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Impediments to Marriage and Causes of Its Nullity

Impediments to Marriage and Causes of Its Nullity

Ensuring the Absence of Impediments… the Computer:

All ranks of the priesthood must ensure that there are no canonical impediments preventing marriage, before performing the rites of the holy Sacrament of Marriage (“the Crowning”), and even before engagement as well, when granting permission for marriage, whether from the Patriarchate or the bishoprics.

It would be preferable if there were a computer system on which all information related to marriage, divorce, and annulment of marriage is recorded throughout the entire Markan See, in Egypt, Sudan, and all countries of the diaspora. This system would be kept at the Patriarchate, and information would be exchanged between the Patriarchate and all dioceses in this regard, so that deception does not enter upon those responsible when granting marriage permits. The Patriarchate is currently working on implementing this project, God willing.

What then are these impediments that prevent marriage? We mention among them:

Impediments to Marriage and Its Nullity:

1. The first impediment is being bound by a previous marriage whose bond has not yet been dissolved; otherwise, the person would be bound by two marriages at the same time.
   Included in this consideration are those whose marriage was dissolved in a civil manner not approved by the Church, because it is contrary to the teachings of the Gospel. Thus, the Church considers that the first marriage is still existing.

2. Marriage after divorce, if the Book does not approve of its reasons.
   As for divorce due to adultery, the Church permits marriage for the innocent party who bears no guilt in the adultery of the other party.

3. Among the impediments to marriage is that one of the spouses is sexually unfit for marriage, such as if the husband, for example, is intersex or impotent (“sexually incapable”), or if the wife has a congenital defect that makes her unfit for marital relations. In such cases, marriage is judged null, and permission is given to the sound party to marry.

4. Marriage is also judged null if it was consummated under coercion.
   Marriage is supposed to be entered into with consent and satisfaction. If it was carried out under coercion, it is judged null, whether this coercion was material or moral, or was carried out by means of a threat that could not be resisted. If such nullity is ruled, permission is given to the innocent party to marry.

5. Marriage is also judged null if it was carried out without an essential element.
   For example, if a man marries a virgin and finds her after marriage to be otherwise, it is required in this matter first to prove it, and secondly to refrain from marital relations immediately after discovering the matter. Failure to refrain is considered acceptance of the situation.

6. Among the causes of nullity of marriage are also certain diseases existing prior to marriage.
   Such as if one of the spouses was insane—before marriage—or had a disease that prevents living with him or her, such as leprosy, for example. As for diseases that occur after marriage, it is assumed that the other party cares for the sick spouse.

7. Among the impediments to marriage in Christianity is that one of the spouses marries a person of another religion.
   Rather, marriage is required to be within the same Christian denomination. As for what some call “police dispensation,” referring to what came in (1 Corinthians 7), this was intended to mean marriage before faith in Christianity. For example, a marriage that took place under Judaism, then one of the spouses believed in Christianity. The marital relationship may be maintained with the other party, perhaps to draw him or her to faith. Nevertheless, the Scripture said in the same context that “the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases. If the unbeliever departs, let him depart” (1 Cor 7:15).
   We rely on this text in dissolving marriage due to change of religion.

8. Age may also be among the impediments to marriage,
   if one of the parties has not yet reached physical, sexual, or mental maturity, or the maturity that allows caring for a household and children.
   Each of these eight points requires thorough study, even though most of them are clear to many.

9. Among the impediments to marriage also is prohibited kinship.
   This point we will address now by shedding some light on it to explain it.

Impediments to Marriage Due to Kinship:

The first list of prohibited kinships was mentioned in the Book of Leviticus (18:6–18).

Perhaps because of the importance of prohibiting forbidden kinship, the martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist occurred when he said to King Herod: “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife” (Matt 14:4).

We will now address some of these prohibited marriages. Alongside propriety, etiquette, and family relations, the Fathers established an important rule, which is:
Kinship between the spouses makes the two one according to the teaching of the Scripture (Matt 19:6), such that the relatives of each become relatives of the other.

Thus, her mother is considered his mother, her father his father, her sisters his sisters, and so on.

Therefore, the wife’s mother (“the mother-in-law”) is called in English mother-in-law, meaning a mother according to the law, and her father is called father-in-law, meaning a father according to the law. The same applies to the rest of the relatives, and likewise the husband’s relatives with respect to his wife.

