MARRIAGE IN ITALY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 775, 23 September 1929, Page 10

MARRIAGE IN ITALY

THREE FORMS NOW LEGAL RESULT OF CONCORDAT The new marriage law in Italy, as laid down in the Concordat with the Holy See, came into force recently, says the London “Observer.” As a large number of couples deferred their wedding until that date, so as to be among the first to take advantage of the historic Act, both Church and State had some busy days. Sip.ce Italy became a kingdom in 1870, only one form of legal marriage has prevailed—a civil marriage before a State official, normally the local Syndic (now Podesta) or his representative. Now, as the Minister of Justice, Signor Rocco, points out, three forms of marriage are all equally legal. (I.) Marriage performed by a priest in a Catholic church iu conformity with canon law, provided that the following State regulations are complied with. The banns must be published at the Commune as well as in church for the requisite number of days, and the request for this publication must be made not only by the parties themselves, but by the priest who is to perform the ceremony. Should there be no impediment, the Podesta will in due course give the priest a written declaration to the effect that the banns have been published and the marriage can then take place. During the service the officiating priest must explain to the bride and bridegroom that matrimony, besides being a Sacrament, is also a civil bond, and he will read them the articles of the Civil Code hearing on the respective rights and duties of husband and wife. The certificate of marriage must be handed in to the Podesta within five days for registration in the archives of the Commune, and within twenty-four hours the Podesta will give the priest a written declaration that the registration has been effected. It is this State registration “absolutely essential and in<*spensable” that gives the religious marriage its legal character, not the ceremony in itself. This point should be borne in mind by foreign women marrying Italians, as otherwise t.he mistake might easily be made of thinking that the Church marriage per se had now become legal in Italy, which is far from being the case.

(II.) The second form of legal marriage in Italy is the civil rite, pure and simple, just as it has existed since 1870, and which has neither been abolished nor altered in any single detail by the Concordat. (III.) The third form in which Italians can enter into matrimony is through a marriage performed by a minister of one of the npn-Catholic cults "admitted” by the State, but in this case the civil formalities are rather different and more complicated than those connected with Catholic marriages. Parties wishing to be married by § minister of any one of the “admitted” cults must make a declaration to that effect to the local Podesta or his representative, at the same time indicating the minister who is to officiate. They must then ask for the banns to be published at the Commune in the usual way. This done, the Podesta will give them a document authorising the minister in question to perform the marriage. This formality must be gone through each time there is any question of this third form of marriage, as ministers of non-Catholic cults cannot have a general warrant enabling them to act as marriage officers. The Certificate of marriage must afterward be forwarded to the Podesta for registration, and the latter will not only inform the minister that the registration in the State Archives has been effected, he will also inform the King’s Proctor (“Procura del Re”) so that notice of the marriage may be filed with the birth registers of bride and bridegroom. Here again, and to an even greater extent, it is compliance with State regulations that makes the legality of the marriage, not the ceremony itself.

Cults admitted by the State include the Waldensian and other Protestant churches in Italy recognised by the law; the Jewish faith, and the GreekOrthodox Church, which counts a good many members in South Italy. Presumably, chaplains of the Church of England established in Italy, and ministers of the German Lutheran and Swiss Churches would also have the right to perform the marriage ceremony for members of their congregations, in compliance with the abovementioned regulations. During the negotiations for the Concordat the Italian Government absolutely refused to make the Catholic marriage obligatory even for Catholics, as Vatican authorities would have desired. The Pope made a pointed reference to this vexed question in his famous letter of May 30 to Cardinal Gasparri. Signor Rocco, the Minister of Justice, states officially that the position of special prestige granted to the Catholic Church cannot, and must not, compromise “two of the fundamental principles of our public right; liberty of discussion in religious matters and freedom of worship for other cults, as a necessary consequence of the civil equality of all citizens, -whatever be the religion they profess.”