WALOR PRAWNY PRZESZKÓD MAŁŻEŃSKICH FUNKCJONUJĄCYCH W KOŚCIELE PRAWOSŁAWNYM W PRZYPADKU MAŁŻEŃSTWA ZAWIERANEGO MIĘDZY KATOLIKIEM I PRAWOSŁAWNYM

Ginter Dzierżon

Résumé

In the presented article, the author focused on the issue of the legal value of marital impediments functioning in the Eastern Orthodox Church in view of marriages between Catholics and Orthodox Christian. The analysis carried out shows that question of legal value of marital impediments in Eastern Orthodox Church is of rather complex nature. The Study proves that both the impediment of consanguinity and marriage knot are directly related in Natural Law. Therefore, if such is the status of these legal restrictions, they should apply in everyone. The discipline of the Catholic Church as for the impediment of consanguinity remains coherent with the discipline of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Hence, there are no significant interpretative problems in this case. The nature of the discipline concerning the impediment of marriage knot is slightly different because the solutions applied in the analyzed legal system tend
to collide. As a result, on 20 October 2007 Apostolic Signatura issued a decree which states that the first marriage entered by an Orthodox Christian ought to be considered valid on the basis of presumption rule. The majority of impediments which appear in the catalogue of the Orthodox Church is derived form statute law. According to the assumptions of can. 780 § 2, no. 1 CCEO, the legislators of the two Churches retain jurisdictional autonomy in this matter. Therefore, each of them has the right to introduce autonomous discipline compatible with the tradition of his Church.