§ 184. The Banns

The banns (oglasi, oglašenja, proclamationes) were established for the purpose of obtaining full assurance, from all who know the persons wishing to marry, that no impediment exists to that marriage. The institution of the banns was first introduced in the Western Church.[1] A canonical prescription on the banns for the Orthodox Church among the Slavs is found in the Krmčija, which ordains the following in this regard: 1) the parish priest is obliged, before the betrothal and the wedding, to announce in church, after the liturgy, the intention of certain named persons to enter into marriage, and to do this on three successive feast days one after another, calling upon the faithful to inform him if they know of any impediment to that marriage; 2) if the young couple are of different parishes, the banns must be published in both parishes; 3) if there is a well-founded suspicion that someone intends deliberately to obstruct a lawful marriage, the priest may, with the bishop’s approval, confine himself to a single publication of the banns, or even perform the wedding without any banns at all, naturally before two or three witnesses; 4) the banns may be published by the parish priest only after the prescribed prenuptial examination; 5) if the wedding is not performed within two months after the banns, the banns must be repeated, unless the bishop orders otherwise in this regard.[2] Today the banns are generally prescribed by civil legislation, and the Church, with regard to those banns, follows the prescriptions of that legislation, which has the authority, in case of necessity, to permit the banns to be dispensed with in part or entirely.[3]

Footnotes

[3] In Austria §§. 70—74 of the civil code apply to the banns of marriage. The second part of §. 71—that the marriage of a non-Roman Catholic must also be proclaimed in the Roman Catholic church of the place in question—this part of that §. has been repealed, and the Roman Catholic priest has no part whatsoever in the marriages of non-Roman Catholics (Arts. I and III of the law of Dec. 31, 1868). Under §. 72 of the same code, if the betrothed have not spent 6 weeks in the parish where the marriage is to be blessed, then the banns must also be published in that parish in which they, or one of them, had resided for at least 6 weeks most recently. Under §. 73, if the marriage is not contracted within 6 months after the banns have been published, then all three banns must be repeated again. Under the Austrian civil code, the banns do not have to be on three feast days following one another in succession, as the Kormchaia prescribes, since the relevant §. (71) does not expressly require that; rather, by analogy with §. 74, this should take place within a period of 6 months, thus on such feast days as the competent priest sees fit. For Serbia see §§. 83, 85, 86, 90 of the civil code. For Hungary §. 27 of Law Article XXXI of 1894.

§ 184. The Banns

§ 184. Наповиједи