Case 33. Married a Widow with Three Children

Balbus, a Catholic, approaching the feet of Caius, his confessor, sets forth the following facts. Now thirty years of age, in the preceding year, in contempt of the laws of the Church, he contracted marriage before a Protestant minister with Titia, a non-Catholic widow forty years of age and burdened with three children from a prior marriage. Nor were they ignorant of the impediments, for Balbus was related to Titia in the unequal collateral third degree mixed with the second; moreover, he had intercourse with Bertha, Titia’s sister. Balbus, now penitent, asks Caius to set the matter in order after obtaining dispensations, but affirms that he has revealed the sin with Bertha to Caius alone.

1. What is the difference between a public and an occult impediment?

2. What are the principal reasons which the Holy See is accustomed to regard as sufficient for granting dispensations?

3. How can a dispensation become invalid through subreption or obreption?

4. How many dispensations are required in the case; what causes can be alleged by Caius; and what must Caius do?

1. What is the difference between a public and occult impediment?

Public impediments are those which of their own nature or in fact are known to the greater number of people in the parish, and can be proved by witnesses; occult impediments are those which can not be proved by the evidence of two witnesses.

The second question was answered above, p. 322.

3. How can a dispensation become invalid by subreption or obreption?

Subreption is the omission of what should be mentioned; obreption is a false statement. Subreption or obreption in the petition for a dispensation render it invalid if they occur in the motive cause, not if they occur in the impulsive cause for granting a dispensation.¹

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. ii, 342.

However, dispensations minoris gradus are granted by the S.C. on the discipline of the Sacraments ex motu proprio et ex certa scientia, and are not invalid on account of subreption or obreption.²

4. How many dispensations are required in the case; what causes may be alleged by Caius; what is to be done by Caius?

There is the prohibitory impediment of mixed marriage, the public impediment of consanguinity in the third degree mixed with the second in the collateral line, and the occult impediment of affinity ex copula illicita in the first degree of the collateral line on account of the sin with Bertha.

As Titia is not a Catholic no account can be taken of her in asking for a dispensation. Putting a stop to grave scandal, and open and incestuous concubinage, may be alleged as causes for a dispensation. The marriage in bad faith before the Protestant minister should also be mentioned, though it may make the dispensation more difficult to obtain. Caius should first ask the bishop for a dispensation for the mixed marriage, and the impediment of consanguinity, without mentioning the occult impediment. He should then apply to the Penitentiary in Rome for a dispensation from the occult impediment, mentioning the other public impediments in the case.¹

1 Normae Peculiares, Sept. 29, 1908.

1 Gasparri, De Matrim., vol. i, n. 327.