The Catholic "canonical form" for marriage...still confused?

It only goes back to 1908, so no wonder.

When Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, had a wedding at Westminster Cathedral, on May 29, 2021, there was some murmuring about his being a Catholic and that this was his “third marriage.” Dame Averil Cameron seemed unusually perplexed — and unusually so, I thought, given that she is a retired Oxford professor of late antique and Byzantine history. But then even the very best and brightest are sometimes unclear about what the Church has taught about marriage over the centuries, and how that has come down to our time.

I offered (as above, on Twitter) Saint Paul’s description of marriage as the “great sacrament” (sacramentum magnum, or in the original Greek, μυστήριον μέγα — “mysterion mega” — Ephesians 5:32), as well as the image from the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome, which has the famous chapel of the veiled woman, a Christian shown with her hands raised, as well as with two other scenes from her life, namely, what is presumed to be her wedding (most scholars believe that the image on her right is that of the bride and groom before the bishop at their wedding), and then after giving birth to a child (she is seated on a birthing chair).

Saint Paul refers to marriage as needing to be “in the Lord” — in 1 Corinthians 7:39, and in other places. This no doubt meant either marrying in front of the Christian community and its leaders, and/or also meant marrying another Christian if possible, though not everyone was free in the choice of a spouse, but rather married someone agreed upon between families, etc. Some people — most? — simply followed whatever was the recognized form of marriage of the place and time. Wedding ceremonies were held before family members, the local magistrate, or the tribal chieftain.

The sacramental nature of marriage comes about by exchange of matrimonial consent of two validly baptized Christians, not by a third person conferring anything on them (though in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox tradition, the blessing of a bishop or priest is necessary — even though it is the consent of the parties that makes the marriage: consensus matrimonium facit). In the Latin Church, the baptized bride and the baptized groom are the ministers of the sacrament of matrimony. Every sacrament has form, matter, and intention. I’ve heard one theology professor argue that the bride and groom need to “intend the sacrament” — but this is incorrect, as what they need to intend is marriage. It’s a sacrament by virtue of their baptism (whether they know it or not or believe it or not), according to canon 1055, §2 CIC.

Saint Monica (or, better, Monnica), always regarded as having been a baptized Christian at the time of her wedding, married the pagan Patricius by being given to him by her parents, as in the painting by Antonio Vivarini below. Here there are no Catholic clergy present. It is nearly impossible to imagine she had any kind of a dispensation from the local bishop to marry a non-baptized man (and thus enter into a valid yet non-sacramental marriage — though one which, upon the baptism if Patricius shortly before his death, became sacramental at the moment of his baptism).

Yet the Catholic Church would not argue that she somehow was not in a valid marriage to Patricius or that they were not really married — it’s simply that the current Catholic canonical form requirement did not exist. Thus, we can believe that Saint Augustine’s parents were truly married, clergy or no clergy present, dispensation or no dispensation obtained.

The inscription on Vivarini’s work reads:

QUI E’ COMO SANCTA MONIKA FU MANDATA A MARITO DAL PADRE E DA LA MADRE.

(“Here is how Saint Monica was given to {her} husband by {her} father and mother.”)

Only with Tametsi (1563) did the Catholic Church decree that a valid marriage was one which was celebrated before an official witness of the Catholic Church (one’s own parish priest/pastor or another delegated by him or by a local Ordinary) plus at least two other witnesses (“two or three”). Establishing this form by law, however, did not mean that the Catholic Church did not see marriage as a sacrament until 1563, or that marriages were invalid prior to that date.

After all, it used to be that you could sneak off and validly marry in Friar Lawrence’s cell, even if it turned out to be a really bad idea.

Based upon publicly available information (including his Wikipedia profile), Boris Johnson was baptized a Catholic in infancy.

The Catholic Church regards someone baptized a Catholic as “once Catholic, always Catholic” (semel Catholicus, semper Catholicus).

He attempted marriage twice before his current (#3) marriage. Marriages 1 and 2 are believed not to have been celebrated in the Catholic Church/according to canonical form (that is, these were civil ceremonies or other non-Catholic ceremonies). Therefore these marriages would be invalid for a Catholic (unless, of course, the Catholic party requests and obtains a dispensation from canonical form ahead of time, in order to marry a non-Catholic in a non-Catholic ceremony — but given Johnson’s rather public lack of practice over the years, the consensus among canonists is that his requesting and obtaining a dispensation did not happen, and thus the first and second attempts at marriage by him would be able to be declared invalid due to failure to observe the Catholic canonical form for a wedding).

He was confirmed as an Anglican at some point, but that does not alter his canonical status as a Catholic (also, Anglican confirmation is considered invalid by the Catholic Church).

Thus, as a Catholic, he was deemed not to have been married before, and therefore was free to contract marriage in the Catholic Church and according to canonical form. Certainly he would not have been permitted to have a wedding at London’s Catholic cathedral unless it had been established that he was free to contract marriage in the Catholic Church.

Is he an exemplary Catholic? Perhaps not, though one never knows the state of another’s soul. But maybe now, at long last, he is trying. It’s never a bad thing at least to wind up in a position to avail oneself of the graces of the sacrament of matrimony.

The decree on canonical form, Ne Temere of 1907 — taking effect in 1908 — which amplified and made universal the decree Tametsi of 1563, can be read here in English: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/decree-on-betrothal-and-marriage-2299