Consensual Incapacity and canon 1095

Reflexiones en torno al Canon 1095 (Ius Canonicum 31 (1991), 85-105; Angelicum 49 (1992), 493-517: also in AA.VV. Incapacidad Co

            Si se considera el matrimonio como una de las instituciones más en consonancia con la naturaleza humana, entonces la incapacidad consensual, en el caso de un adulto que goza de uso suficiente de razón, es un fenómeno absolutamente fuera de lo normal o natural. La incapacidad de apreciar las obligaciones esenciales del matrimonio, lo mismo que la de asumirlas, es un "handicap" extraordinario ("incapacitas quid extraordinarium haberi debet" Pompedda, M.: "Incapacitas Adsumendi Obligationes Matrimonii Essentiales" (Periodica LXXV (1986) 138-140)), que sólo puede darse en el caso de una persona seriamente "minusválida" a quien, en consecuencia, se le priva del ejercicio del derecho natural de contraer matrimonio (c. 1058) (c.

The essential obligations of matrimony (Studia canonica 26 (1992), 379-399)

            "There is no handy rule of thumb", a Judge observed in a Sentence that came before me recently, "for determining which type of lack of discretion or of incapacity invalidates marital consent". He was of course referring to c. 1095, but I felt he seemed unduly at sea about its interpretation. Canon 1095 itself gives a plain rule: such disabilities can invalidate only if they relate to the essential rights/obligations of marriage. In fact, according to n. 2 of the canon, contractual or consensual incapacity is to be imputed to those "who suffer from grave lack of discretion of judgment concerning essential matrimonial rights and duties (officia)"; and, according to n.

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