Case 13. A Too Accommodating Priest

Bernard, broken by the vehement complaints of Clara, his wife, leaves her and goes to America. After about eight years had elapsed, Clara, believing that her husband was dead, goes to another city, where she has an evil relationship under hope of marriage with Robert, a non-Catholic, and becomes pregnant by him. In these straits she hastens to Francis, a priest and her friend, to whom she discloses everything and asks what she must do. After every diligent inquiry was made, Francis, judging the probability of Bernard’s death to be far greater than that of his life, refers the whole matter to the Ordinary, who nevertheless denies that he can give the woman permission to proceed to a new marriage. In these circumstances Clara, with Francis’s approval, in order to avoid the danger of infamy, contracts marriage before a civil official with Robert, who is ignorant of the prior marriage, and this before the decree Ne temere was promulgated. Afterwards, however, driven by the stings of conscience, she approaches a confessor who, after everything has been disclosed, asks himself:

1. What proof is required to establish the death of a former spouse?

2. Is moral certainty concerning his death necessarily required for the internal forum equally as for the external, so that a new marriage may lawfully be contracted?

3. What is to be judged of the opinion of the illustrious Ballerini, namely: “When moral certainty of the death of a spouse is possessed, the parish priest can assist at a new marriage without seeking the Ordinary’s permission and without his knowledge”?

4. What is to be said of Francis’s advice, and what of the use of the second marriage?

1. What sort of evidence is required to prove the death of a former spouse?

That evidence is required which is sufficient to generate moral certainty of the fact. A burial certificate, or the certificate of the doctor who attended him, two reliable and sworn witnesses, one witness when his evidence is backed by other indications of the fact, will be sufficient. (Instructio S. O., Concilia Westmonast., p. 410).

2. Is moral certainty of death required in the internal forum as well as in the external?

Yes, because otherwise there will be a doubt as to whether the second marriage is valid or not.

3. What is to be thought about the opinion of Ballerini?

According to the common law the freedom of parties who wish to be married must be proved in legal form to the satisfaction of the Ordinary. In many places this is not done, but the death of a former spouse should be morally certain from public arguments; the mere subjective certainty of the parish priest is not sufficient. In this sense Ballerini’s opinion may be accepted.

4. What about the advice of Francis, and the use of the second marriage?

Francis did wrong to approve of Clare’s conduct. She was in a difficult position, it is true, but she should not have put herself in it. At any rate it does not justify her in marrying before the registrar a second husband while she is not certain that her former husband is dead. However, as the second marriage took place in England before clandestinity became a diriment impediment of marriage, and Clare thought that her former husband was dead, and acted on the advice of a priest, and Robert knew nothing about the former husband, Clare may live with him as his wife, but she will have to separate from him if her former husband proves to be alive. She should be told of her obligation to bring up all her children as Catholics, and to pray for the conversion of Robert.

1 Opus Morale, tract, x, c. 2, n. 676.