The Christian and Juridical Dimension of the Relationship between Marriage and Wedding

• Author: Tiberiu N. Chiriluta
• Position: PhD in progress, 'Ovidiu' University, Constanta, Romania
• Pages: 158-172

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS DANUBIUS Vol. 13, no. 2/2017

158

The Christian and Juridical Dimension of

the Relationship between Marriage and

Wedding

Tiberiu N. CHIRILUTA

1

Abstract: Objectives: The present stud y aims at radiographing the marital phenomenon, being at the

confluence of two areas with distinct social and moral implications. Prior Work: Marriage is a family

law institution, the regulation of which was not indifferent to the Romanian legislator who proposed to

adopt and renovate the legal norms in the matter. With most often imperative provisions, the new civil

law provides for the background and form conditions o f marriage. From a different perspective, the

canon law puts the legal provisions on a second place and imparts to this union of two persons a

sacredness that goes beyond the legal domain. Approach: After studying the regulation of the famil y

law institutions, we will highlight the non-involvement of the religious factor in the juridical side, and

the contradictions between family law and canon law, concerning only th e moral dimension of the

family, more formally supported by the civil law and the procedure for regulating marriage, the imposed

conditions and impediments. Thus in the family law the legislator does not give priority to personal

experiences, to the mutual love of spouses as the first condition of their union in marriage. Value: In

order to accomplish this we shall also present a personal perspective regarding the two essential

conditions for the con cluding of the religious wedding, as th ey are not valid from a juridical point of

view.

Keywords: marriage; wedding; canon law; impediments; religious identity

1. Introduction

Since the oldest times, the family and implicitly the phenomenon of marriage as an

absolute symbol of the persistence of family was “un mélange”, a mixture of diverse

feelings guided by moral, economic, juridical, and religious rules. Therefore,

marriage is an “act of will” (Florian, 2011, p. 21), seconded and guided by norms of

right, but also by some Christian order, that confers value to the institutionalized

canons about the issue.

1

PhD in progress, “Ovidiu” University, Constanta, Romania, Address: 124 Mamaia Blvd., Constanța

900527, Romania, Corresponding author: chirilutatiberiu@yahoo.com.

AUDJ, vol. 13, no. 2/2017, pp. 158-172