Valid and Licit marriage without an ordained minister?

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fish90

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Hello,

In an extremely RARE case (i.e. you and a future spouse are stuck on an island or no priest is around for 1000 miles), can you be validly and licitly married in the Catholic Church without an ordained minister? I thought this was true, but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
fish90
 
Yes with witnesses only (I will leave aside the miles etc…but yes) forseeing the situation will continue for at least a month.

Not normally going to be the case…but it could happen.
 
fish90 said:
Hello,

In an extremely RARE case (i.e. you and a future spouse are stuck on an island or no priest is around for 1000 miles), can you be validly and licitly married in the Catholic Church without an ordained minister? I thought this was true, but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
fish90
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Yes, and it is also possible to get a dispensation to be married by, for example, a Justice of the Peace, in some circumstances.
 
I would invite Padre Pio to officiate, Mama Mary, and Saint Joseph to be witnesses, and name the children after them!🙂
 
babochka said:
Yes, and it is also possible to get a dispensation to be married by, for example, a Justice of the Peace, in some circumstances.
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Even in a Catholic ceremony the person receiving the consent could be a lay person. That is provided for in Canon Law and until recently I was aware of only one such case in my diocese where the person who received the consent was the religious sister who was the Pastoral Associate for a very small, isolated parish without a regular priest. Of course this had to be approved by Rome in advance. I’ve since learned that there have been more cases in other parishes.

Our diocese has only 40,000 Catholics spread over 123,000 square miles. Distances between parishes can be as much as 360 miles and some parishes can only be reached by air or boat so priests don’t get to all parishes often. We have cluster parishes that can be miles and a plane ride apart.
 
Phemie said:
Even in a Catholic ceremony the person receiving the consent could be a lay person. That is provided for in Canon Law and until recently I was aware of only one such case in my diocese where the person who received the consent was the religious sister who was the Pastoral Associate for a very small, isolated parish without a regular priest. Of course this had to be approved by Rome in advance. I’ve since learned that there have been more cases in other parishes.

Our diocese has only 40,000 Catholics spread over 123,000 square miles. Distances between parishes can be as much as 360 miles and some parishes can only be reached by air or boat so priests don’t get to all parishes often. We have cluster parishes that can be miles and a plane ride apart.
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**
Where is this? Up in the northwest territories? **
 
mymamamary said:
:eek::eek::eek:

**The situation is THAT bad on the East coast?

Thats horrible. Growing up in Ontario, I never had to expierence that. **
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It’s not everywhere on the East Coast. Newfoundland & Labrador is sparsely populated (other than major centers) and villages are spread out. Priests have many parishes to look after and some isolated parishes see a priest about two or three times a year, if the weather cooperates.

If I leave my parish there’s a little mission about 26 km away, but the next real parish is 585 Km away. That’s like leaving St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Toronto and not seeing another parish until you get to Montreal.

Let me put it in another perspective. Labrador is 50 times bigger than PEI with less than a quarter of the population.
 
Phemie said:
It’s not everywhere on the East Coast. Newfoundland & Labrador is sparsely populated (other than major centers) and villages are spread out. Priests have many parishes to look after and some isolated parishes see a priest about two or three times a year, if the weather cooperates.

If I leave my parish there’s a little mission about 26 km away, but the next real parish is 585 Km away. That’s like leaving St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Toronto and not seeing another parish until you get to Montreal.

Let me put it in another perspective. Labrador is 50 times bigger than PEI with less than a quarter of the population.
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**Sorry to derail the thread, but I think some serious praying for vocations needs to happen. Thats frightening. **
 
FYI here are the relevant Canons

For the delegation of laypersons to witness marriages
Can. 1112 §1. Where there is a lack of priests and deacons, the diocesan bishop can delegate lay persons to assist at marriages, with the previous favorable vote of the conference of bishops and after he has obtained the permission of the Holy See.
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For those circumstances where a minister is unavailable (the OP’s question)
Can. 1116 §1. If a person competent to assist according to the norm of law cannot be present or approached without grave inconvenience, those who intend to enter into a true marriage can contract it validly and licitly before witnesses only:
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1/ in danger of death;
2/ outside the danger of death provided that it is prudently foreseen that the situation will continue for a month.
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fish90 said:
Hello,

In an extremely RARE case (i.e. you and a future spouse are stuck on an island or no priest is around for 1000 miles), can you be validly and licitly married in the Catholic Church without an ordained minister? I thought this was true, but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
fish90
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Stay off desert islands and you won’t have to worry about this.
 
I have heard that it also occurs in parts of Central America, and perhaps in some of south America, where there simply are not enough priests to cover all the small, isolated villages.
 
mymamamary said:
**Sorry to derail the thread, but I think some serious praying for vocations needs to happen. Thats frightening. **
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It’s not necessarily a shortage of priests. It may just be a sparsity of population. In the US, this was common during parts of the 1800s. There were plenty of priests in total but perhaps only a handful of Catholic families were grouped together. There were “circuit priests” who traveled from place to place hitting each community every month or so.
 
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