APPENDIX 



THE MARRIAGE IMPEDIMENTS UNDER THE 

 NEW CODE OF CANON LAW 



According to the laws of most of our States, marriage 

 is nothing but a legal contract. As such the State pre- 

 scribes for it the conditions under which it shall be valid 

 or invalid. In many States marriages between close 

 relatives, or marriages between white people and negroes, 

 are null and void. In other words the States set up im- 

 pediments to the marriage contract. 



The Catholic Church also recognizes in marriage a con- 

 tract, but a contract elevated to the dignity of a Sacra- 

 ment; and because marriage is a Sacrament, the Church 

 alone, under whose jurisdiction Christ placed all the Sac- 

 raments, has the power to make rules and regulations with 

 regard to this sacred contract, and to set up impediments 

 which render it unlawful or invalid also as a Sacrament. 



Some of these impediments, however, have been 

 changed or modified in the course of centuries, as the 

 needs of the time demanded. Especially is this the case 

 in the new Code of Church laws promulgated by our 

 Holy Father Benedict XV, in 191 7, and of binding force 

 since Whitsunday, 1918. In Canons 1036-1058, which 

 form Chapter II of the section on the Sacrament of 

 Matrimony, " Of the Impediments of Matrimony in Gen- 

 eral," these impediments are laid down with great clear- 

 ness. 



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