We return to our reflections on the rites of marriage with a brief consideration of reforms from the Council of Trent. When the Protestant Reformation took hold, the fairly recent achievements of the Church in regard to the sacrament of marriage were reviewed with a critical, reforming eye. In general, Protestants returned to an earlier view that marriage was a civil matter, although some said that the civil society had to be in harmony with Christian teaching.
In the Catholic Church, the Council of Trent took the question up in 1563, and decided to shore up its teaching on the sacramentality of marriage. They identified many threats to this, including secret marriages and easy divorce. So they enacted laws that still govern our practice today: to be valid, marriage consent must be exchanged in the presence of a priest and two witnesses.
Ever since Trent, marriages must also be announced three weeks in advance to the community, and recorded in a register. In some places in the world, the “banns” are still posted in the public square. In the United States, parishes sometimes publish the “banns” in the bulletin.
Anyone who has ever watched a soap opera has seen the standard scene of a minister announcing gravely, “If there is anyone here present who sees any reason why these two should not be married...” This bit of drama has no place in the Catholic liturgy, but survives among Protestants who broke with us before Trent edited this cliff-hanger out of our public prayer.
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