Ligamen is, in

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

, an existing marriage tie, which constitutes an

impediment An obstacle (also called a barrier, impediment, or stumbling block) is an object, thing, action or situation that causes an obstruction. Different types of obstacles include physical, economic, biopsychosocial, cultural, political, technologica ...

to the contracting of a second marriage.

Description

''Ligamen'' comes from the Latin word meaning "bond". The existence of a previous valid marriage at the moment of contracting a second entails of itself the invalidity of the latter. If one of the parties of a divorced couple (the Petitioner) then wishes to enter into a sacramental marriage with a third party and can show that his/her former spouse (the Respondent) had been previously married, that the spouse in the previous marriage (the Co-Respondent) was alive at the time of the second marriage, and that the Church had not declared the first marriage null, Respondent's first marriage is presumed valid. The Petitioner may file a ''Ligamen'' procedure for a determination that his/her marriage was invalid since the former spouse had an existing prior marriage bond precluding them from contracting a valid second marriage. A

putative marriage A putative marriage is an apparently valid marriage, entered into in good faith on the part of at least one of the partners, but that is legally invalid due to a technical impediment, such as a preexistent marriage on the part of one of the part ...

must be presumed valid, and so constituting the impediment of ''ligamen'', until it is proven invalid. Should the second marriage have been contracted in good faith, if only by one party, and it subsequently appear that the first spouse still lived, then the second marriage would not only be invalid, but the parties to it must be separated by the ecclesiastical authorities, and the first marriage re-established. However, the second and invalid marriage would enjoy the advantage of being

. This second marriage, though illegal during the lifetime of the first spouse, may be validly contracted after his or her death; indeed, should the party who acted ''bona fide'' demand it, the guilty one is then bound to contract marriage validly with the petitioner. Since

monogamy Monogamy ( ) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (serial monogamy) — as compared to the various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., polyg ...

and the indissolubility of marriage are founded on the

natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...

, this impediment of ''ligamen'' is binding also on non-Catholics and on the unbaptized. If an unbaptized person living in

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

becomes a Christian, he must keep the wife he had first married and release the second, in case the first wife is converted with him. Otherwise, by virtue of the "

Pauline privilege The Pauline privilege ( la, privilegium Paulinum) is the allowance by the Roman Catholic Church of the dissolution of marriage of two persons not baptized at the time the marriage occurred. The Pauline privilege is drawn from the apostle Paul' ...

", the converted husband may choose that one of his wives who allows herself to be baptized.

References

External links

"The Ligamen Process", Catholic Diocese of Arlington
Catholic matrimonial canon law Impediments (Catholic canon law) Catholic Church legal terminology {{RC-Canon-law-stub

Description

See also

References

External links