Prior Bond, Ligamen, and Putative Marriage

Authority level: Dogma
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Evidence type: Historical account
Theological status: Theological synthesis
GuideMarriage's unity and indissolubility belong to Catholic doctrine; proof of freedom, prior-bond impediment, putative status, good faith, legitimacy, procedural findings, and external effects are binding discipline and evidence.
Contents

Prior Bond, Ligamen, and Putative Marriage distinguishes the diriment impediment created by an existing valid marriage from the limited canonical effects of a later invalid marriage celebrated in good faith.

Ligamen protects the first valid bond

Ligamen is the traditional Latin name for the impediment of Prior Bond. Canon 1085 states that a person bound by the bond of a prior marriage invalidly attempts another marriage, even if the earlier marriage was not consummated. The rule protects unity and indissolubility. It is not a penalty for civil divorce or a presumption that every earlier ceremony was valid regardless of facts.[1][2]

Even when a previous marriage appears invalid or has ended civilly, a new marriage is not permitted until the nullity or legitimate dissolution of the prior bond has been established lawfully and certainly. Death, a final declaration of nullity, or an authorized dissolution can establish freedom according to its nature. A person's conviction, a lawyer's civil opinion, or long separation cannot substitute for the competent ecclesiastical judgment.[3]

Prior bond differs from civil marital status

Civil records are important evidence but do not alone define the sacramental or canonical bond. A civilly dissolved marriage can remain canonically valid; a civilly recognized union can have been canonically invalid from the start. Pastoral investigation reconstructs Baptism, consent, capacity, form, judgments, and any dissolution instead of mapping married or divorced directly from a database.[4]

The impediment cannot be dispensed while the bond remains

No ecclesiastical authority dispenses a person to have two simultaneous valid spouses. A tribunal can declare that the alleged prior bond never arose, and competent authority can dissolve certain valid bonds in cases recognized by law, but neither act is a dispensation from an existing indissoluble bond. The juridic basis must be named exactly.

Putative status protects good faith without creating validity

Canon 1061 §3 calls a marriage putative when it was celebrated in good faith by at least one party even though invalid, until both parties become certain of its nullity. Good faith concerns an honest belief in validity. It can exist even when an objective impediment prevented the bond, and it ends for a party who becomes certain of the invalidity.

Putative status does not make an invalid marriage partly valid or permit the parties to disregard a known impediment. It allows canon law to protect effects attached to good faith and public celebration. Children conceived or born of a valid or putative marriage are legitimate under canon 1137; their dignity never depends on their parents' canonical success, and legitimacy is not a verdict on personal holiness.[5]

Proof must precede a new wedding or remedy

Marriage preparation should obtain recent sacramental certificates, civil records, death certificates, decrees, and tribunal sentences early. A Documentary Process can sometimes establish a prior-bond or other documentary ground, while an ordinary nullity cause may be needed for contested consent or fact. The defender of the bond and the parties' rights prevent administrative convenience from becoming a declaration of invalidity.[6]

When an attempted later union was putative, pastoral care must distinguish legal effects, possible Convalidation after freedom is established, and duties arising from children, property, and natural justice. Truth about ligamen need not humiliate persons who acted in good faith. It prevents a new attempt from multiplying invalidity while directing the couple toward the lawful remedy actually available.

References

  1. 1.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1601–1666 — The authoritative synthesis of marriage as covenant and sacrament, consent, unity, indissolubility, mixed marriages, separation, grace, family, and pastoral care
  2. 2.Gaudium et spes, 47–52 — Vatican II's pastoral constitution on the dignity, covenant, unity, fidelity, indissolubility, fruitfulness, conjugal love, and social mission of marriage
  3. 3.Code of Canon Law, canons 1055–1165 — Binding Latin matrimonial law on consent, prior bond, disparity of cult, mixed marriage, form, effects, separation, dissolution, convalidation, and radical sanation
  4. 4.Familiaris consortio — Saint John Paul II's teaching on sacramental marriage, mixed marriages, domestic church, indissolubility, pastoral care, civil divorce, irregular situations, and family mission
  5. 5.Order of Celebrating Matrimony — The approved English ritual book for preparation, consent, blessing, mixed marriage, marriage with a catechumen or unbaptized person, and the ecclesial celebration of Matrimony
  6. 6.Dignitas connubii — The Holy See instruction on matrimonial nullity procedure, competent tribunals, prior bond, documentary proof, presumptions, parties, advocates, evidence, and moral certainty