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From:
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Re: PRDH Record Rehabilitation de Mariage
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 15:34:20 EDT



In a message dated 10/1/2005 2:58:55 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:

Jan,
A "rehabilitated" marriage has received the legal blessings of the Church.
There was something technically wrong with the original "marriage", but the
couple applied to correct this and, if needed, to legitimize any children
born
before the "technically" correct marriage vows taken before a priest and
witnesses: "en face de l'église"

Fr. Owen has written for Késsinimek, Roots, Racines about the "mariage à la
Gaumine" that sometimes took place. (Just type in Roots Racines in a search
engine, and the link to the journal will pop up, and you can check the index
for
his articles.)

Since a man and a woman marry _each other_, some couples, who may have had
opposition from parents, took to appearing at Mass in the presence of
witnesses
and reciting their vows to each other. Of course, the priest was also
"present", but no formal recording of the "marriage" took place. In later
months or
years, in order to have the marriage technically correct, they had to have
it
rehabilitated.


Chère cousine Suzanne,

Thank you for the kind reference to my articles in the "e-zine
Roots/Racines. The first two of my articles, "An Intriguing Marriage Record -- Jean
Desnoyers & Thérèse Menard" and "Clandestine and Invalid Marriage, Or Not?
--Clement Gosselin and Catherine Monty" appear in the February and March issues
of Roots/Racines (February and March 2003).

Jean Desnoyers-Desmarais and Therese Menard-Lafontaine had their marriage
rehabilitated in the presence of Ysambart, parish priest of Boucherville on
Monday, February 28, 1724 at the church of Sainte-Famille. They had previously
been married "a la gaumine" in front of witnesses while de Francheville was
celebrating Mass, some time after the death of Therese's first husband, Jean
Deniau-Daigneault in August 1710.

Clement Gosselin and his third wife, Catherine Monty, were married before
Justice of the Peace Murdock McPherson at Champlain, New York on November 8,
1790. They travelled to Saint-Hyacinthe where, on May 12, 1791, they renewed
their consent in the presence of J-B Durouvray, pastor of
Notre-Dame.

From a canonical point of view, it can be argued that neither of these
marriages needed to be "rehabilitated". The first took place before the Vatican
issued decrees specifying that "in the presence of a priest and two witnesses"
meant that both the priest and the witnesses needed to sign a register
recording the marriage. The latter was celebrated in New York at a time where the
Vatican decrees had never been published, at a time when there was not a
single Catholic priest in the State of New York.

Does it make a difference, three centuries later? It makes a difference to
my mother's family, who are descendants of Therese Menard and both her
husbands, and of Clement Gosselin and his second wife, Marie-Beuve Dionne.

Fr. Owen Taggart





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