The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-12-19
A MARRIAGE QUERY.

A Butte correspondent writes this paper for
information regarding the validity of marriage
contracted in a foreign country His case stated
is "that man, intelligent, of good moral charac-
ter was married to a young lady, whom he met only
once and of whose character, disposition or intel
ligence he had no knowledge. His friends and
those of the young lady urge him to marry the
young lady for material reasons of their own, the
young lady being represented TO him as being all
right After marriage he learns the wife has two
sisters who insane; the wife is subject to hal
lucnations and decisions, and was so from child
hood, and, after few months marriage, becomes
insane Her mother also was at time an in
mate of an insane asylum. Of all this he had no
knowledge and at the time the marriage, which
was pressed upon him. took place, he thought he
was marrying a sane person. The question asked
Is: Was the marriage valdn"
There are, according to Catholic teaching, ff
teen diriment impediments which render marriage
null Only one could be brought to bear the
difficulty presented by correspondent, and that
is "error" relating to the girl who was married.
The diriment OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES twofold sub
stantial and accidental. substantial error nvali-
dates marriage. 1t applies personally to the mar
ried parties as for example, if the intended bride
or groom was personifed by different person, the
marriage would be invalid. An accidental error
has reference to the conditions and qualities of the
person, and does not invalidate marriage If
man married a woman whom he considered viz
gin and wealthy, and after the marriage learns
that his wife was widow and in poor circum-
stances, the marriage is valid and binds till death.
That error has reference to her qualities and not to
her person. The error" to which our correspon-
dent refers, is indeed a very serious one; but was
it a substantial or accidental one. AS the case
is presented the error would seem to be accidental
and the marriage OH the face of it was valid. Yet
there are circumstances connected with the case
which deserve serious attention and might be in
vestigated by an ecclesiastical court. First, the
young people met only once, and that i'll an in
formal manner. Second, it occurred in a foreign
country where, very Often courtship and espousals
are unknown quantities. Third, the friends OF the
young people. for material reasons, thought the
marriage of the young couple would be a very suit
able alliance, and mutually agreed that it was the
right and proper thing for them to get married.
Fourth the young man, thinking the young wo-
man was all right and at the solicitation of friends
goes before the altar and gives his consent The
mutual consent given then and there made them to
all appearances, husband and wife 1t has all the
marks of an approved marriage, because the pres
ence of priest officiating at the ceremony pre-
supposes the absence of inpediment which
would render the marriage null. 1t is contracted
according TO the laws of nature and the laws of
the land If there was no substantial error, the
marriage was valid, and whether viewed as natu-
raj contract, or according to the requirements of