Marriage before a non-Catholic minister; children outside the Church (Can. 2319)

Canon 2319 I. Subsunt excommunicationi reservatae catholici: (1) Qui matrimonium ineunt latae sententiae Ordinario coram acatholico ministro contra praescriptum Can. (Catholics are subject to an excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Ordinary: (1) who enter marriage before a non-Catholic minister against the prescription of Canon 1063 § 1.) 1063, sec, 1.

(2) Qui matrimonio uniuntur cum pacto explicito vel implicito ut omnis vel aliqua proles educetur extra catholicam Ecclesiam.

(3) Qui scienter liberos suos acatholicis ministris baptizandos offerre praesumunt, (4) Parentes vel parentum locum tenentes qui liberos in religione acatholica educandos vel instituendos scienter tradunt. ((2) Those who are joined in marriage with an explicit or implicit agreement that all or any of the offspring shall be brought up outside the Catholic Church. (3) Those who knowingly presume to offer their children to be baptised by non-Catholic ministers. (4) Parents, or those who take the place of parents, who knowingly hand over their children to be educated or instructed in a non-Catholic religion.)

Four classes of persons are punished by this censure reserved to the Ordinary: (1) Catholics who contract marriage before a non-Catholic minister, not acting as a civil officer but as a minister of religion, whether only one or both of the parties are Catholics, whether or not a Catholic marriage is also contemplated before or after. Canon 1063 is as follows: "' Etsi ab Ecclesia obtenta sit dispensatio super impedimento mixtae religionis, conjuges nequeunt, vel ante vel post matrimonium coram Ecclesia initum, adire quoque sive per se sive per procuratorem ministrum acatholicum uti sacris addictum, ad matrimonialem consensum praestandum vel renovandum. (there be a dispensation from the impediment of mixed religion, the spouses may not, either before or after the marriage entered into before the Church, approach also, whether in person or through a proxy, a non-Catholic minister acting as such in sacred things, in order to give or renew matrimonial consent.)" Section 2 of this Canon forbids the parish priest to assist at a marriage if he knows that the parties have transgressed or are going to transgress this law. Section 3 allows the exception when the non-Catholic minister acts as a civil officer, and the law requires it.

(2) Catholics who marry with an explicit or implicit agreement that all or any one of the offspring of the marriage are to be brought up outside the Church. 'The censure would not be incurred if the agreement were made after the marriage had been contracted.

(3) Catholics who knowingly presume to offer their children to non-Catholic ministers for Baptism. Ignorance of the law or only of the censure, or of the fact that those to whom the children are offered are non-Catholic ministers, will excuse from the censure, though it be crass and supine.

(4) Parents or those who hold the place of parents who knowingly give their children to be educated or trained in a non-Catholic religion. Again, even crass ignorance excuses from the censure. Educated means taught and brought up in general, trained means taught in some special branch or branches when the general education has been completed. Canon 2326 II. Qui falsas reliquias conficit, aut scienter vendit, distribuit, vel publicae fidelium venerationi exponit, ipso facto excommunicationem Ordinario reservatam contrahit. (Whoever manufactures false relics, or knowingly sells, distributes, or exposes them to the public veneration of the faithful, contracts ipso facto an excommunication reserved to the Ordinary.)

522. 1. a) "Catholics who contract marriage before a non-Catholic minister contrary to the prescription of can. 1063, § 1."

b) "Those who are joined in marriage with an explicit or implicit agreement that all or some of the offspring be educated outside the Catholic Church."

c) "Those who knowingly presume to offer their children to non-Catholic ministers to be baptized."

d) "Parents or those taking the place of parents, who knowingly hand over their children to be educated or instructed in a non-Catholic religion" (can. 2319, § 1).

All these delicts constitute favor toward heresy and before the new Code of Canon Law were punished with an excommunication reserved to the Holy See in a special manner. But since these delicts are customarily public and brought to the external forum of the Ordinary, the same Ordinary can absolve from them; indeed, the censure now imposed by the common law is reserved to the local Ordinary. In some regions the non-Catholic minister is constituted an official of the civil government, before whom all marriages are commanded to be celebrated. Then, certainly, those contracting marriage before such a minister as a civil official do not incur the censure.^185a

In the first case there is question only of mixed marriage, concerning which c. 1063 establishes the law. Therefore, if two Catholics contracted marriage before a non-Catholic minister, they indeed sinned gravely, but they are not excommunicated. It is otherwise in the second, third, and fourth cases. Since in the celebration of marriage before a non-Catholic minister and in the agreement to educate offspring outside the Catholic Church there is manifestly contempt for ecclesiastical authority, grave fear does not appear to excuse from the censure. Hence, for example, if a Catholic girl who has already become pregnant consents to such a celebration and agreement because otherwise she gravely fears that she will be abandoned by her betrothed, she nevertheless appears to incur these censures.¹⁸⁶

Those who are joined in marriage with an agreement (whether explicit or implicit) that the offspring be educated outside the Catholic Church and afterward presume actually to execute this agreement by handing over the offspring to be educated in a non-Catholic religion contract a twofold excommunication; indeed, they are furthermore suspected of heresy and therefore, if within six complete months from the penalty contracted they have not amended themselves, they contract an excommunication reserved to the Holy See in a special manner.¹⁸⁷ Catholics who have dared to enter a mixed marriage without a dispensation of the Church, even if valid, remain by that very fact excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical and sacramental acts until they have obtained a dispensation from the Ordinary.¹⁸⁸

See below, n. 783, for how one is to proceed in the absolution of these four censures. Besides, particular norms are customarily observed in individual dioceses.

