The effects of substance abuse on the capacity to marry in terms of Canon 1095 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law

Abstract

Roman Catholic Marriage is regulated by the 1983 Code of Canon Law. It is pertinent to mention that under Maltese Law the civil effects of marriage are regulated by the Marriage Act and the Civil Code: Chapters 255 and 16 of the Laws of Malta respective! y. For the purposes of this thesis we are only concerned with marriage as regulated under the current 1983 Code of Canon Law. As the title itself indicates the primary scope of this study revolves around a study to examine the validity of marriage in the context of situations that concern individuals who abuse substances and/ or are addicted to the same. Contrary to the position under the 1917 Code (also referred to as to the Pio-Benedictine Code) the 1983 Code provides a definition of marriage. The said definition is contained in Canon 1055 § 1 as follows: The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized. From the said definition one will immediately note that the focus is centered around the words "a partnership of the whole of life". It is indeed a focus that evolved through the ages, since prior to the position adopted under the 1983 Code the primary end of marriage was categorically the procreation of children. The Encyclical Casti Conubii is a clear exposition of this. Reference is made to the following excerpts: For the Angelic Doctor, writing on conjugal honor and on the offspring which is the fruit of marriage, says: "These things are so contained in matrimony by the marriage pact itself that, if anything to the contrary were expressed in the consent which makes the marriage, it would not be a true marriage ... To take away from man the natural and primeval right of marriage, to circumscribe in any way the principal ends of marriage laid down in the beginning by God Himself in the words 'Increase and multiply,’ is beyond the power of any human law .... […]