TITLE VII:
MARRIAGE (Cann. 1055 - 1165)
Can.
1055 §1 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between
themselves a partnership of their whole life, and which of its own very nature
is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and
upbringing of children, has, between the baptised, been raised by Christ the
Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.
§2
Consequently, a valid marriage contract cannot exist between baptised persons
without its being by that very fact a sacrament.
Can.
1056 The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility; in
christian marriage they acquire a distinctive firmness by reason of the sacrament.
Can.
1057 §1 A marriage is brought into being by the lawfully manifested consent of
persons who are legally capable. This consent cannot be supplied by any human
power.
§2
Matrimonial consent is an act of will by which a man and a woman by an
irrevocable covenant mutually give and accept one another for the purpose of
establishing a marriage.
Can.
1058 All can contract marriage who are not prohibited by law.
Can.
1059 The marriage of catholics, even if only one party is baptised, is governed
not only by divine law but also by canon law, without prejudice to the
competence of the civil authority in respect of the merely civil effects of the
marriage.
Can.
1060 Marriage enjoys the favour of law. Consequently, in doubt the validity of
a marriage must be upheld until the contrary is proven.
Can.
1061 §1 A valid marriage between baptised persons is said to be merely
ratified, if it is not consummated; ratified and consummated, if the spouses
have in a human manner engaged together in a conjugal act in itself apt for the
generation of offspring. To this act marriage is by its nature ordered and by
it the spouses become one flesh.
§2 If the
spouses have lived together after the celebration of their marriage,
consummation is presumed until the contrary is proven.
§3 An
invalid marriage is said to be putative if it has been celebrated in good faith
by at least one party. It ceases to be such when both parties become certain of
its nullity.
Can.
1062 §1 A promise of marriage, whether unilateral or bilateral, called an
engagement, is governed by the particular law which the Episcopal Conference
has enacted, after consideration of such customs and civil laws as may exist.
§2 No right
of action to request the celebration of marriage arises from a promise of
marriage, but there does arise an action for such reparation of damages as may
be due.
|