A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historica 12. (Szeged, 2009)

ORBÁN Imre: A házassági hirdetések alóli fölmentések Kiszomboron a polgári anyakönyvezés bevezetésétől a kommunista diktatúráig

IMRE ORBÁN DISPENSATION FROM MATRIMONIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS IN KISZOMBOR FROM 1895 TILL 1948 Kiszombor is a Hungarian inhabited village of tbe historical Torontál County with a mainly Roman Catholic population. Nuclear families based on marriage were the most important units of the community. The Church took care of the marriages being legal and valid according to church law. Engagement was the first step to marriage. A so-called engagement contract was signed by the future partners. The community considered the engagement contract final. This required a proper behaviour from the engaged couple in the community. There could be canonical consequences to break off an engagement without the approval of the other partner and without a satisfactory reason. To secure valid and legal marriages the parish priest conducted a so-called close examination already at the time of engagement. The examination aimed at revealing the possible obstacles of marriage. In case no obstacles were revealed the most important mean to discover any obstacles, the pre-marital announcements, were applied. If a couple intended to got married, it was announced in church on three consecutive Sundays and feast days by the priest. Urging to pray for the future couple the Church requested anybody to reveal any kinship between tbe partners or any other type of obstacles. Keeping that in secret was considered a serious sin. In case no obstacles came up, the marriage could be planned. József Lonovics, the outstanding bishop of Csanád, pointed out that the aim of the announcements was not to provide news for the faithful. Certainly an announcement turned the attention to the planned wedding. This arisen attention was exactly one of the reasons why some asked for the omission of announcements. Omission was asked in case the engaged did not want or could not wait for the announcements with their wedding. In case they were able to present appropriate reasons the parish priest asked dispensation (dispensutio) from the diocesan office. Dispensation had a price (taxa) remitted for needy couples. Dispensation was provided in two or three days by the diocesan office. In most cases all the three announcements could be omitted. This study presents the reasons of dispensation in Kiszombor. 1. Personal reasons (slandering in the community, pregnant fiancée, large age gap between the partners, elderly partners, anti-marital attitude in the family of the partners, raising orphans, quick occupation of workplace, illegal cohabitation, marriage of ill partners, conversion back to the Roman Catholic Church) 2. Canonical reasons (introduction of state registration of marriages, prohibited time for marriages, outdated previous announcement) 3. Dispensation during local missions (missions in 1912, 1926, 1937) 4. Political and historical reasons (military occupations, World War I and II, refugees from the preTrianon territories, communist regime). The significance of marriage announcements ended and the practice was abolished by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference. Today it is not compulsory, but can be used if the community considers it important.