and the solemn blessing can be conceded.²

If one party of those about to marry is Catholic, while the other has cast off the faith and adheres to no religious sect, the matter is to be referred to the bishop, who, after inspecting all the circumstances of the case, will be able to permit the parish priest to be passively present at the matrimony, provided that provision has been made for the Catholic education of all the offspring.³

¹ Cn. 1101, 1.

² S. Officium, 25 May 1897.

³ Ibid.