Małżeństwa mieszane. Wybrane zagadnienia z praktyki kurialnej

Abstract

The article presents some controversial issues, which can be awkward to handle in the diocesan curia practice while processing the petitions of the spouses for the required permission for lawfully contracting mixed marriages. The following problems have been gathered and analysed: 1) Just and reasonable cause of giving permission, which in practice - in distinction from the previous Code - is limited today to a serious intention of contracting a marriage with a baptized non-Catholic. 2) Statements (guarantees) of the spouses: it must be underlined that - contrary to widely spread opinions - they have an ecumenical sense in canon law. A non-Catholic party does not undertake anything, but he or she must be informed about obligations assumed by a catholic party. A catholic party is not obliged to promise that all the children will be baptized and brought up in the catholic Church, but only that he or she will do all in his or her power to make it happen. 3) Establishing the freedom to marry: this requirement in case of mixed marriages can cause some problems when the non-Catholic party’s freedom to marry is established on the basis of the documents, also because the previous civil marriage, contracted by the party in question, is often to be considered as a valid and indissoluble marriage. In this case the bond of a previous marriage prohibits entering the new marriage. 4) Instruction of the both parties about the aims and the essential properties of marriage, which cannot be excluded by any of the parties. The requirement concerns every single marriage and, in case of mixed marriages, is all the more important because non-Catholics can be driven by rules and opinions incoherent with the catholic doctrine (it is a problem of the so-called one-side-marriages). 5) Canonical form of mixed marriages which, as a rule, are to be contracted outside the Mass, because of the frequent difficulties of receiving the Holy Communion by a non-Catholic spouse, as well as witnesses and other non-Catholics in attendance.