Question about Catholic marriage and civil marriage

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That isn’t true.
Yes, this is true. It is what tribunals are for. Someone may know that X is Catholic and know that X married Y in a civil ceremony. However, they may not know that X was granted a dispensation from canonical form by his bishop.

As Beal, Coriden and Green say in their Canon Law commentary every marriage enjoys the favour of the law until competent ecclesiastical authority determines otherwise.
 
Yes, this is true. It is what tribunals are for.
Tribunals are for the investigation of putative marriages.

A civil marriage of a Catholic is not a putative marriage.
However, they may not know that X was granted a dispensation from canonical form by his bishop.
We know the OP was not granted a dispensation. He has a prior Catholic marriage that is not annulled.
As Beal, Coriden and Green say in their Canon Law commentary every marriage enjoys the favour of the law until competent ecclesiastical authority determines otherwise.
Putative marriages do. A civil marriage isn’t a putative marriage.

We are not talking about putative marriages in which a Catholic married in Catholic form or received a dispensation. We are talking about what people call “lack of form” civil marriages— which aren’t actually a thing under canon law at all. They have no standing, no presumption of validity.
 
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Thank you for replying.

I have read many works on canon law and annulment. They all say the same thing. Every marriage is putative until the contrary is shown.

Just because someone knew a Catholic got married in the local register office does not mean her/his marriage is not valid. To say it is not is simply gossip rather than fact. If John Smith married Mary Green in Blackburn Register Office on 11 August 2018 and John Smith is a Catholic it is gossip to say John Smith and Mary Green are not validly married because John Smith is bound by canonical form.

The Bishop of Salford, or someone lawfully delegated by him, may have granted John Smith dispensation from canonical form. Therefore, his marriage in the register office was not invalid.

That is why any marriage is putative until all the facts are properly ascertained by those appointed by the Church to do that. Admittedly, not every case requires the formal process before a tribunal. Some may be quickly dealt with by an administrative procedure. However, all cases require proper evidence.

The marriage mentioned above is a fictitious example and to the best of my knowledge relates to no real persons, living or dead. The English town of Blackburn is in the diocese of Salford.
 
Every marriage is putative until the contrary is shown.
A putative marriage is, by definition, an invalid marriage that was was entered in good faith by at least one of the Parties, until both of them become certain of its invalidity. That being the case, I don’t think you mean to use that term in this context.
That is why any marriage is putative until all the facts are properly ascertained by those appointed by the Church to do that.
Certainly, people commenting here are unable to authoritatively determine anything and there could be facts that are not revealed. Perhaps some people here think that goes without saying.

Dan
 
A person who is divorced civily of a Catholic marriage should refrain from taking the eucharist/reconciliation as long as his spouse is alive.

Or that his marriage is recognized as invalid.

Or that he separate from his new civil spouse.

Another solution should that they live as “brother and sister” (after a discussion with his pastor). Some Catholics may been unawared of this last possibility.
 
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A person who is divorced civily of a Catholic marriage should refrain from taking the eucharist/reconciliation as long as his spouse is alive.
What???

Unless you left out “and marries another civilly”, this position would be news to the ch8urch . . .
 
Is it because I forget to mentionned that your new civil marriage need to be recongized as valid by the Church?

Or what, because I don’t understand?
 
Is it because I forget to mentionned that your new civil marriage need to be recongized as valid by the Church?
I think it’s because you didn’t mention the second marriage—you said a divorced person needed to refrain from the sacraments while their spouse was alive. I believe you meant divorced and remarried.
 
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Ok.
Obviously I was speaking of a divorced person who is remarried in a civil union (or cohabiting).

That is the topic of the threat.
 
Obviously I was speaking of a divorced person who is remarried in a civil union (or cohabiting).
It wasn’t obvious, which is why I posted what I did.

It is also quite similar to a common misinformation tossed around.
 
Perhaps some people here think that goes without saying.
Perhaps it should be expressed. Not everyone reading such things will know what someone implies in their own mind.

Whether my terminology is the precisely correct terminology I’m not absolutely sure. However, to be clear what I’m saying is if two people are believed to be married that’s how they should be treated until some competent authority declares their marriage is not valid.
 
Whether my terminology is the precisely correct terminology I’m not absolutely sure. However, to be clear what I’m saying is if two people are believed to be married that’s how they should be treated until some competent authority declares their marriage is not valid.
Unless they are clearly not validly married. For example, if two baptized Catholics got married at the courthouse, their marriage is not assumed to be valid.
 
Yes, that is all you are doing. You are assuming. Catholics are bound to canonical form. However, they can be dispensed from it. Ordinarily if both parties to the marriage are Catholic dispensation from canonical form is not given. Indeed, I believe dispensation from canonical form when both parties are Catholic is reserved to the Holy See.

However, if two people enter into a civil marriage and both are known to be Catholics it may not be known whether they had been granted a dispensation from canonical form. One needs all the pertinent facts rather than making assumptions.
 
Indeed, I believe dispensation from canonical form when both parties are Catholic is reserved to the Holy See.
Retroactive convaliation (radical sanation) dispenses from canonical form, even when both are Catholic and there may be a dispensation from disparity of worship ad cautelem (as a precaution), all given by the bishop.
 
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Perhaps they are not really Catholics and only assumed to be because they were in the past.

They may both have formally defected from the Catholic Church (1) after the current Code of Canon Law came into force, (2) before Pope Benedict XVI removed that possibility form the Law, (3) and they were married (i) after the new Code came into force but (ii) prior to Benedict XVI’s changes to the Law.
 
Perhaps they are not really Catholics and only assumed to be because they were in the past.

They may both have formally defected from the Catholic Church (1) after the current Code of Canon Law came into force, (2) before Pope Benedict XVI removed that possibility form the Law, (3) and they were married (i) after the new Code came into force but (ii) prior to Benedict XVI’s changes to the Law.
I think you mean formal defection (rare) between 1983 and 2010 then, however for the radical sanation case I am thinking of, this was not the case. But, yes, in that period (1983-2010) a formerly defected former Catholic is not bound to Catholic form of marriage.
 
Living as brother and sister could be an option If he wanted to return to full sacramental life.

Also God forbid there’s an emergency, like an illness or accident , he can receive absolution and the Eucharist and anointing of the sick.
 
Perhaps they are not really Catholics and only assumed to be because they were in the past.
You’re really twisting yourself into a pretzel, now. In order to preserve the sense of being ‘right’, you’re now suggesting a case in which two Catholics, who formally defected from the Church – and therefore, who are not ‘practicing Catholics’ or members of a Catholic community – might be mistaken for Catholics who married invalidly? Seriously?
 
Also God forbid there’s an emergency, like an illness or accident , he can receive absolution and the Eucharist and anointing of the sick.
I’d assume he’d actually have to repent for them to have an effect though.
 
In order to preserve the sense of being ‘right’
This is so very far from the truth. That is not at all how I see this matter. I do not regard it as a competition to be won.
Seriously?
I do not believe I was the first person in this thread to start adding whatso scenarios. I thought if others were I might, too, join in the frivolity.
 
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