Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 2. The Valid and Licit Extraordinary Celebration of Matrimony
Such a valid and licit celebration can occur if the parish priest or local Ordinary is physically absent:82a 1. in danger of death; 2. if the absence will endure for a month.
82a Pontifical Commission, March 10, 1928 (Acta Ap. Sed. XX, 120), and July 25, 1931 (Acta Ap. Sed. XXIII, 388).
773. 1. In danger of death, if the parish priest or local Ordinary or a priest delegated by either cannot be had or approached without grave inconvenience, matrimony can be contracted validly and licitly before only two witnesses.83
Explanation. It is said 1: in danger of death, that is, of at least either contracting party. Death is imminent when sufficient time probably is not present for entering matrimony in the ordinary manner before the parish priest or the one supplying his place. Therefore, even when death is at hand, the parish priest or his substitute is to be summoned if this can morally be done. - It matters nothing whether death is imminent from grave illness or from another cause, for example, because of the danger of shipwreck, war, and so forth.84 - It is said 2: if the parish priest ... cannot be had without grave inconvenience. Any grave impossibility of summoning the parish priest or of seeking due delegation suffices. It is said 3: matrimony can be contracted validly and licitly. Therefore a celebration of matrimony of this kind is not only valid but also licit; nevertheless, both the witnesses and the contracting parties themselves are bound jointly and severally to take care that the matrimony contracted is duly noted in the book of marriages and of baptisms.85 - It is said 4: before only two witnesses. Therefore, for the validity of matrimony in danger of death, when the parish priest or Ordinary or duly delegated priest cannot be had, it is not required that another priest be summoned; for two lay witnesses suffice for validity. Nevertheless, if another priest who can be present is available, he must be summoned so that together with the witnesses he assist at the matrimony.86 Such a priest can also dispense both from the form to be observed in the celebration of matrimony (that is, from the presence of the witnesses) and from all impediments of ecclesiastical law, except two.87 It is evident of itself that a priest can never licitly assist at the celebration of any matrimony unless it is first established for him that the contracting parties are free. Therefore, if other proofs cannot be had, he should exact from the contracting parties a sworn affirmation that they are baptized and are held by no impediment.88
83 Code of Canon Law, can. 1098.
84 Therefore this indult extends more broadly than the Leonine indult of February 20, 1888, conceded for the sick alone.
85 Decree Ne temere, IX, § 3.
86 Code of Canon Law, can. 1098, n. 2.
87 Ibid., can. 1044.
88 Ibid., can. 1019, § 2.
774. 2. "If the parish priest or Ordinary or delegated priest who would assist at matrimony cannot be had or approached without grave inconvenience ... a matrimony contracted before witnesses alone is valid and licit ..., provided that it is prudently foreseen that this condition of affairs will endure for a month."89
Explanation. As regards substance, this law is not new, but even previously matrimony could validly and licitly be entered before two witnesses if it was physically or even morally impossible to approach the parish priest or delegated priest.90 The new law, however, establishes that matrimony can then be validly and licitly contracted before witnesses alone if it is morally certain that for a month a competent priest can neither be had nor approached without grave inconvenience.91 A necessity of celebrating matrimony in this manner can occur, for example, in mission regions where there is a great scarcity of priests; in time of persecution, when priests must conceal themselves; or if Catholic spouses must live in remote places of infidels or non-Catholics, for example, in Russia.
If the parish priest indeed is present but is gravely prohibited by civil law from assisting at matrimony unless a civil marriage has first taken place, which nevertheless cannot be placed first, recourse is to be had in individual cases to the Holy See, which will then decree how the matrimony is to be celebrated.92 In danger of death such recourse is not necessary, as was already said in the preceding number.
It is very fitting that matrimonial consent be expressed before some priest (although juridically not competent, but worthy), who can then impart the customary nuptial blessing. If, however, a priest cannot be had, nevertheless some religious ceremony is to be employed according to the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith of June 23, 1830: "In such a case the parents should choose two witnesses who, going together with the bridegroom and bride and their relatives to the church of the place, should on bended knees recite in common the customary acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition, and thus the bridegroom and bride should duly dispose themselves for contracting matrimony. After these things, rising, the bridegroom and bride should express mutual consent by words of the present before the aforesaid witnesses, and after giving thanks to God they should return home. But if they cannot go to the church, the aforesaid things are to be observed in private houses."93 The contracting parties must take care that they are free both from every matrimonial impediment and from mortal sin.
89 Code of Canon Law, can. 1098.
90 Thus, for example, the Holy Office responded on November 14, 1883: "In places where a parish priest cannot be had, a matrimony celebrated before two witnesses is valid; nevertheless, the burden rests upon the contracting parties of receiving the nuptial blessing as soon as it can be done and of taking care that their matrimony be inscribed in the sacramental register of the mission or of the nearest church to which they are subject." Several similar Instructions are brought forward by Leitner, Lehrb. des kirchl. Eherechtes, 306.
91 Pontifical Commission, November 10, 1925 (Acta Ap. Sed. XVII, 583).
92 Thus the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, January 31, 1916. Although nothing is contained concerning this recourse in the new Code, nevertheless it seems to be necessary (for liceity) if it can be made without grave inconvenience.
93 Collect. de Prop. Fide, n. 816.
775. Note. 1. Such a matrimony entered without the assistance of a priest is valid even if the contracting parties, in fraud of the law, that is, precisely in order to avoid the assistance of a priest, depart into a region in which a priest cannot be had.94 Indeed, in a case of true necessity a faculty has been conceded to Chinese Ordinaries, which they can also habitually delegate to directors of missions, of dispensing from the substantial form of the celebration of matrimony, that is, from the presence of two witnesses.95
- Once the matrimony has been celebrated, the witnesses together with the contracting parties are bound jointly and severally to take care that, as soon as possible, the matrimony be written in the books of marriages and of baptisms of the proper church, or of the nearest church if there is no proper church.96
94 Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, March 12, 1910, ad 3.
95 Sacred Congregation of the Council, July 27, 1908, ad 7.
96 Decree Ne temere, IX, § 3.