CHAPTER IV. Matrimonial Consent

Can. 1095 The following are incapable of contracting marriage:

1/ those who lack the sufficient use of reason;

2/ those who suVer from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights

and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted;

3/ those who are not able to assume the essential obligations of marriage for causes of a psychic nature.

Can. 1096 §1. For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage

is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some

sexual cooperation.

§2. This ignorance is not presumed after puberty.

Can. 1097 §1. Error concerning the person renders a marriage invalid.

§2. Error concerning a quality of the person does not render a marriage invalid even if it is the cause for the

contract, unless this quality is directly and principally intended.

Can. 1098 A person contracts invalidly who enters into a marriage deceived by malice, perpetrated to obtain

consent, concerning some quality of the other partner which by its very nature can gravely disturb the partnership

of conjugal life.

Can. 1099 Error concerning the unity or indissolubility or sacramental dignity of marriage does not vitiate

matrimonial consent provided that it does not determine the will.

Can. 1100 The knowledge or opinion of the nullity of a marriage does not necessarily exclude matrimonial consent.

Can. 1101 §1. The internal consent of the mind is presumed to conform to the words and signs used in celebrating

the marriage.

§2. If, however, either or both of the parties by a positive act of the will exclude marriage itself, some essential

element of marriage, or some essential property of marriage, the party contracts invalidly.

Can. 1102 §1. A marriage subject to a condition about the future cannot be contracted validly.

§2. A marriage entered into subject to a condition about the past or the present is valid or not insofar as that

which is subject to the condition exists or not.

§3. The condition mentioned in §2, however, cannot be placed licitly without the written permission of the

local ordinary.

Can. 1103 A marriage is invalid if entered into because of force or grave fear from without, even if unintentionally

inflicted, so that a person is compelled to choose marriage in order to be free from it.

Can. 1104 §1. To contract a marriage validly the contracting parties must be present together, either in person or

by proxy.

§2. Those being married are to express matrimonial consent in words or, if they cannot speak, through

equivalent signs.

Can. 1105 §1. To enter into a marriage validly by proxy it is required that:

1/ there is a special mandate to contract with a specific person;

2/ the proxy is designated by the one mandating and fulfills this function personally.

§2. To be valid the mandate must be signed by the one mandating and by the pastor or ordinary of the place

where the mandate is given, or by a priest delegated by either of them, or at least by two witnesses, or it must be

made by means of a document which is authentic according to the norm of civil law.

§3. If the one mandating cannot write, this is to be noted in the mandate itself and another witness is to be

added who also signs the document; otherwise, the mandate is invalid.

§4. If the one mandating revokes the mandate or develops amentia before the proxy contracts in his or her

name, the marriage is invalid even if the proxy or the other contracting party does not know this.

Can. 1106 A marriage can be contracted through an interpreter; the pastor is not to assist at it, however, unless he

is certain of the trustworthiness of the interpreter.

Can. 1107 Even if a marriage was entered into invalidly by reason of an impediment or a defect of form, the consent

given is presumed to persist until its revocation is established.