Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise VIII. On Matrimony › Dissertation II. On Matrimony Itself › Part II. On Matrimony, Insofar as It Is a Sacrament, Particularly › Section III. On the Reception of the Sacrament of Marriage › Chapter II. On Impedient Impediments in Particular (canons 1058-1066)

Article — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Article II. Legal Relationship

760.

I. Notion. Legal relationship is a relationship of persons which comes from legitimate adoption, that is, adoption made according to the norm of civil law.

II. Existence of the impediment. In those regions where by civil law legal relationship arising from adoption renders nuptials illicit, by canon law also the marriage is illicit (canon 1059). But to know whether and between whom this impediment exists, one must have recourse to the civil laws of the country and decide according to their norm.

Where civil law either does not admit adoption or states nothing about the impediment, there is no impediment.

Corollary. No impediment exists in Holland, Austria, Lusitania, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, and in general in its colonies (including the Canadian dominion, Australia, India, Transvaal, etc.), in the Republic of Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile (as it seems), Mexico, Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Uruguay. A merely impedient impediment is had in Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Venezuela; likewise, at least practically, in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Romania; if the matter is doubtful, practically the impediment is absent.1

1 Cf. Aertnys-Damen, Theologia Moralis II, n. 703; De Smet, op. cit., n. 499; Wernz-Vidal, op. cit., n. 191; Gury-Ferreres, II, n. 1051.

Adoption