Article III. On the Diriment Impediments of Matrimony

794. General notions. A diriment impediment renders those about to marry incapable, so that they cannot enter the matrimonial contract either licitly or validly, as was already said above. Therefore such an impediment directly affects the contract and indirectly the sacrament of matrimony. In placing certain diriment impediments against validity, the Church does not change the matter and form of the sacrament of matrimony, but brings it about only that contracting parties under certain conditions cannot furnish valid matrimonial consent. For just as civil government can establish for the public good that citizens under certain conditions are altogether incapable of completing certain contracts (for example, that minors cannot complete a contract of purchase and sale, that wills lacking form are invalid), so, a fortiori, the Church, for the spiritual good of the faithful and for the good of the whole Christian society, can determine that matrimony is invalid unless it is entered under the established conditions. - In the Church, this power of placing diriment impediments is exercised only by the Supreme Pontiff or by an ecumenical Council.

All diriment impediments principally have the character of an incapacity, or of an invalidating law; but the character of a penalty, which is found in some, is altogether secondary, and therefore ignorance never excuses from a matrimonial impediment. Hence the Holy Office says: "It must also be noted, with respect to diriment impediments, that invincible ignorance or good faith does not suffice for matrimony to be contracted validly. Although at times that ignorance and good faith can excuse from sin, nevertheless it can never render valid a matrimony which was entered with a diriment obstacle."⁴⁶

The end for which the Church instituted diriment impediments is a) the public good, b) the good of the contracting parties, c) the good of religion and of the sacrament. - The impediments of ecclesiastical law are ordered with such wisdom that civil governments themselves have not rarely adopted them even in civil marriages.

⁴⁶ Pius IX, December 9, 1874, and several times (Collect. de Prop. Fide, n. 1427, p. 86).

795. Number. Authors do not agree on the number of diriment impediments. Formerly, however, fifteen were quite commonly enumerated, expressed by the following mnemonic verses:

Error, condition, vow, relationship, crime, Disparity of worship, force, order, bond, propriety, Age, affinity, if clandestine, and impotence, If the woman has been abducted and not restored to a safe place. These prohibit marriages to be joined; they undo those already made.

The Code of Canon Law enumerates thirteen impediments, namely: 1. age; 2. impotence; 3. bond; 4. disparity of worship; 5. sacred order; 6. solemn profession; 7. abduction; 8. crime; 9. consanguinity; 10. affinity; 11. public propriety; 12. spiritual relationship; 13. legal relationship.