Customary Gidar Marriage and Christian Tradition

In Cameroon we are dealing with three types of marriage: traditional, universally practiced marriage; civil marriage, required by state law before entering into a religious marriage; and, finally, sacramental marriage. Most widespread is the traditional form of contracting marriage. This article will present this particular form, referring to Gidar traditions and also showing its similarities to, and differences from, the Christian tradition brought by the missionaries. It will also propose solutions which combine the two traditions. A characteristic feature of marriage rites was their multi-stage nature. They were not single acts but events long prepared and celebrated with suitable gestures, symbols, words, and events. The individual, successive stages of “taking a wife” consisted of the choice of a spouse, accepted by both families; an engagement period; an act by both families of acknowledgement of the joining of the young persons as one in marriage; the conveying of the bride to her husband’s home; celebrating; and paying the matrimonial fee. The Church in northern Cameroon recognized traditional marriages contracted outside of baptism as valid and licit, provided that local principles, e.g., payment of a marriage fee, were taken into account. If either of the parties accepted baptism, the marriage became for him or her sacramental. If the other party also made the same decision later on, their union took on a sacramental character, without a need to renew the marriage vows. Controversy would however arise if attempts were made to contract a traditional marriage if one party was [already] baptized, or if both parties were baptized. These controversies mainly concerned the unity, indissolubility, and sacramentality of marriage.

Brak wiary a wykluczenie godności sakramentalnej małżeństwa

The Code of Canon Law of 1983 classifies the reasons for marriage invalidity in three different categories: diriment impediments, defects in matrimonial consent and lack or defect of canon form. Among different defects in matrimonial consent, in 1101 § 2, Code of Canon Law enumerates simulations. Simulation signifies that a person contracting marriage expresses marital agreement merely on the surface, excluding in reality through a positive act of the will the marriage itself, some essential elements or an essential property of marriage. The present article is an attempt of looking at the relation existing between the validity of marriage and the exclusion of the sacramental dignity, with the special consideration of the faith of the person.

Małżeństwo świeckie i wyznaniowe w nauczaniu prawa polskiego w latach 1945–1993

The institution of marriage is important for the both systems of law: state and church, as both of these two bodies must respect the truth about the institution of marriage. As the analysis of the problem shows, i.e. the possibility of contracting marriage in the religious form and in presence of other religious elements, the mentioned rule was not always respected by the Polish State. Religious elements were in fact significantly present in different jurisdictions of the partitioning states, which were in force on Poland’s territory under the rule of individual partitioning states. The possibility of the presence of religious elements in executing institution of marriage was taken into account in discussion that took place in Poland after the year 1918. All projects of acts of law were unfortunately rejected. The first act of law that was promulgated in 1945 presented a completely new, strange and even inimical to the Polish tradition, lay model of executing the institution of marriage. Its tightening followed rapidly after the promulgation of the next act of law, i.e. the Code of Family in the year of 1950. A change came about in the year 1998 through the Polish Concordat which came into force beginning with the year 1993. The possibility of contracting a civil marriage in the religious form was opened first for the Catholic Church. At the next stage, the same possibility was recognized in the case of ten other churches. As the analysis of the problem shows, contracting of a civil marriage in the religious form has always stayed under the control of the registry office. A clergyman is only an executor of the procedure.

The Right to Marry in the Parish Church: A Rehabilitation of Argar v Holdsworth

The entitlement of all persons capable of validly contracting marriage to have such marriage solemnised in the church or chapel of the parish in which they live was, until recently, widely accepted and often repeated. Argar v Holdsworth is the case most often cited as evidencing the existence of this right. However, this received orthodoxy has recently been challenged from two sources. First, by Professor Norman Doe in The Legal Framework of the Church of England and secondly by the late the Reverend Michael G. Smith, in an article in this Journal. Both Doe and Smith throw doubt upon Argar v Holdsworth as providing any basis for proving the existence of such a right and Doe goes further in suggesting that the right to marry was abolished by the Marriage Act 1936 and has only survived since that date as a legal fiction. I seek to demonstrate that Smith's understanding of Argar v Holdsworth is seriously flawed and also that the criticisms levelled against this case as an authority both by Smith and by Doe cannot be upheld.