Morals of the Church
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Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

§ 4. On a Doubtfully Valid Marriage

88.

If there is doubt concerning the validity of the marriage, the truth must be investigated, except in the case in which the investigation is foreseen to be useless. Now:

I. During the due investigation, the one doubting cannot ask the debt; he is nevertheless bound to render it if the other party does not doubt and therefore asks in good faith; and this holds as long as he is not certain or almost certain of the nullity of the marriage; nor is he bound to warn the other party. - If both parties doubt, neither can ask or render the debt (St. Alphonsus VI, 903).

II. If the doubt perseveres after the due investigation, or already before investigation appears invincible:

  1. One who entered the marriage in good faith, that is, without doubt concerning its validity or at least without fault, can also ask the debt; he can ask, however, as long as he is not certain or almost certain of the nullity of the marriage. The reason is that the common good requires that, in doubt concerning the validity of an act placed in good faith, one can act as if the act placed were valid. - The same, for the same reason, holds with sufficient probability even if the marriage was contracted in bad faith. Yet make exception, for both hypotheses, for the case in which there is doubt about the death of a prior spouse; this exception is deduced from chapter 2, De secundis nuptiis, from the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 1792,1 and from the fact that a marriage previously contracted and probably persisting prevails over a doubtful later marriage (St. Alphonsus VI, 904-907). Make exception, moreover, for the case in which the marriage is doubtful because the parties are probably related by blood in some degree of the direct line, for example father and daughter, or in the first degree of the collateral line, that is, brother and sister, because then marriage is prohibited (cf. can. 1076, § 3).

  2. The one doubting is bound to render the debt as long as he is not certain or almost certain of the nullity of the marriage. Make exception: 1. if there is doubt concerning the death of a prior spouse and the partner asks the debt in bad faith; otherwise, if he or she asks it in good faith (chapter 2, De secundis nuptiis); 2. the case in which the marriage is doubtful because the parties are probably related by blood in some degree of the direct line or in the first degree of the collateral line.

1 Cf. Bucceroni, Enchiridion morale, n. 833.

A Doubtfully Valid Marriage