Marriage By Proxy Allowed - Archbishop

Can you imagine yourself having a proxy taking your wedding vows?

Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said marriage by proxy is allowed but only under emergency cases and as a last recourse.

“Strictly speaking this law was enacted specifically in favor of men who while in a foreign country, and in actual battle, they might lose their lives before they could celebrate marriage in their own homeland,” Archbishop Cruz said in an interview.

The chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal (CBCP-NAMT) said Canon Law 1105 also states that for a marriage by proxy to be valid, there must be documents duly signed by the one giving the proxy before two witnesses plus the permission of the bishop and priest concerned.

Asked who can substitute for the bride or groom, Cruz said, it should be somebody who is known to both parties.

“It should be somebody known to the man and woman who will stand as proxy during the exchange of consent,” he said.

Cruz said that while marriage by proxy is still allowed, it is something that is not done in most countries such as the Philippines.

“It is not done in most countries. That provision of proxy marriage is not observed here in the Philippines, but there was a time that it was followed in Europe,” he said.

 “In the Philippines there is not one single marriage proxy that took place and allowed by the bishop,” said Cruz.

The former head of the CBCP said this is because Universal Laws that apply to the Catholic faithful all over the globe are also subject to cultural values of a given place for the observance.

 “Just imagine yourself having your wedding picture taken with the proxy? It’s ridiculous and incongruous,” Cruz said.

June is considered a wedding month in the Philippines.

By LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO

mb.com.ph

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