Can they Marry

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porriwiggle

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I was talking to a young friend of mine a while ago, and he was very upset. One of his sisters, of whom he was very fond, was in love with the brother of their brother-in-law, and he with her.

Her elder sister had married his elder brother, and they were told that for that reason they could not be married.

Does anyone know if this is true.

I know it could cause complications later if the cousins from each marriage wanted to wed each other, but I was not aware that it was against Church teaching for them to marry.

Can anyone help me here?
 
porriwiggle said:
I was talking to a young friend of mine a while ago, and he was very upset. One of his sisters, of whom he was very fond, was in love with the brother of their brother-in-law, and he with her.

Her elder sister had married his elder brother, and they were told that for that reason they could not be married.

Does anyone know if this is true.

I know it could cause complications later if the cousins from each marriage wanted to wed each other, but I was not aware that it was against Church teaching for them to marry.

Can anyone help me here?
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Let me try to visualize this by plugging in names.

As in
Alice weds Tom,
Alice’s sister Betty wants to marry Tom’s brother Vincent?
 
porriwiggle said:
Yes that is the situation.
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I’ll assume we are speaking of Latin Catholics and the canon law of the Latin Church, though these points were not specified.

In canon law, affinity is a relationship — which is created by a valid marriage— between the spouse and the blood relatives of the other spouse.

Under the present code, only affinity in the direct line is an invalidating impediment (c. 1092).

Since it is an impediment of ecclesiastical law, it does not apply to non Catholics marrying among themselves, and it can be dispensed.

One example of where affinity would operate is that a step child could not marry his mother in law.

However, affinity is not established between blood relatives of the one spouse (Alice) and the blood relatives of the other spouse (Tom) in the present code.

So a man’s brother (Vincent) would not be related to his wife’s sister (Betty) by affinity.

Prior to the present code of 1983 though, the lines of affinity were much more extensive, and whoever said the marriage was prohibited would have been thinking of the former laws, no doubt. And who indeed did say so, we wonder?
 
No problem, Betty and Vincent are not related in any way. This was fairly common in earlier times. Among my ancestors, five siblings from one family married five siblings from another.
 
cameron_lansing said:
Prior to the present code of 1983 though, the lines of affinity were much more extensive, and whoever said the marriage was prohibited would have been thinking of the former laws, no doubt. And who indeed did say so, we wonder?
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They were told so by their priest. I can advise them, then, to seek a Cannon Lawyer who can clarify things to their priest.

Thank you.
 
First_of_9 said:
No problem, Betty and Vincent are not related in any way. This was fairly common in earlier times. Among my ancestors, five siblings from one family married five siblings from another.
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That is what I thought, but I wanted to be sure before I said anything.

Thank you
 
porriwiggle said:
They were told so by their priest. I can advise them, then, to seek a Cannon Lawyer who can clarify things to their priest.

Thank you.
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Though the situation you treat involved Latin Catholics, I should add that for Eastern Catholics, canon 809 of the Code of Canons for Eastern Churches provides that

“§1. Affinity invalidates a marriage in the direct line in any degree whatsoever; in the collateral line, in the second degree. §2. The impediment of affinity is not multiplied.”
 
Don’t know where the priest got his information, but assuming there’s no relation by blood or by the parents of one of the parties legally adopting the other as their own child, there shouldn’t be any impediment. And as was pointed out, even if there was some legal relationship it could probably be dispensed from.
 
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