The Validity of Confessions and Marriages
in the chapels of the Society of St. Pius X

A CANONICAL STUDY

by Rev. Ramón Anglés

8. NEW LEGISLATION EXEMPTING FROM THE CANONICAL FORM FOR MARRIAGE THOSE CATHOLICS WHO HAVE LEFT THE CHURCH BY A FORMAL ACT

8.1. THE CANON IN ENGLISH

* With due regard for the prescriptions of Canon 1127, # 2, the form stated above is to be observed whenever at least one of the contractants was baptized in the Catholic Church or was received into it and has not left it by a formal act. (New Code Canon 1117)

8.2. NOTIONS

In the old Code, and after the modification of its Canon 1099 by the Motu Proprio Ne Temere, August 1, 1948, the obligation to observe the canonical form of marriage was determined both by the baptism received into the Catholic Church and by the fact of a conversion to Catholicism. Some other modifications took place concerning mixed marriages, essentially exempting from the obligation to keep the canonical form in cases of marriages celebrated between Catholics and baptized Oriental non-Catholic, as long as the wedding was blessed by a sacred minister.

An innovation is included by New Code Canon 1117: exemption from the canonical form for those who, having been baptized within the Catholic Church or converted to Catholicism, subsequently abandon the Church ACTU FORMALI, BY A FORMAL ACT.

Since 1983 there has been an extensive exegesis of the term actu formali. It will be enough for our purpose to quote the professors of Navarra, op. cit. pp. 680ss.: De los trabajos preparatorios del nuevo código (cfr. Communicationes, 8, 1976, pp. 54-56; y 10, 1978, pp. 96-98) se deduce que la separación formal no es siempre equivalente a acto público o notorio de apartamiento de la fe católica. Así, el término PÚBLICO tanto puede incluir una defección normal como una defección virtual de la fe católica; es decir, tanto una separación seguida de adscripción a otra confesión, como una vida notoriamente contrastante con la doctrina católica, pero sin formal acto de abandono de la Iglesia católica... Será necesario un hecho público que implique, al tiempo, un formal apartamiento de la Iglesia católica: adscripción a una confesión acatólica, declaración ante el párroco hecha por escrito, etc.; es decir, un acto jurídico externo del que inequívocamente se deduzca el formal apartamiento de la Iglesia católica.

The authors indicate that to abandon the Church actu formali requires an EXTERNAL ACT of a juridical value, denoting clearly and unequivocally the formal renunciation of the Catholic faith. An example would be the ascription into a non-Catholic sect.

Accordingly, when the two contractants have abandoned the Church by a formal act, the New Code exempts them from the ordinary canonical form for marriage. This means practically that a simple exchange of vows in the presence of two witnesses is sufficient for a valid marriage to be contracted.

8.3. APPLICATION TO OUR CASE

Obviously we will never justify the validity and liceity of the marriages in our chapels upon such an argument, because it would suppose that we are outside the Catholic Church, whom we serve in this her post-conciliar Calvary.

Still, ad hominem once more, and reducing ad absurdum the reasoning of our adversaries, it will help us to make a conjectural application of this Canon.

If the Society of Saint Pius X is a schismatic group, the only possible grounds for the adhesion to schism is the acceptance and defense of the Episcopal Consecrations of June 30, 1988 performed by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer in order to continue the "operation rescue" of the Catholic priesthood in the present situation of emergency caused by the post-Vatican II spiritual devastation.

We could easily enter into a clear demonstration that the "excommunications" were invalid, and also that the "schism" did never take place. We could even quote the decision of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, June 4, 1993, declaring null and void the decree of excommunication pronounced by the Bishop of Honolulu, Anthony Ferrario, on a group of six traditional Catholics who attended a Society chapel. According to Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the said Roman Congregation, there were no grounds for a declaration of the Society group as being schismatic.

But what we actually want to use as a hypothetical argument is exactly the opposite: let us accept for a moment the argument of those who call us schismatic. If the faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X, by their adhesion to the Episcopal Consecrations of 1988, are to be considered as being schismatic, Canon 1117 exempts them from the canonical form of marriage. Hence their weddings in our chapels are perfectly valid, and since both parties are baptized, the contract is a sacramental one.

This is the singular way in which the arguments of our antagonists turn against them.