Canon 1098: If the pastor, or the local Ordinary, or a priest delegated by either, who should according to Canons 1095 and 1096 assist at marriage, cannot be had, or the parties cannot go to him without great inconvenience, the following rules are to be observed:1. In danger of death, marriage may be validly and licitly contracted in the presence of only two witnesses; even apart from the danger of death marriage may be thus contracted, if it can be prudently foreseen that this state of affairs (namely, the great difficulty of getting an authorized priest to witness marriage) will continue for a month;2. In both cases, if there is at hand another priest who can be present at the marriage together with the witnesses, he should be called and should assist at the marriage together with the witnesses, without prejudice however to the validity of the marriage contracted only before the witnesses.Decisions on Canon 1098
Code Commission, 10 November, 1925: Whether according to Canon 1098, for the valid and licit contracting of marriage before witnesses only, the fact of the pastor’s absence is sufficient, or is it also necessary that there exist a moral certainty, based either on common knowledge or on inquiry, that for one month the pastor will be neither available nor accessible without grave inconvenience? Reply In the negative in the first part; in the affirmative in the second part.
Roman Rota 20 January, 1926: The Facts. On 4 November, 1918, a Catholic man married an Orthodox woman before an Orthodox minister and witnesses. The man at the time sincerely believed that there was no Catholic Bishop or pastor in the city, nor any priest who could be delegated to assist at the marriage. But the Catholic pastor of the place testifies that he himself was there at that time, and could have assisted without grave inconvenience.
The Law. 1. Canon 1098 provides for valid marriage before witnesses alone, in two cases: first, in danger of death, where the authorized witnesses required by Canon 1094 cannot be reached without grave inconvenience; and secondly, outside the danger of death, where not only the same authorized witnesses cannot be reached without grave inconvenience, but it is prudently foreseen that this condition will last for a month. The honest belief on the part of the parties that this fact (that is, the impossibility of reaching the pastor or Ordinary) exists, cannot be substituted for the fact itself. If the fact of moral impossibility required by the canon was non-existent, though the parties honestly and inculpably believed that it existed, the marriage is null.
2. A pastor in good standing, testifying to matters within the scope of his office, is a qualified witness, whose testimony produces full proof, in the sense of canon 1791, paragraph 1.
The Decision. Since the conditions of Canon 1098 were not verified, the marriage before witnesses alone is null.
Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, 4 March, 1925: If all the conditions which are required by canon 1098 for the validity of marriages before witnesses only are verified, the circumstances that such marriages were blessed in a non-Catholic church is no argument against validity, but against licitness.
Michael Fighting