1. A man must not marry his mother-in-law, because she is considered his mother, since she is his wife’s mother.

2. A woman must not marry her father-in-law, because he is considered her father, since he is her husband’s father.

3. A man must not marry his wife’s sister after her death, because she is considered his sister.

4. Likewise, a woman must not marry her husband’s brother after his death, because he is considered her brother, even if the husband’s brother is a half-brother. The same applies even if the wife’s sister is a half-sister.

5. A man must not marry his wife’s daughter from another man, because after marrying her mother, she became his daughter according to the law.

6. Likewise, a woman must not marry her husband’s son from another woman, because since she married his father, he became her son according to the law.

7. A man must not marry his uncle’s wife, because she is considered as his aunt according to the law.

8. Likewise, a man must not marry his maternal uncle’s wife, because she is considered as his maternal aunt according to the law.

9. Since man and woman are considered one, the Fathers established an important rule:
   The kinships prohibited to the husband are likewise prohibited to the wife, and vice versa.

10. Since a man cannot marry his uncle’s wife, likewise his wife after him cannot marry his aunt’s husband. And since a man cannot marry his maternal uncle’s wife, likewise his wife after him cannot marry his maternal aunt’s husband.
    The same applies to the wife’s relatives with respect to the husband.

11. By the same measure, we can say: if a man and his wife have children from a previous marriage, it is not permissible for the son of one to marry the daughter of the other, because all these children have become siblings according to the law by the marriage of the father and mother.
    The man’s children became children of his wife, so they cannot marry her daughters who have become their sisters. And the wife’s children became children of the man after his marriage to her, thus becoming brothers to his daughters, and they cannot marry them as sisters.

By these rules, the family is deeply bound together, preserved by chastity and virtuous morals. There are no bodily lusts within one household, as long as they look at one another as brothers and sisters. Here appears the depth of the divine saying spoken about the spouses: “Therefore they are no longer two, but one flesh” (Matt 19:6).

12. Likewise, it is not permissible for a man—after the death of his wife—to marry the wife of her son from a previous marriage, because her son has been his son since he married her. Consequently, that woman is considered to the man as his son’s wife, and it is not lawful for him to marry her.

13. A woman also—after the death of her husband—cannot marry her stepdaughter’s husband, because her husband’s daughter became her daughter, and her husband is considered her daughter’s husband, as if she were his mother-in-law.

There is another important rule established by the Fathers regarding impediments to marriage:

14. Every marriage that causes confusion in kinships and lineages is a prohibited marriage. We will give an example of this with a question that was addressed to us:
    Is it permissible for a son to marry the sister of his father’s wife?

That is, if there are two sisters, and the father married the elder, is it permissible for the son to marry her younger sister? Is this marriage permissible according to the law? We answer as follows:

It is absolutely not permissible for the following reasons:
a. It is not permissible for the son to be a co-brother-in-law with his father in marriage.
b. The father’s wife is considered a mother to the son according to the law; therefore, her sister is considered his maternal aunt. It is not permissible for the son to marry his aunt.
c. Such a marriage causes dangerous confusion in kinships and lineages.

Let us suppose in this example (the son being co-brother-in-law with his father) that the son begot a son, and the father begot a daughter. What would be the kinship between them? And would it be permissible for them to marry?

From the mother’s side, these two children are considered children of maternal aunts, since the mother of each is a sister to the mother of the other, and as children of two maternal aunts, marriage between them could be permitted.

At the same time, the father’s daughter is considered a sister to his son, so she is an aunt to the son of that son. She cannot marry him because she is his aunt. That is, she is his aunt and his cousin at the same time!

How can reason, logic, and religion allow a marriage that produces such confused kinship leading to confused relationships in marriage?
Should the boy treat this girl as his aunt or as his cousin? With what affection does he look at her, and with what treatment, and with what kinship?

I was greatly astonished when one of our sons directed this question to me. I thought that the matter was among the obvious things that do not need to be asked at all.

Other Questions About Kinship:

Some present questions about non-bodily kinships, including:
a. Is it permissible to marry spiritual kinship, which is through baptism?
Is it permissible for a person to marry someone who is a sibling with him in baptism, who was immersed with him in the same baptismal font when they were children?
b. Is it permissible to marry the daughter of one’s godparent, if the godparent was a strange man or a strange woman, and he was considered spiritually a child of the godparent, and thus a spiritual brother to his daughters?
c. Can all the previous relationships be applied to an adopted child, such that he may not marry the prohibited kinships imposed upon him by this parenthood, as if it were real bodily parenthood and not adoption?

You may see that the article did not have space to answer all of this.
But I promise you that we will return to this topic, and I promise to answer every question you have regarding what we have stated of information.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Thirty-Six – Issues 3–4 – dated February 1, 2008.

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