Session XXIV – which is the eighth under the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IV, celebrated on the eleventh day of November, 1563

Decree Concerning The Reform Of Matrimony

Chapter I
The Form Prescribed In The Lateran Council For Solemnly Contracting Marriage Is Renewed; Bishops May Dispense With The Publication Of The Banns; Whoever Contracts Marriage Otherwise Than In The Presence Of The Pastor And Of Two Or Three Witnesses, Does So Invalidly

Although it is not to be doubted that clandestine marriages made with the free consent of the contracting parties are valid and true marriages so long as the Church has not declared them invalid, and consequently that those persons are justly to be condemned, as the holy council does condemn them with anathema, who deny that they are true and valid, and those also who falsely assert that marriages contracted by children [minors] without the consent of the parents are invalid, nevertheless the holy Church of God has for very just reasons at all times detested and forbidden them. But while the holy council recognizes that by reason of man’s disobedience those prohibitions are no longer of any avail, and considers the grave sins which arise from clandestine marriages, especially the sins of those who continue in the state of damnation, when having left the first wife with whom they contracted secretly, they publicly marry another and live with her in continual adultery, and since the Church which does not judge what is hidden, cannot correct this evil unless a more efficacious remedy is applied, therefore, following in the footsteps of the holy Lateran Council celebrated under Innocent III, it commands that in the future, before a marriage is contracted, the proper pastor of the contracting parties shall publicly announce three times in the church, during the celebration of the mass on three successive festival days, between whom marriage is to be contracted; after which publications, if no legitimate impediment is revealed, the marriage may be proceeded with in the presence of the people, where the parish priest, after having questioned the man and the woman and heard their mutual consent, shall either say: “I join you together in matrimony, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” or he may use other words, according to the accepted rite of each province. But if at some time there should be a probable suspicion that a marriage might be maliciously hindered if so many publications precede it, then either one publication only may be made or the marriage may be celebrated forthwith in the presence of the parish priest and of two or three witnesses. Then before its consummation the publications shall be made in the church, so that if any impediments exist they may be the more easily discovered, unless the ordinary shall deem it advisable to dispense with the publications, which the holy council leaves to his prudence and judgment. Those who shall attempt to contract marriage otherwise than in the presence of the parish priest or of another priest authorized by the parish priest or by the ordinary and in the presence of two or three witnesses, the holy council renders absolutely incapable of thus contracting marriage and declares such contracts invalid and null, as by the present decree it invalidates and annuls them. Moreover, it commands that the parish priest or another priest who shall have been present at a contract of this kind with less than the prescribed number of witnesses, also the witnesses who shall have been present without the parish priest or another priest, and also the contracting parties themselves, shall at the discretion of the ordinary be severely punished. 

What is meant by being severely punished by the Roman church? – HERE

Full Document can be read – HERE (document removed from site)

Document home page – HERE

Download the entire document (pdf) for study and discussion – HERE

TTGM Commentary:
The religious church by this immoral law moved away in direct opposition to an established precept found in the Book of God (Bible) – sex is marriage by Focus on the Family. This has lead millions into adulterous relationships thinking that a piece of paper gives them legitimacy to marriage and or divorce. 

Watch video on sex is marriage.

The above change in the definition of marriage may seem like a long time ago, but the head spokesman of the religious church is at it again in 2016. Here the pope calls the 1563 form of marriage to be “now” invalid – Jump here