I know you can't give an official answer, but any opinions would be appreciated.

According to canon law an "in" the Church marriage requires a priest or deacon and two witnesses, otherwise a dispensation from the Bishop is required. If not that would be a marriage "outside" the Church.

What if there was a marriage ceremony not physically inside a parish building, with two baptized individuals before a minister and at the ceremony there were two priests in attendance? One priest does a Mass (I take it eucharist only? - not sure) for the Catholic side of the family, yet says explicitly he is not there to witness the marriage but was there for the other Catholic participants. The other priest most likely was a relative of the Catholic person in the marriage. I'm not sure if that is all accurate or true, as it is second hand.

Is that a marriage that lacks canonical form? Or is it a sticky situation likely not immediately, or not at all, fulfilling the requirement for a lack of form nullity declaration? Does this sound like a difficult and longer process to have this first marriage nullified?

Thank you for your time,

- sorry to be anonymous, nobody nowhere-

-- nobody nowhere (nobody@nowhere.com), October 24, 2004

Answers

Bump to New Answers to invite comment.

-- (bump@bump.bump), October 24, 2004.

Here is the section of Canon Law which I believe addresses your question ...

Canon 1127 §1 ... for validity, the intervention of a sacred minister is required, while observing the other requirements of law.

Canon 1127 §3 ... It is forbidden to have, either before or after the canonical celebration in accordance with §1, another religious celebration of the same marriage for the purpose of giving or renewing matrimonial consent. Likewise, there is not to be a religious celebration in which the Catholic assistant and a non-Catholic minister, each performing his own rite, ask for the consent of the parties.

If this doesn't fully address your concern, please explain further.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 24, 2004.

Thank you for the reply and the quotations. It appears then that even a co-celebration with a priest and another denomination minister (and in this case was even less than that) is still lacking canonical form and the petition for nullity could be made on that basis.

-- nobody nowhere (nobody@nowhere.com), October 25, 2004.

Dear Nobody, There is not enough information here to evaluate the situation. For the Protestant minister to witness the wedding of a Catholic and a Protestant at least the following are needed: a dispensation from form (i.e. the witness can be a non-Catholic) and a dispensation for "mixed marriage" (to allow the marriage to a Protestant). The minister would still have to get delegation from the pastor of the local Catholic parish in which geographical area the marriage took place (and so would ANY PRIEST doing a wedding who was not the pastor himself). The presence of the two priests would not have any affect on the marriage unless one of them claimed to be co-witnessing the marriage, which would render void the dispensation from form and invalidate the marriage because he had not received a delegation from the local pastor. In any case, the priest who said the Mass should be reprimanded by his bishop as what he has done confuses the laity and introduces a Catholic rite into a non-Catholic ceremony at least by proximity. At such Protestant run cerimonies every hint of priestly participation should be avoided.

-- observer (observer@nospam.org), October 25, 2004.