2. "One who fabricates false relics or knowingly sells, distributes, or exposes them for the public veneration of the faithful" (can. 2326).

This newly introduced excommunication does not need explanation, since it is clear in itself.

^185a Code of Canon Law, c. 1063, § 3.

¹⁸⁶ Cappello, De cens., n. 371, teaches the contrary.

¹⁸⁷ Code of Canon Law, c. 2319, § 2, and c. 2315.

¹⁸⁸ Ibid., c. 2375.

The Church does her best to maintain, strengthen, and sanctify Catholic family life. She well knows how much depends on it for time and for eternity. She knows, too, that it can only be preserved and sanctified by the spirit of religion. Religion must be at the base of it, and religion must provide its guiding principles and aims. Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it. A Catholic marriage is the foundation of the Catholic family, and the Catholic education of children is its end and object. There are many disruptive influences which threaten the Catholic family with ruin in modern society, and the Church has deemed it well to provide some additional sanctions for its preservation in the new Code of Canon Law. Some of these are set down in Canon 2319, which may be translated as follows:

“Those Catholics by the very fact incur excommunication reserved to the Ordinary:

“1. Who contract marriage before a non-Catholic minister against what is prescribed in Canon 1063.

“2. Who contract marriage with an explicit or implicit agreement that all or any of the children are to be brought up outside the Catholic Church.

“3. Who knowingly presume to offer their children to non-Catholic ministers to be baptized.

“4. Parents or those who hold the place of parents who knowingly hand over their children to be educated or brought up in a non-Catholic religion.”

According to the teaching of the Catholic Church marriage between baptized Christians is a sacrament, and she alone has the duty and right to see that the Sacraments are properly administered and received. The parties to the contract are themselves the ministers to each other of the sacrament of marriage, but the Church requires for its validity that it be contracted before the parish priest or his delegate. Moreover, divine and ecclesiastical law forbid all communication in sacred rites between Catholics and non-Catholics. Accordingly Canon 1063, referred to above, prescribes that, although a dispensation for a mixed marriage may have been obtained from the Church, the spouses must not either before or after a marriage has been contracted before the Church appear also either in person or by proxy before a non-Catholic minister acting as such, in order to give or renew their matrimonial consent. Any Catholic who violates this law incurs the penalty of excommunication by the very fact, and the power of absolving him is reserved by the Holy See to the Bishop by Canon 2319, section 1.

By the law of England it used to be necessary for Catholics to contract marriage before the Anglican minister in order that their marriages might be recognized by the State. If similar circumstances exist anywhere at present Canon 1063 expressly provides that Catholics may comply with the law to secure the civil effects of marriage.

When a mixed marriage was contracted it used to be no very uncommon thing for the parties to come to an understanding that the children should follow the religion of the parents according to sex. The boys were brought up in the religion of the father and the girls in that of the mother. The Church never approved of such understandings. They infringed the law of God and of the Church, which require a Catholic parent to bring up all his children in the religion which he believes and knows to be the only religion that is pleasing to God. To prevent such arrangements the Church requires both parties when a dispensation for a mixed marriage has been obtained from the Church to sign a written promise that all the children will be brought up Catholics. To ensure the faithful observance of this promise Canon 2319, as we have seen, inflicts the sentence of excommunication on all Catholics who contract marriage with an explicit or implicit agreement that all or any of the children are to be brought up as non-Catholics. The absolution of this censure is reserved to the Ordinary by the Holy See.

An unpleasant feature of the Protestant propaganda in some Catholic countries is the giving of clothes or money to such parents as are willing to bring their children to the Protestant ministers for baptism. Large sums of money are collected in England and America and spent on such unworthy ways of corrupting poor Catholics. Catholics who knowingly presume to offer their children to non-Catholic ministers for baptism incur thereby excommunication, and the absolution of this censure is reserved to the Bishop. It is possible that by the very ignorant poor such a thing might be done in good faith. In that case the censure would not be incurred.

Similarly parents and those who are in the place of parents incur excommunication, reserved to the Bishop, if they knowingly hand over their own children or those committed to them to be educated or brought up in a non-Catholic religion. Sending children or permitting them to be sent to a non-Catholic school would not of itself be sufficient to draw down upon parents or guardians this excommunication. The essential condition for incurring the censure is handing the children over to be indoctrinated, trained, and brought up in a non-Catholic religion.