Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
STUDIES - George Gallardo-Dimitri Salachas: The "ritus sacer" of the Sacrament of Marriage in the Byzantine Churches
146 GEORGE D. GALLARO-D1MITRI SALACHAS The theological and canonical tradition of the East excludes the deacon or the layperson from celebrating the sacrament of matrimony. In fact, the deacon or layperson, although capable of asking and receiving the spouses’ consent, cannot bless the matrimony because such an act requires the ministry of the bishop or presbyter. As to delegating who will bless a particular union, the Eastern canon 830 §1 stipulates that: “As long as they legitimately hold office, the local hierarch and the local pastor can give the faculty to bless a determined marriage within their own territorial boundaries to priests of any Church sui iuris, even the Latin Church. ”sl It is clear, then, that the Eastern hierarch or pastor cannot delegate a deacon or layperson, whether Eastern or Latin, to bless the matrimony. Latin canon 1111 § 1 stipulates that: “As long as they hold office validly, the local ordinary and the pastor can delegate to priests and deacons the faculty, even a general one, of assisting at marriages within the limits of their territory.”51 52 The norm of Latin canon 1111 § 1 comes from the constitution Lumen gentium, according to which: “To the extant that [a deacon] has been authorized by competent authority, he is to... bless marriages in the name of the Church...”53 In the Latin Church the deacon has the delegated faculty of giving blessings, whether constitutive or invocative.54 55 In the Eastern tradition, the Apostolic Constitutions (360/380) establish the following: “We attribute the function of pontiff to the bishops, that of priests to the presbyters; and to deacons, that of serving both of them. The deacons are not permitted, then, to offer sacrifice, to baptize, or to give greater or lesser blessings; nor are priests permitted to confer ordination. . ,”ss In marriage the Holy Spirit comes to crown the spouses’ community of life and love founded through their mutual, irrevocable consent. The Holy Spirit unites the two spouses to their archetype, i.e., to the covenant of love between 51 CCEO C.830 § 1. 52 1983 CIC, c. 1111 § 1. 55 Lumen gentium, 29. 54 See also AAS 59 (1967) 697-704; AAS 66 (1974) 667; G. Gallaro, Deacon Assisting at Marriage, in CLSA Advisory Opinions, ed. A. Espelage, Washington (DC) 2002, 351—352. 55 D. Spada-D. Salachas, Costituzioni dei santi apostoli per mano di Clemente, Roma 2001, 232-233.
