Folia Canonica 12. (2009)
STUDIES - Piotr Kroczek: Does obligatory canonical from of marriage contribute to salus animarum?
CANONICAL FORM OF MARRIAGE - SALUS ANIMARUM? 25 The mens legislatoris since decree Tametsi until today is the same. It aims to prevent a secret marriage. Clandestine matrimony is unknown to the Church, both the authorities and the faithful. Marriages contracted coram Ecclesia can be more easily proven. Similarly, more easily proven is canonical state of persons9. III. Some Consequences of Obligatory Canonical Form To find out if the results of the obligation of the canonical form of marriage are coherent with the principle in question, the norm must be seen in action. It is enough to concentrate on some typical situations and see how it affects the life of the faithful. Having these data one can evaluate the canonical norm in face of the supreme principle of the Church law. 1. Needless Isolation from the Divine Grace The obligation of form creates a situation in which, unless the norm is fully respected, a faithful contracts an invalid marriage. What it amounts to is a state of affairs in which marriage is contracted without any regard for a spouse’s good or bad will. For example, those Catholics who, being ignorant about the norm from the Code, fail to follow it, even though they express true and genuine will of entering into marriage, contract an invalid marriage. As a consequence, they cannot realize their marital vocation in form of a sacramental life, despite the fact that they did have authentic will to enter into a valid and true marriage. In other words, the faithful without any bad will or wrong action, that is, unintentionally, can preclude themselves from receiving God’s grace10. It should be quite contrary. Canon law as pernecessarium instrumentum of the Church is to help Catholics to use the fruit of redemption to the fullness and not to make it harder or impossible. The current law requires from the faithful to have a certain level of knowledge, possession of which is really not necessary for being a catholic. In consequence it needlessly limits access to the sacrament. It is true that sometimes canon law cuts off from grace. It happens when medicinal penalties separate the faithful from sacraments (can. 1331 § 1, 20, can. 1332). In such a situation legislator imposes censures as the ultimate means because neither by fraternal correction or reproof, nor by any methods of pastoral care, can the scandal be sufficiently repaired, justice restored and the offender reformed (can. 1341). The special reason for this action is to bring the offender to reconcilia9 Cf. R. Navarro-Valls, Canon 1108, in Exegetical Commentary on the code of Canon Law, A. Marzoa-J. Miras-R. Rodriguez-Ocana (cd.), vol. III/2, Montreal-Chicago 2004, 1453. 10 J. I. O’Connor, Should the Present Canonical Form be Retained form the Validity of Marriage?, in The Jurist 25 (1965) 71-72.
