Marriage Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matthew_Holford
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Matthew_Holford

Guest
You hear about marriages requiring permission or a dispensation. Are these two words, ‘permission’ and ‘dispensation’, used synonymously are do they have separate meanings.

If they have separate meanings what requires a permission and what requires a dispensation?
 
Matthew_Holford said:
You hear about marriages requiring permission or a dispensation. Are these two words, ‘permission’ and ‘dispensation’, used synonymously are do they have separate meanings.

If they have separate meanings what requires a permission and what requires a dispensation?
Click to expand...
Essentially the same thing. Dispensation is the official word.

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

DISPENSATION. A relaxation of the Church’s law in a particular case. It is neither an abrogation of the law nor an excuse from observing the law but a release from its observance, temporarily or permanently, by competent authority, for good reasons. The Pope can dispense from all purely ecclesiastical laws. Other Church authorities can dispense from the laws that they or their predecessors have passed. Only those can dispense from the laws of a higher superior who are granted the power either by the Church’s general legislation or by a special delegation. (Etym. Latin dispensatio, distribution, administration; freeing, release: from dis- + pendere, to weigh: dispendere, to weigh out.)
 
thistle said:
Essentially the same thing. Dispensation is the official word.

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

DISPENSATION. A relaxation of the Church’s law in a particular case. It is neither an abrogation of the law nor an excuse from observing the law but a release from its observance, temporarily or permanently, by competent authority, for good reasons. The Pope can dispense from all purely ecclesiastical laws. Other Church authorities can dispense from the laws that they or their predecessors have passed. Only those can dispense from the laws of a higher superior who are granted the power either by the Church’s general legislation or by a special delegation. (Etym. Latin dispensatio, distribution, administration; freeing, release: from dis- + pendere, to weigh: dispendere, to weigh out.)
Click to expand...
No, they are not interchangeable.

You require a dispensation to marry a non-Christian or for lack of canonical form for your wedding. You only require permission, which often the priest can give, to marry a non-Catholic Christian.

If the priest witnessed a marriage where permission had not been given, it would still be valid, if illicit. OTOH, lack of a dispensation would render the marriage invalid.
 
Phemie is right. The two are not interchangeable; they have two different meanings.

A mixed marriage - one between a Catholic and a non-Catholic, baptized Christian - requires permission, usually granted through the bishop of the diocese.

An impediment - disparity of cult, for example (between a Catholic and a non-baptized, non-Christian) - requires a dispensation, also generally granted through the bishop.

Not having the necessary permission makes the marriage valid but illicit. Not having the necessary dispensation makes the attempted marriage invalid as well as illicit. That’s a pretty big difference.
 
May be clutching at straws here, but is there a list of those things that require dispensations and those that require permissions.
 
Matthew_Holford said:
May be clutching at straws here, but is there a list of those things that require dispensations and those that require permissions.
Click to expand...
Matthew,

I don’t know of a place where these things are listed (although I’m sure there are such lists) but these canons concern “permission”–cc. 1071, 1114, 1115, 1118, 1124, 1125, 1131. “Dispensations” are for the impediments in cc. 1083-1094 and for canonical form, explained in c. 1108. There may be other canons for both categories.

In short, the difference between a dispensation and permission is that dispensations affect the validity of the marriage, permissions “only” affect liceity (lawfulness).

Dan
 
dans0622 said:
In short, the difference between a dispensation and permission is that dispensations affect the validity of the marriage, permissions “only” affect liceity (lawfulness).

Dan
Click to expand...
Dan

Thanks for that, it nicely sums up the differences.

Matt
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top