Prawna skuteczność zgody małżeńskiej wyrażonej bez obecności duchownego uprawnionego do asystowania przy zawarciu małżeństwa jako przejaw elastyczności ustawodawcy kościelnego we wspieraniu instytucji małżeństwa

The Catholic Church requires that for marriage to be validly contracted,the contracting parties – provided that they are subject to its legal regulations – must manifest their consent in the presence of two witnesses anda clergyman authorized to assist at the celebration of marriage. Real life situations sometimes make it impossible, however, or signifcantly hinder observance of the ordinary canonical form of the celebration of marriage. Forthis reason, the church legislator allows for circumstances in which maritalconsent manifested without observance of this form becomes legally validand thus creates the marital bond. Most of these exceptions are mentionedin canons 1108 § 1 CIC and 828 § 1 CCEO.The author of this text discusses the canon law instruments described inthe above-mentioned cannons which guarantee the legal validity of maritalconsent expressed in the absence of a clergyman authorized to assist at themarriage. Due to the limited space available in the article, the other analogous legal instruments described in other cannons of the Code (dispensationfrom the canonical form and convalidation of marriage) have been omitted.